Do you find yourself wanting to eat all the time?
Are you eating all the wrong things?
Are you craving sugary, processed foods?
Well you may well be malnourished!
Contrary to popular belief, malnourishment does not mean that you have to be really skinny or starving, like the pictures of the starving kids in Africa. Yes they are malnourished but they are also victims of famine.
Malnourishment simply means that your body is not getting the nutrients it needs to perform properly and support both you and your baby. So although you may be eating a lot of food, you may not be eating the right foods.
Here's a recent blog post by my friend Dax Moy about organic foods that explains why:
"Well, my last post about organic vs non-organic certainly got a reaction.
I have a deluge of emails into my inbox ranging from comments like "About time someone was talking about this!" to "This is utter nonsense. If pesticides were harmful then they wouldn't be allowed to be used on foods. You shouldn't be scaremongering!!" and practically everything in between.
By far the most common reaction though, was more like this:
"I understand and mostly agree with the need to eat cleaner, fresher and less adulterated foods but the truth is, they're more expensive and I just can't afford them as much as I'd like. What am I supposed to do?"
Again, another great question, and one that I'm sure most people ask themselves when it comes to making the decision between non-organic and organic produce, right?
Here's my take on it.
Non organic is cheaper, it's true. The average family and especially those on low incomes can buy around 30-50% more food when bought non-organically than they can if they choose the organic option and so it would seem that whilst organic is an ideal scenario, the practicalities mean that most people simply can't justify coming home with a smaller bag of groceries with hungry mouths to feed.
I get it.
I'm a father of four and before my business took off, I was on a low income and felt the same way. I couldn't justify organic foods because of the costs.
Then, over time I started to see things differently.
I noticed that my non-organic shopping, whilst greater in quantity, always seemed to leave my family hungry. They always wanted more. Bigger servings, more snacks in between and practically non-stop cravings for more food.
By contrast, when my family ate organic, they ate smaller portions, less frequently and they rarely, if ever, complained of hunger or asked for more.
It was then that it hit me, truly for the first time ever.
The most important nutritional truth.
Ready for it?
It'll change your life (if you let it!)
Here it is.
Your body doesn't know 'food', all it knows is nutrients.
Bear with me because I know that it probably doesn't sound that amazing as you read it at your PC but it really is.
You see, we get hung up on food all the time. We get hung up on calories, portion sizes, meal frequencies and all manner of things but none of that is anywhere near as important as the nutrients within the things we eat.
Your body just knows that it is running out of certain nutrients.
"Vitamin B6 is getting low" it says and so you get a 'feed me' signal to eat and (hopefully) stock up on the missing vitamin.
"Calcium is running out" it says and again, you get a 'feed me' signal to eat and stock up on some calcium.
It's that straight forward, that simple... and that complex : )
So, when you eat denatured and nutrient poor foods, either because they've been chemically altered or over-processed, your body breaks them down, looks for the nutrients it needs and, if they're not there (which they won't be), simply commands you to eat again so that it can get what it needs.
It's got nothing to do with calories.
You might have already eaten your recommended daily amount of calories but still be lacking nutrients and so you'll be commanded to eat again, and again, and again.
This is not hunger. This is malnutrition.
The truth is hard to believe, but the fact is, many of us are malnourished!
But it's not all bad news, because the reverse is also true.
If you eat a diet that is replete with the nutrients your body requires then you eat less. You eat when your body needs a new supply of nutrients. You stop snacking, you stop feeling hungry all the time and you stop throwing excess calories into your body for no reason.
What's this got to do with where the conversation started; the cost of organic vs non-organic?
It's pretty simple really.
When you eat non-processed (including chemical processes) foods, you're getting the maximum available nutrition from everything you eat. Because of this, you simply eat less and less often.
What I'm saying here is that you don't have to buy nearly as much organic food as you do non-organic to get your nutritients so it's not more expensive to eat this way at all.
In fact, you may even find, like my family did, that it's cheaper to eat organically than non-organically because you buy much less of the usual rubbish that most families consume on a weekly basis."
So what do you think? It makes sense right? Especially in pregnancy, when your body is desparate for high quality nutrition!
So if you do find your pregnancy weight gain spiralling out of control and your food cravings going through the roof, why not take control back right here and now! Try eating clean and organic for the next 10 days and see how different you feel.
I'm betting your energy levels go through the roof, your weight gain will start to regulate and you'll feel a lot better and happier about yourself once you know you're not going to turn into something that looks more like the marshmallow man than a beautiful pregnant woman!
P.S. Please don't be afraid to leave your comments below! I always love to hear what you're thinking, as it's you that counts!
