Can a woman have a healthy baby eating zero carbs in her diet?

September 30, 9:28 PMLow-Carb Lifestyle ExaminerJimmy Moore

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Pregnant and zero-carb? Should they mix?

Sometimes the most interesting topics of discussion for me to write about just sorta happen. Such is the case with what I am about to share with you today. It all started when one of my moderators at my “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Discussion” forum named Charles Washington, an avid zero-carb advocate and personal follower, posted his thoughts based on the research he has conducted in response to another member who had recently become pregnant.

The pregnant forum member wrote:

I’ve read everything I can find about lowcarbing during pregnancy, including the standard medical advice (eat according to the Food Pyramid). Practically all the studies that found negative effects of ketosis were done either in diabetics (in ketoacidosis), or women who were burning ketones due to starvation. Obviously, neither of those is equivalent to a woman on a low-carb diet.

The general opinion is there isn’t enough research done to know if ketones are safe for the baby so it’s best to avoid them. Which is all well and good unless you are one of the many women who needs to stay at a very low-carb level to avoid gestational diabetes and the sugar high/crash rollercoaster. Given a choice between the known negative consequences of gestational diabetes (on mother and baby) and the theoretical consequences of ketones on the baby (since ketones obviously don’t harm the mom), I would take my chances with the latter.

The pregnant forum member detailed that she realized the alleged risks involved with continuing on a ketogenic diet during her pregnancy and was willing to take her chances based on her own decision. In fact, she has been pregnant consuming a low-carb diet in the past, so the presence of ketones while she was pregnant before didn’t negatively impact her. This is when Charles chimed in and agreed that a zero-carb diet during her pregnancy should not negatively impact the health of her baby. In other words, he was reassuring the pregnant forum member of her decision regardless of what she ultimately decided to do.

She responded to Charles’ comments with the following:

The way I’m eating now is still very low-carb; it’s still very much based on fatty meat. I just let myself have some veggies, cheese, cream and the occasional berry or small piece of fruit on the side. It’s not because I think zero-carb is unhealthy; it’s because I think this is a carb level I can sustain throughout the pregnancy. I think if I ate zero-carb for a few months during my pregnancy but was unable to stick with it (because I couldn’t tolerate red meat say, which happened for a while during my last pregnancy), the consequences would be worse than just starting off at a slightly higher carb level to begin with. I do hope to go back to zero-carb after this baby is born and hopefully get adjusted enough to it that my next one can be a zero-carb baby, but I just think it’s too drastic a change to implement in the middle of a pregnancy.

Unfortunately, this didn’t sit too well with someone who read this thread in my forum and decided to sign up at my forum as a pretend character named “Ogg.” This person claimed to be on the “Yak and Water Diet” because it was the healthiest way to eat. From the very beginning, I realized this person was trying to make some kind of a point, although it was never clear what the root issue really was. After a few days of ridiculous and nonsensical posts about this miracle diet of just yak and water, the truth came out: “Ogg” didn’t like that Charles was recommending a zero-carb diet for pregnant women.

Of course, the person behind “Ogg” never came to me to express these concerns beforehand, so I had no way of addressing them. Finally, I did hear directly from this person who was concerned I was promoting the killing of babies by allowing such advice to be shared on my forum. She castigated me and my Christianity for allowing my moderator Charles to provide medical advice without a medical license. I assured her he was not offering any medical advice, but simply sharing from his own research, experiences, and what respected low-carb doctors such as Dr. Barry Groves and Dr. James Carlson have both said previously regarding low-carb diets and pregnancies.

She said she didn’t have a problem with “low-carb and pregnancy,” but rather a ZERO-carb diet and pregnancy. Since I have the ability to contact Dr. Groves and Dr. Carlson directly, the woman formerly known as “Ogg” requested that I ask them the following question:

“Is it safe for unborn and newborn babies if their Moms to eat nothing but store bought meat, animal fat and water — and nothing else — for the entire duration of the pregnancy?”

Sounded like a fair enough question to see what the good doctors thought. So I first posed the question to Dr. Groves, author of the upcoming book release Trick And Treat: How ‘Healthy’ Eating Is Making Us Ill (I’ll be sharing a two-part podcast interview with him in November discussing this book), because he dedicates an entire chapter to the subject of ketogenic diets for pregnant women.

Here’s what Dr. Groves wrote in response to my e-mail query:

Why would being pregnant change anything? Do you see a pregnant lioness eating grass during prenancy rather than antelope? Of course not. Do rabbits decide that grass is a bit restrictive for a growing rabbit fetus and eat mice instead when they are pregnant? The amount a pregnant woman eats may increase–she really is eating for two, after all, and it may be necessary for her to pay more attention to the quality of the food she eats. But the idea that her diet should change radically during pregnancy is absurd. All of us, whether pregnant or not, should eat good quality food all the time. And every nutrient we need for a long healthy life is to be found in a diet of fatty meats. How else would peoples such as the Inuit and Maasai have survived and been so successful?

From his well-worded response, you could say that Dr. Groves believes a zero-carb diet for a pregnant woman is perfectly fine. But what about Dr. Carlson, author of the book Genocide!: How Your Doctor’s Dietary Ignorance Will Kill You!!!? Does he agree with Dr. Groves that a zero-carb diet that has “Ogg” so concerned about the babies is worth bellyaching over since the longest chapter in his book is how a pregnant woman should absolutely be eating a low-carb diet for the best health for themselves and their baby?

Here’s what Dr. Carlson said in his response:

Yes, doing low-carb during pregnancy is safe, as long as you are working with a doctor who is familiar with it. I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of pregnant women who began or continued their low-carb lifestyle throughout their pregnancy. If a woman had gestational diabetes, pregnancy induced hypertension (commonly referred to as PIH), preeclampsia, had prior macrosomic deliveries, or was obese; these women must start a low-carb regimen. The babies delivered to the women consuming low-carb diets were healthy, appropriately sized newborns. I have worked with obese women who were told they were going to have the same complications by their OB/GYN doc, only to see no complications and again healthy babies born at appropriate weights, all due to a low carb lifestyle. The OB/GYN docs are utterly amazed at the progress and success of the pregnancy, but their amazement is due to the fact they do not understand low-carb.

I am a little confused at the “store bought meat, animal fat, and water” statement. I would never suggest one only consume cattle and water. But if we go back to when we lived in an ice age, for tens of thousands of years, the only thing around to eat were fat animals. We also need to understand that our ancestors did not just eat the meat. Not to gross anyone out, but we also consumed all the organs as well. Yes, the heart, liver, kidneys, stomach–well, you get my point. A low-carb lifestyle is more than just cattle, fat and water. It also includes too many other food sources to list, but a few more would be fish, chicken, green leafy veggies, small servings of berries. One can avoid red meat altogether and still consume enough protein. Remember, a developing embryo needs protein, fat and cholesterol for proper growth. Even in an adult, the percentage of carbohydrate represents only 2% of our biological makeup. Two percent. But the vast majority of people out there consume very little protein and fat, with the majority of their food consisting of carbohydrates.

I hear Dr. Carlson saying that a low-carb diet is indeed recommended for pregnancy, but perhaps going zero-carb isn’t necessarily the answer since there are other food sources for pregnant women to eat for variety and healthy nutrition for their baby. He doesn’t come out and say that a zero-carb diet is bad, per se, but it does not appear he promotes such a diet for childbearing. Is this becoming clear as mud for you right about now?

When I posed this question to popular low-carb blogger and friend Regina Wilshire from “Weight of the Evidence,” she said it’s probably “not a good idea” because it can be “risky.” And she’s not alone. Judith E. Brown, RD, MPH, PhD, Professor Emerita of the Division of Epidemiology and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Minnesota, responded to this “crazy” notion of a zero-carb, carnivorous diet with great concern. You’ll notice much of what she states is rooted in the traditional dietary approach, but that’s to be expected.

The short answer to the question about consumption of a meat and water diet during pregnancy is don’t do it. A balanced and adequate diet, such as that recommended at MyPyramid.gov, is the nutritional path to a healthy mother and newborn. Both women and their growing fetuses need a wide variety of nutrients, and these are not supplied by diets limited to a few foods like meat and water. It is recommended that women consume at least 175 grams (700 Calories) daily of carbohydrate to provide the fetus with a continuous supply of glucose, and to avoid ketosis. Although it is true that the fetus can use ketone bodies to some extent, it is not their body’s preferred source of energy. Excess use of ketones is harmful to fetal growth and development.

This wasn’t a surprising answer from a mainstream prenatal care expert, but it does give you the kind of response you’d expect to hear from a trained professional in this arena of medicine. But is she right to recommend such a high-carb diet? Or is Dr. Groves right stating zero-carb is perfectly fine during pregnancy? Or does Dr. Carlson have a point staking claim somewhere in between leaning towards a low-carb, not zero-carb approach? The question still looms as a big fat question mark.

Well, what does Charles think about “Ogg” and her question–“Is it safe for expectant Moms, unborn babies, and newborn babies to eat nothing except store bought cattle, cattle fat and water –please read that again–nothing except store bought cattle, cattle fat, and water–and nothing else for the entire duration of the Moms’ pregnancy?” I decided to ask him directly.

And here’s what Charles had to say:

Yes, as long as the woman is ketoadapted and successfully adapted to the zero-carb regimen for at least six months. I don’t think it would feel particularly good for the woman if she began a zero-carb diet mid-pregnancy; however, if she was already on a low-carb diet of 30 grams or less, then she could transition to zero-carb even during pregnancy if she chose to. This seems controversial because the conventional wisdom is that a meat-rich, plant-poor diet will result in nutritional deficiencies.

The nutritionists of the 1920s and 30s didn’t know that animal foods contain all of the essential amino acids and they do so in the ratios that maximize their utility to humans. They also contain twelve of the thirteen essential vitamins in large quantities. Meat is a particularly concentrated source of vitamins A, E, and the entire complex of B vitamins. Vitamins D and B12 are found only in animal products and we can get sufficient vitamin D from sunlight on our skin. Because those on zero-carbohydrate diets do not suffer deficiency diseases nor suffer from chronic dissease, this indicates that they are consuming what is by definition a healthy diet.

A zero-carb diet of beef, beef fat and water will produce no fat storage and all of the available energy will be utilized by the body. There will be no nutrient deficiencies because refined and easily digestible sugars and starches will not be consumed. Therefore, I argue that such a diet would be safe for any nursing or expectant woman. The Native American of the Great Plains, the Inuit, the Masai, etc.–cultures that consisted of primarily zero-carb, high-fat diets–all have babies and they are completely healthy without food from vegetation. Myself and many others consume an all-meat diet which results in great health. If a woman is healthy while she consumes such a diet, why would anything change once she became pregnant?

And thus we have come full circle on this question again. Charles is convinced based on the evidence he has presented many times in this forum thread about a Zero-Carb Meat And Water Only diet that a zero-carb diet is the way to go for pregnant women. Do you buy his theory or do you have evidence that disproves anything he has shared? Are you as concerned about this kind of dietary advice being given to pregnant women as “Ogg” is? Is a zero-carb or even a low-carb diet healthy for a pregnant woman to consume? Share your comments below…this one should be a real doozy of a discussion!