Vitae Nutrition and Doula Services – Saskatoon

Nutrition is important for your health during breastfeeding. However, breastfeeding is more important than nutrition. Your diet affects your breast milk, but not as much as you might think. If you are eating poorly, your breast milk doesn’t really suffer, you do! Here’s how to keep your nutrition good while you provide the best nutrition for your baby.

Hydrate

Drink to thirst. Water is a great first choice, but tea, milk, freshly squeezed juice even soup counts as fluid. A myth of breastfeeding is you need to “drink milk to make milk” – busted. Water is the most important fluid. A good tip is to keep water where you breastfeed. Also, keep a water bottle with you throughout the day.

Maximize

As a new mom, you may not have the inclination or time to have sit down meals with all four food groups. My suggestion is to snack, but snack well. Choose foods that provide the biggest bang for your buck. Nuts and seeds provide a great source of energy through healthy fats as well as many great nutrients. Fruit and veggies are good for hydration and extra nutrients but try to pair them with calorie dense foods like hummus dip or greek yogurt. Keeping snacks on hand and easily accessible will allow you to eat without a lot of effort and planning.

Utilize your supports

Rely on your partner, parents, friends who have offered help. Get them to cook meals or stock your freezer with easy and quick meals for your family. A great idea is to prep and freeze meals and foods in the last few weeks of pregnancy for this time of transition.

The main point is drink water, snack and accept help. If your nutrition goes to garbage in the first week after having a baby, don’t fret. Your breast milk is going to provide awesome nutrition no matter what.

For more information on Eating for Breastfeeding Success check out Vitae Nutrition Talks Schedule to sign up for a class.

Tonight I am hosting doula splurge. In other words, I am responsible for snacks, drinks and ensuring good times.  I am a procrastinator and left it until today to get everything together, oops!  Here is one of my never fail recipes for appetizers, home-made hummus.

Info: Hummus is made from chickpeas. This dip is a healthier option than sour cream based dips because is supplies fibre and protein as well as calcium and other nutrients. Swap out your mayo or sour cream dip and use hummus for a healthy party hit!

Inspiration: I got this recipe from a friend in Red Deer many  moons ago. I actually don’t know where the actual recipe is, I just wing it. As a child I was very picky and trying new foods was not on my list of fun things to do. When I tried this hummus I was amazed! I hope you will be too.

Ingredients: canned chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, almond butter, pepper

Instructions:

1. Drain and rinse chickpeas.

2. Put chickpeas in a blender or food processor. In no important order add: 1/4 almond butter, 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 3 cloves garlic and pepper to taste. (I don’t add salt because the canned chickpeas should have enough even after rinsing)

3. Blend away. In a blender you may want to add a bit more olive oil or even some water to get it to mix properly.

4.  Serve or store in air tight container in the fridge.

Results: I was out of almond butter so I swapped for hazelnut butter. The hazelnut butter gave it a lighter taste. Traditional hummus uses tahini which is an excellent choice, I prefer the nutty flavour of almond butter or now, hazelnut butter. Play around with the amounts of all ingredients to match your taste.

Yes I am a dietitian and yes I dislike cauliflower. Gasp! Sometimes dietitans aren’t the food saints you think they might be. My defense for disliking cauliflower comes from the fact that it isn’t brightly colored and therefore has less nutritents.

Info: In acutal fact, cauliflower is a source of fibre, protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Magnesium and Phosphorus Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Folate, Pantothenic Acid, Potassium and Manganese. The food guide recommends to get one dark green and one orange veggie each day. However, cauliflower demonstrates that even colorless veggies can pack a big nutrition punch! Your best bet is to eat a variety of fruits and veggies each day. This is what I attempted with today’s recipie.

Inspiration: I had a  cauliflower dish at a friends house with hazelnuts that I really enjoyed. Also,a recipe from Chatalaine, Seasonal sides.

Ingredients: vegetable oil, red onion, garlic cloves, mustard powder, hot red pepper flakes, 1 small head cauliflower, water, salt, cliantro

Today I made Maple Vinaigrette, my favorite salad dressing. The recipe was passed to my from my partner’s mother. She is one of the influencers that have led me on my food exploration journey. Today let’s be grateful for those people who love food and have inspired us to love food.

Info: Making your own salad dressing is a great way to ensure you aren’t getting excess preservatives and salt in your diet!

Inspiration: Kathy Belt and the delicious chickpeas from last week

Ingredients: olive oil, maple syrup, red wine vinegar, grainy mustard, clove garlic, salt and pepper

Instructions:

1.Mix together in a measuring cup:

• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp grainy mustard
• 1 clove garlic, minced

2. Combine spinach, chopped red pepper, sliced red onion, goat cheese and crispy chickpeas in a large bowl.
3. Dress with salad dressing.

Results: Drool worthy! Use this dressing with any salad for delicious results.

I have always loved the saying “Nutrition from A to Z” because we can literally cover from Vitamin A to Zinc. Today is brought to you by the letter Z. What is zinc? Why is it important? How do we get it?

What?

Zinc is a metal we need in trace amounts in order to be healthy. There is approximately 2-4 grams of zinc in your body. The recommended daily allowance for zinc is 8 mg/d for women and 11 mg/day for men. Deficiency is not likely to be found in Canada, but is not uncommon around the world. Zinc deficiency can result in slow growth, loss of appetite, problems with taste and smell, loss of hair, slow wound healing and is also associated with male infertility.

Why?

Zinc is part of many enzymes in the body. It is particularly important for immune function, wound healing, thyroid function and fertility in men. Zinc is important for growth. Therefore, during pregnancy, infancy and childhood, zinc is especially important.

Zinc supplementation may also be useful for helping the common cold, treating acne and some eye diseases. There is also some evidence that zinc supplementation may help with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

How?

Besides supplements, we can get zinc from many food sources. Meat, poultry and fish are a good source of zinc. Zinc can also be found in nuts, lentils, beans, and whole grains.

If you are looking for a boost of zinc, I suggest throwing some nuts on a salad. Not only is it delicious but the nuts will add trace minerals such as zinc (and others) as well as healthy fats and fibre!

Introducing, Foodie Friday. I will showcase a tasty recipe made right in my very own kitchen. Successes and failures will all be documented. My goal is to showcase how fun experimentation with food can be. An added bonus will be tested recipes you can take to your own kitchen. Here are the results from my first experiment.

Info: Chickpeas are a low fat source of protein and packed with fibre. A bonus for those trying to conceive or are already pregnant, chickpeas add a punch of folate.

Inspiration: A delicious salad addition at local Saskatoon Restaurant Weczeria and a recipe from January Chatelaine pg 132

Ingredients: canned chickpeas, olive oil, salt, ground coriander, cumin, ginger, pepper and cayenne pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Drain and rinse 1 can of chickpeas.

3. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in oven 40-45 min. gently shake at intervals during baking.

4. Mix 1/8 tsp of each spice in a medium mixing bowl.

5. Toss the warm chickpeas to coat in the spice mixture.

Results: Delicious snack!  Trial tip, watch closely around 40 minutes as I burnt some of the ones on the edges.

New Year’s is a time of reflection of the past year and planning for the year to come. One of the most common goals is to be healthier: eat better, exercise more, lose 20 lbs. Each January the gyms are packed with people who have resolved to exercise more.  Check out the same gym in February, many of the newly resolved are gone. What happened?

New Year’s resolutions while well-meaning are often misguided. The goals set as resolutions are often not well defined and formed of grand gestures to social norms of healthy. I am not down on goal setting, just the opposite in fact. I think we should be setting goals more often than once per year. If your new year’s resolutions often fall short, read on for some goal setting tips.

Reflection

To know where you want to go, you need to know where you are. Reflect and evaluate your habits over the past year. How often did you go to the gym? How often did you eat out? Where are your junk food pitfalls? If you did not once go to the gym in the past year, as of January 1st you are not likely going to go to the gym every day of the week.

Baby Steps

If you haven’t heard about the SMART principle of goal setting, it is about time. Goals need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. So take the goal of, “I am going to exercise more.” It is a good place to start but a SMART goal would be more like, “I will sign up for a 10 week yoga class, starting January 10th and attend once per week.” Now, with this goal, you have a way to measure success. If you complete the yoga class you are successful. With the previous goal, there is no good measure of success.

Celebrate Success

Once you complete a goal that is achievable, you feel great! You should celebrate every success. The great thing about completing a small goal is that you can set a new goal. Create each goal to set you up for success. If the goal feels impossible, then it probably is!

Here are some examples of SMART goals for eating healthy:

I will only eat out 3 times for lunch this week.

I will drink a medium coffee instead of large three times this week.

I will eat a piece of fruit for breakfast two times this week.

Each goal is just a starting point for a larger more all-encompassing goal. So take your New Year’s resolutions and create smaller goals to make your goal achievable, and you healthier in 2012.