Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck

First things first, because I think people may jump to conclusions or get falsely excited: No, I'm not pregnant. Nor am I actively trying to become pregnant. I read this book because I enjoyed Nina Planck's first book "Real Food", and this is the only other book she's written.

I found "Real Food for Mother and Baby" a very interesting read. There's a lot of cross-over of the principals from her first book, as one would expect, but she focus more on fertility, pregnancy, and baby's first foods.

Nina's principals are not overly technical. As she describes it: one part science, one part tradition, and a dash of common-sense. She shares her own experiences of the birth of her child not going as planned (she wanted a natural home birth, but ended up having a c-section), and her challenges, victories, and defeats as her baby grew from infant to toddler.

In the chapters about fertility, she talk about traditional foods fed to newly married woman and/or pregnant woman, and examines the nutrients within such foods that make them such good sources of vitality while preparing for and during pregnancy. It's quite interesting that even though these foods become tradition far before we humans know about vitamins or even macro-nutrients (protein, fat, and carbs), they had exactly what the women needed to prepare their bodies and properly grow their babies. These foods were nutrient-rich animal-based foods: seafood, organ meats, milk, eggs, etc.; and were never the less nutrient dense grains like wheat or barley.

The chapters on pregnancy and breastfeeding cover a lot of similar information, but good information nonetheless. In addition to overall healthy eating and eating real foods, Nina is very focused on the importance of fats both during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Especially fats from fish, DHA & EPA. She also looks at Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratios between various countries and diets. The results from the USA were amazing, in a bad way.

When it comes to baby's first foods, which should come after baby has been exclusively breast-fed for 6 months, Nina is an advocate of feeding baby the same things you eat, with slight exception. Instead of weaning babies onto cereal, she advocates weaning babies straight onto meat, vegetables, and fruit. She doesn't believe in introducing grain until later, which is contradictory to all the "baby cereals" you see in the store, and when grain is introduced it should ideally be sprouted grain. I agree with her, humans don't even have a need grain, we cannot even digest it unless it's ground or cooked, and it's not a nutrient-dense food.

Overall, I found this book informative even if it did have a lot of cross-over from her first book. I'll definitely hang on to it in case I ever do have children of my own.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

"Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much."

That is how Michael Pollan's book "In Defense of Food" begins. A simple concept, an entire book based upon it. Michael Pollan differentiates between "food" and "edible foodlike substances". (The vast majority of products in the grocery store falling into the latter category.)

Michael Pollan discusses "nutritionalism", a trap most of my, myself included, have fallen into. But as I have learned, a food is more than just the sum of it's parts. It's not just what nutrients are in a food, but how they work together. And we as humans simply do not know enough about our bodies and the nuances of how food works for us to replicate the same nutrition in a pill.

That may sound harsh at first, but I know you've seen it: "Eggs are good for you, now eggs are bad for you, now eggs are good for you!" and "Butter is bad for you, now butter is good for you!" Our human arrogance makes us think we can outsmart nature. But in fact, the more people have tried to do things "right" and "eat well", the more unhealthy we've become.

In addition to us being flat-out misinformed (through no fault of our own, we generally think we can trust "the experts", and we've been spoon-fed incorrect information our whole lives), we also have grown up in a society where "pile it up and sell it cheap" takes precedence over quality, both in health and taste, of our food.

I really enjoyed reading "In Defense of Food"; it's packed with information to help make better dietary choices, especially if you are just starting out looking for ways to improve your diet.

Real Food by Nina Planck

After a few months of buying "low fat", "light", and other supposedly healthy foods, I wanted to know more about my choices. Which choices were best? Yes, I knew vegetables were good for you, but which ones were the most packed with nutrients? Etc.

I came across Nina Planck's book "Real Food". I don't even recall exactly how I stumbled across it, but it was the first book that opened my eyes to the idea that the government's "food pyramid" might not be all it's cracked up to be.

It has been over a year since I last read this book, so my overview will be short, but I do want to give this book a mention since it was a huge turning-point in my philosophy of what I considered "healthy".

Nina Planck talks about growing up on real food, then how she abandoned the diet she was raised on in search of "virtuous diets" (aka: vegetarian/vegan diets), then her return to an omnivorous real food diet. She advocates eating meat, eggs, and raw milk from pastured livestock; as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables. And she discusses the reasons behind why traditional food is far superior, both in nutrition and taste, to the modern food-like substances that fill our grocery stores.

I personally was amazed at the nutritional differences between meat from wild/pastured animals and meat from feedlot animals. This book also introduced me to the ideas that fat (traditional fats, such as lard, olive oil, and coconut oil; not modern fats like margarine and soybean oil) and cholesterol were in fact not "bad", but essential parts to the human diet.

I recommend this book as a great intro book for anyone interested in really improving their diet beyond (or should I say "in contrast to") the current government dietary recommendations.