Alicia Silverstone is going to be a mom. The 34-year-old actress and her husband Christopher Jarecki are expecting their first child later this year.
Pregnancy presents a little bit of a nutritional challenge for all women, but vegans like Silverstone, who wrote the cookbook The Kind Diet in 2009, can easily meet their increased nutrient needs. Research from several decades ago found no differences between pregnant vegans and meat eaters in their weight gain and babies’ birth weights—two important indicators of a healthy pregnancy. The same study found that vegans were less likely to suffer from preeclampsia, a serious complication of pregnancy.
Healthy pregnancy: calories are key
Adequate calories are crucial for a good pregnancy outcome, but eating for two doesn’t mean consuming twice as much food. Generally pregnant women need an extra 340 calories per day during the second trimester of pregnancy and an extra 450 calories during the third. For those who have trouble gaining weight, emphasizing higher-calorie plant foods like nut butters, tofu, avocado and some added fats can help.
Guidelines for a healthy vegan pregnancy
Pregnant vegans can meet nutrient needs by following just a few simple guidelines:
- Consume at least 5 servings per day of protein-rich plant foods. A serving is ½ cup cooked beans, tofu, or tempeh; 1 ounce of meat analog, or 1 cup of soymilk. (Fortified almond, rice, coconut or hempseed milk are fine to drink, too, but they are too low in protein to count as a protein-rich food.)
- Include a good source of vitamin C at every meal to boost iron absorption. Good choices are cantaloupe, kiwifruit, mango, citrus fruits and juices, papaya, pineapple, strawberries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, sweet peppers, and tomatoes.
- Eat plenty of leafy green vegetables like collards, kale and spinach. They’re good sources of folic acid, a B-vitamin that is especially important in the very early stages of pregnancy. (Vegans typically have higher folate intakes than meat-eaters but still may not meet the needs of pregnancy.)
- Include a serving or two of nuts and seeds in your daily menu to help meet zinc needs.
- Emphasize calcium-rich foods in your daily menu: leafy green vegetables, calcium-set tofu, tempeh, soynuts, fortified plant milks and fortified juices are all good choices. If your diet falls short of the RDA (1,000 milligrams), a small supplement can help make up the difference.
- Your doctor will most likely prescribe a prenatal vitamin supplement that includes iron and folic acid (usually recommended for all pregnant women). Make sure your supplement includes zinc, copper and iodine as well. Pregnant vegans (like all vegans) should be sure to have a chewable vitamin B12 supplement, too, providing 25 to 100 micrograms of B12 per day.
- Talk to your doctor about the need for a supplement of the omega-3 fat DHA. The jury is still out on whether pregnant women need these supplements, but vegan versions are available.
- Avoid super-restricted types of vegan diets. Diets that are too low in fat or are based on mostly raw foods can reduce nutrient absorption and make it harder to meet nutrient needs.
For more information about vegan nutrition, see my blog The Vegan RD and please follow me on twitter!
Comments
You can't emphasize enough that fetuses need vitamin B12, which is only found in animal products. A lack of B12 can cause irreversible fetal brain and nervous system damage, and pernicious anemia in a mom, which can lead to hemorrhages. Iron is also more poorly absorbed from plant foods, and iron-deficiency anemia can also cause excessive bleeding and potentially fatal hemorrhages during birth. Not getting at least 2200 calories a day can also lead to impaired fetal brain development. If you must be vegan during pregnancy, don't do it "with ease"-- you can cause permanent and serious damage if you don't take your nutrition very, very seriously.
The author mentioned both vitamin B12 and iron and I'm assuming this is just a jumping off point to pregnant vegans - not all they will be reading about pregnancy or being vegan while pregnant. I would hope that most vegans would take their pregnancy and nutrition very, very seriously and that's why they choose to be vegan - to give their fetus (and themselves) the best possible diet they can.
Very true that major brands do give out samples on their products, search online for "123 Get Samples" we just got ours today. You wont need CC.
As a practicing vegan for over 20 years, and a mother of a very healthy 13 year old vegan boy, I am surprised (and slightly offended) that people still believe that we vegans are acting from a place of "ignorance", and we haven't spent many years of our lives looking at our nutritional needs, in order to be the healthy examples we would like others follow.
I went through an extremely healthy vegan pregnancy, suffered no nutritional deficiencies, and actually found myself at the "head of the class" in my Bradley birthing class, when it came to showing our dietary/nutritional intake each week, even though all the other mothers ate meat, dairy products and eggs.
I chose to be vegan because of the suffering of animals in factory farms, the environmental degradation caused by those farms, the waste of precious resources that feed animals to be slaughtered instead of feeding hungry people, and of course because of the health benefits - lower cholestrol levels, less risk of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and diabetes.
I applaud Ms. Silverstone in her healthy and ethical choices, and know she will have a glowingly healthy pregnancy and beautiful vegan child.
My vegan-since-birth daughter is now a junior in college. My ob-gyn was not in support of my vegan diet, but I did the research and concluded that there were no nutrients I couldn't get from plant-based foods. I had a normal pregnancy, a Bradley delivery (after switching my ob), and my vegan daughter met or surpassed all of her milestones. We were fortunate to find a a very supportive pediatrician who happened to be vegetarian.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!