I was emailed the following questions, and thought I’d share my response for everyone…
Hi Kristen!
I just found your blog after googling and I have a question I was hoping you could answer. I just found out I’m 5 weeks pregnant and my diet is mostly raw, no dairy, no meat, and I always start my day with 2-3 organic raw (kale, spinach, romaine, parsley, celery, cucumber, and apple) green juices I buy from an organic juice press shop that uses the Norwalk press. I would like to know if it is safe to continue to drink my beloved juices daily and my Sunwarrior Ormus Supergreens? Everyone says something differant and I’m confused. I would like to keep my mostly raw healthy lifestyle because it is what works best for me. I also was wondering which were the best supplement suggestions you can offer, … chorella, spirulina etc. Are these safe during pregnancy? Please help! All the best, G
Great question! For starters, you know I’m not a doctor or midwife. I’m a chef who reads a lot – lol – and has a passion for nutrition and health. That being written, here is how I handled the situation when I was pregnant.
There is indeed a risk of contamination when consuming raw foods while pregnant (well, anytime really, but for pregnancy it has its own dangerous implications). However, I wasn’t about to give up my raw foods. Therefore, while I was pregnant, I did not consume any fresh juices unless I made them myself (except on perhaps three or four different occasions while traveling). It wasn’t worth the risk in my opinion. In fact, even making them myself was not risk-free, but I believe it was greatly reduced because I thoroughly washed and scrubbed my ORGANIC produce. To wash them, I often used food grade hydrogen peroxide (this is the not the stuff you buy in the drugstore). The same rules applied for salads and other fresh foods that I didn’t prepare. I had them on occasion at a restaurant, but I knew the possible risk of doing it, so I didn’t do it often. And, for the times I did do it, they were usually vegan or raw places that didn’t serve meat products which is helpful (exception - the veg burritos with fresh salsa and guacamole from Chipotle – lol – I had those a few times).
Overall, my pregnancy was mostly high raw with some times that were all raw and some times that were moderately raw. I stayed away from green powders because they (at the time) had an ingredient or two that just didn’t seem good to me in a pregnant state after researching all the ingredients. That being said, I have read about a number of women drinking green powders while pregnant. If I were to become pregnant again, I would probably consume Greener Grasses because that is a powder that seems both nourishing and gentle (I am drinking this now while breastfeeding and it’s wonderful). Again though, this is just how I would do it. There are many others who might differ in their successful and healthy pregnant experiences.
As for supplements, I wrote about them in a previous blog post here. I can’t claim their safety because as you’ll notice they probably have labels warning against taking while pregnant or lactating. However, I was excited to take chlorella because of its recognized ability to take toxins out of breastmilk according to one study (details here). I also took wheat grass tablets, probiotics, prenatal, and others. My most important supplement suggestion would be to take Vitamin D. I encourage you to get your levels tested. I would read The Vitamin D Solution for recommendations on how much to take while pregnant. The amount in your prenatal are not enough in many professionals’ opinions. (I highly recommend that book to everyone reading this post.)
Thanks for your question!
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I’m embarking on a juicing frenzy that started on Saturday to heal, detox, and lose a little bit of excess fat. My body has been through a lot during the months of June/July and it’s time to clean house. Two of the drugs I was on for weeks were estrogen and progesterone (both fat soluble) – plus I was on other fertility drugs to develop my eggs in June (Yaz birth control for a few days to schedule my cycle, followed by menopure injections and oral clomid tablets). As a result, I’ve put on some icky toxic weight that I’m eager to release. Now, before people start commenting, “But Kristen, you need some fat to help get pregnant…”
Yes, I know. I will maintain a healthy weight. But, I also know my own body, and when I put on unhealthy fat and cellulite in a short amount of time, I know I have some toxins in me and I’m eager to flush them out… sooner than later. I can feel it.
I think it’s prudent to get as healthy as I can before the next treatment (details about my fertility adventure here). Knowing that I likely have some of these drugs stored in my fat, a juicing frenzy and liquid diet should help release them (sorry, but I can’t call it “juice feasting,” because it never feels like feasting no matter how much juice I drink… a real feast, for me, includes chewing – LOL). Plus, it should help my natural hormones get in sync faster, too, which is important before embarking on the next embryo transfer.
I’m drinking LOTS of freshly made green juices all day, but that’s not all. Here is a complete list of what I’m doing to heal my body before the next cycle with Mini-IVF:
1) LOTS of fresh, alkalizing, organic green juice (some have a splash of coconut oil or olive oil to better assimilate certain nutrients, and to get my calories up)
2) Red raspberry leaf tea
3) Kombucha (not a lot – 1 bottle every 1-2 days – it’s fun)
4) Miso soup (1-2 cups a day; some is soy-free, and all are organic)
5) Dry brushing before my showers
6) Rest for recovery
7) Sweating: getting some exercise at the gym and walking in the desert heat (I’m not going crazy though)
8) Stretching
9) Massages from my husband to help release toxins
10) And, I’m still taking pre-natals, probiotics, chlorella, DHA, and wheat grass tablets
I’d like to go 5-days for now, but I’ll start with 3-days and see how it goes. Today is day-3 and the process has been so-so as far as ease. I love food so it’s hard to give that up. But, having the variety of: miso soup (very healing), tea, kombucha, and different green juices is definitely helpful. Oh, and having a jar of watermelon juice every day is delightful and so very helpful with getting through the day (although I’m all out of it now – boo hoo!). But, don’t get me wrong, there are times that I already want to scream, “I want some f*#king food!” And, here’s a tip… don’t watch the Food Network channel when you’re on a liquid diet… it’s pure hell. Honestly, I don’t know how you 92-day juice fasters/feasters do it. God love ya!
Anyway, I’m staying flexible. I haven’t started bleeding from the miscarriage yet, and my restricted diet might have something to do with it, or maybe my body is waiting for the full moon. We’ll see; I’m just taking it day by day for now and healing. It feels really good.
I started on one of my goals (from this post) of researching vaccines. I started by reading Jenny McCarthy’s book, Mother Warriors. I figured it’d be a good primer for diving into such an intense topic and I’m glad I did. I flew through the book and picked up some pointers on a couple vaccines and treatments of autism. It’s easy to predict I’d be a fan of her book though because so much of it is about how diet can help some kids recover from autism… and I’m a big fan of using foods to heal. I’d be interested to hear some of your experiences or plans for vaccinations if you’d like to share in the comments section.
Today, I’m diving into working on my birth plan.
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Here is list of what I’m eating today for Monkey and me. Everything is organic (of course). Can I just say AGAIN how happy I am to be pregnant. Oh joy joy joy!!!!! I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. I can hardly contain my excitement… I just want to jump up and down all day (no worries, though, I’m not really doing any jumping).
Over the next week I plan on introducing you to my AWESOME doula, as well as my midwife, plus I will continue to write the foods I’m eating since many of you are interested in that. I also recorded a quick video about growing sprouts. Look for that this week or next. Oh, and I plan on sending out my email newsletter this week. If you’re not signed up yet, you can do so here. There will be plenty of goodies, including a couple of my latest recipes.
1.5 cups Raspberry Leaf Tea
2 cups watermelon
8 oz yellow lentil soup, 4 Tablespoons golden hummus, a lavash cracker, 1/2 cup quinoa
We went to lunch here and it was really good. I wanted to get an all Raw lunch, but they couldn’t serve us that in the limited 1/2 hour my mom and I had… so we chose things from the menu that we’re quick to get served (soup, hummus, quinoa). It’s very good food and I’m eager to go back for the Raw goodies.
1/2 quart Plant Blood (cucumber, cilantro, lime, carrot)
I used my Breville to make this quickly.
1/4 cup raisins
Giant Salad: romaine lettuce, chopped red bell pepper and cucumber, sauerkraut, hemp seeds, and topped with left over Fresh Summer Hot Salsa and Elegant Guacamole (salsa and guac pictured here)
If I’m hungry later, I’ll probably snack on prunes and maybe have a glass of cucumber/carrot/spinach plant blood
Other items I had today:
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I'm Kristen, and welcome to my blog. I'm a wife, mom, author, and I love to eat so food is usually the topic of my blog posts. I'm a former (almost decade long) vegan turned back omnivore who enjoys reading, rebounding, coffee, and dark chocolate. 
