3 Super-foods for Moms

Becoming a mom can be stressful, exhausting and exciting all at the same time. Now is the time to focus all your energy on getting to know your new bundle of joy. Eating nutrient-rich foods will not only maximize your energy but also ensure that both you and baby are getting plenty of nutrients. If your diet is lacking in nutrients, your body will do everything possible to provide as much as it can to the baby through breast milk; this means that you will deplete your stores and not have much left for yourself. By focusing on a few nutrient-dense foods, you can make sure that you are both benefiting. These are my three favorites that are easy to incorporate into your daily diet and are beneficial as part of a fertility, pregnancy and lactation diet.

Coconut oil is rich in lauric acid, a powerful immune boosting, anti-microbial fatty acid which is naturally found in breast milk. Adding this healthy fat to your diet can increase the quality of breast milk and help prevent sickness by protecting the immune system of both mother and baby. Healthy fats, such as coconut oil, are especially important for the development of the nervous system and brain. This versatile fat can be used to for in place of oil for cooking and baking and is even delicious added to smoothies or oatmeal. Aim for about two tablespoons per day.

Egg yolks from pastured chickens. Giving up the egg white omelet and adding in some extra yolks is one of the easiest changes to make. Eggs from pastured chickens which roam around eating bugs are high in lecithin which helps digest fat and cholesterol and even contain Omega 3’s, another healthy fat. Another reason to pay the premium for these eggs is that they are higher in monounsaturated fats, vitamins A, E, folic acid, beta-carotene and have up to 6 times more vitamin D than their caged counterparts.

Homemade bone broth isn’t only for making chicken soup. In fact, Chinese Medicine considers it one of the best healing foods for new mothers and recommends a cup per day for at least the first month post-partum. Broth can be made from fish, chicken or beef bones and is rich in calcium, magnesium and trace minerals to strengthen the body while providing extra fluid intake, which can also help breast milk production. Broth can easily be made in slow cooker in large batches and frozen in mason jars. Here’s how to make it.