What I learned from pregnancy nutrition books

Like any expectant mom, I want to do whatever I can to ensure that my baby is and will be healthy. One thing I was concerned about was my eating habits. Even though I make sure that I take my prenatal vitamins everyday, I know they are no substitute for for healthy eating (and they do not counteract bad eating habits).

I really wanted some ideas for meals that would give me and Will a lot of nutrients we need while not forcing me to eat 1,000 extra calories a day instead of just 300. I didn't know if these books would really be useful to me, so I checked out two from the library instead of buying them. The books I chose were What to Expect: Eating Well When You're Expecting and The Pregnancy Cookbook. I really only read much of the first one since I didn't realize when they had to be returned to the library, but I'm not disappointed.

I'm not disappointed in the fact that I didn't really get to read them, that is. After going through just the first bit of What to Expect, I realized that I don't eat that bad after all. I'm not saying the books are useless by any means, I'm sure for a lot of people they would really help. But do those who would be helped by these books ever care to pick them up? If your eating habits are terrible to begin with maybe you do try to do better when you're pregnant, but what would I know, mine aren't that bad.

The book has a little quiz in it too to help you see how much adjusting your diet really needs. This quiz may have been the most amusing part of the book to me; I was just shocked at some of the answer choices. Seriously people, the creamer in your coffee is not going to fulfill your baby's calcium requirements.

What I learned from these books is that I could be a lot worse off. Evidently a lot of people with very poor diets before and during pregnancy still end up with relatively healthy kids. Does this mean I'm going to give up and start eating bread and ice cream for lunch like I'd like to? No way, but it does mean I'm not going to feel bad about the handful of pepperonis I just ate because I don't do it every day.