The Brewer Pregnancy Diet

The Brewer pregnancy diet has been around for many decades even though many detractors have said it is a bunch of hogwash. Research proves otherwise!

Dr. Brewer developed his diet and was able to eradicate pre-eclampsia. But the benefits of the Brewer diet do not end there...it is effective against gestational diabetes, low birth weight babies, premature labor and so on. These are facts...and we will show you the studies that prove it.

You are well aware that if your primary care provider is an OBGYN, he will tell you that the medical community does not know what causes pre-eclampsia. However, if you own farm animals (such as a goat)...your vet will tell you in no uncertain terms that if that goat is not well fed during pregnancy...she runs the risk to get pre-eclampsia!

Obviously we are not goats - we are however mammals - and it does not mean that nutrition is less important for us.

Yes, proper nutrition is the bedrock of a healthy pregnancy, birth and beyond. That point cannot be disproved by anyone with one ounce of common sense.

Dr. Brewer based his diet on the work of others before him and before the medical system as a whole strayed from nutrition toward a medication paradigm.

The Brewer Pregnancy Diet: The Research

The research done by Dr. Brewer himself is not widely accepted due to the fact that they were not "true" controlled studies.

That was so for a simple reason....ethics!

Don't you think it would be a tad unethical to starve pregnant women and their unborn babies for the sake of science? Common sense and decency would suggest that one does not do so even in order to provide a control group. So the next logical step was therefore to use the previous diet and circumstances of the women involved in the study and this is what Dr. Brewer chose to do.

The results he produced were simply fantastic and unheard of. He was able to eradicate pre-eclampsia in a population of women where the pre-eclampsia rate used to be 40%!

His recommendations were so simple:

This involved simple rules to follow:

High quality foods

Adequate protein intake

Complex carbohydrates

Drinking water to thirst

Salt to taste

Avoidance of pharmaceutical drugs

Dr. Brewer's research was mainly discarded because it was not "scientific."

The standard medical community does not believe that women need to eat any particular way. The attitude of the mainstream medical community means that most women will not receive the prenatal nutrition education that they should receive in order to have the healthy pregnancy and birth they desire.

Since the 1980s however there have been many more "scientific studies" which have proven that Dr. Brewer was indeed correct.

The latest was published in September of 2008 and was performed in Denmark. It proved that pregnant women must NOT restrict their salt intake nor their caloric intake. Pregnant women who did not have an inadequate diet - like the Brewer diet - developed rising blood pressures, pathological edema, pre-eclampsia, HELLP syndrome***, IUGR (or Intrauterine Growth Restriction), premature labor, underweight babies, and other complications associated with low blood volume.

*** HELLP syndrome is a life-threatening obstetric complication usually considered to be a variant of pre-eclampsia. HELLP stands for:

Hemolytic anemia

Elevated Liver enzymes

Low Platelet count

The danger of this syndrome aside from taxing your liver is that it leaves you unable to coagulate properly.

The Brewer Pregnancy Diet: The Basic Plan

4 servings of dairy per day - 8 oz

2 eggs per day

6 servings (7 oz) of protein per day

2 dark green vegetables

5 servings of whole grains, starches and complex carbohydrates

2 servings of vitamin C - usually in the form of yellow or orange fruits and vegetables

3 servings of fats and oils

1 serving of vitamin A

1 serving of liver per week or 1 extra serving (4 oz) of protein

Salt to taste

Water to thirst

1 snack per day

Take your supplements daily

The Brewer Pregnancy Diet: Vegetarians

Here are the variations of vegetarians:

Vegan: eats nothing of animal origin

Lacto-ovo vegetarian: eats eggs and milk products in addition to plant foods

Semi-vegetarians: eats seafood, eggs, and milk products, but abstains from meat and poultry or eats poultry, seafood, eggs, and milk products in addition to plant foods, but abstains from red meat

Bircher-Benner: eats at least 50 percent of all food raw and abstains from meat, poultry, and seafood

Hygienist: eats only whole foods and abstains from all animal products

Macrobiotic: eats mainly grains, beans, and vegetables, according to their balance of yin and yang, with minimal amounts of animal products and few fruits

Sproutarian: eats only raw foods, with an emphasis on sprouts, and no animal products

Fruitarian: eats only nuts, fruits, vegetables, and seeds that have fallen on their own from a plant

Brewer Pregnancy Diet: Lacto-Ovo Vegetarians

So for moms who do use milk, milk products, and eggs here is what their Brewer pregnancy diet will look like:

4 servings of dairy per day - 8 oz

2 eggs per day

7 servings (7 oz) of protein per day

2 dark green vegetables

5 servings of whole grains, starches and complex carbohydrates

3 servings of vitamin C - usually in the form of yellow or orange fruits and vegetables

5 servings of fats and oils

2 serving of vitamin A

Salt to taste

Water to thirst

1 snack per day

Take your supplements daily

Brewer Pregnancy Diet: Vegans

So for moms who are vegans their Brewer pregnancy diet will look like:

4 servings of fortified soy milk per day - 8 oz

2 calcium replacement per unfortified soy choice

8 servings (7 oz) of protein per day

2 dark green vegetables

5 servings of whole grains, starches and complex carbohydrates

4 servings of vitamin C - usually in the form of yellow or orange fruits and vegetables

9 servings of fats and oils

4 serving of vitamin A

Salt to taste

Water to thirst

1 snack per day

Take your supplements daily

More and more people are becoming aware that the old cliche: "you are what you eat" is very true...one should not expect health from junk...

It is also true that in this day and age of "eggs are bad," "eggs are good," "low fat," "no fat," "good fat," etc, all of our heads are spinning trying to dig out the truth. Dr. Brewer did the work for us...his research has been around for decades and the results are astounding... so why not use a proven method to stay healthy while pregnant and to "grow" a healthy baby?

Happy eating and gestating to you!

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