What should I be eating now that I’m pregnant? Everybody talks about eating for two, but what does that look like? My friend’s doctor said she could gain as much weight as she wanted–but then I’ve seen her struggle to lose weight after she had the baby. And then there’s this pregorexic thing. I mean, I don’t want the baby to make me fat, but I certainly don’t want to become anorexic or anything–especially not while I’m pregnant.
So…
Did I manage to scare all of you who read the first paragraph of my every post in your feed burner or on Facebook? You needn’t be afraid. I am not pregnant. I am still a virgin (that’s for my few brave high school readers–you can do it!).
Instead, I’m taking an online course in Life Cycle Nutrition. As part of that course, I have been asked to review the USDA’s “MyPyramid for Moms” website. While all I have to do for class is review the site and discuss it on the class discussion forum, I thought I would share my thoughts with you all as well. So here goes…
MyPyramid for Moms
Advantages:
- Calculators Galore-You can calculate a personalized MyPyramid Plan that tells you how much of each food group to eat during each trimester. You can compare what you’re eating to the recommendations. You can even calculate how much weight you should gain during your pregnancy.
- Understandable information-What information is present is written in a fairly easy to understand style.
- Personalized Plan-The MyPyramid Plan for pregnancy and for breastfeeding is personalized to your height, weight, activity level, due date, and whether you’re breastfeeding completely or partially. It’s further broken down into trimesters of pregnancy and months after delivery.
Disadvantages:
- Wordiness-You’ve got to sort through a lot of text to find what you really want to know
- Not very specific-for example, the site proclaims that “when you are pregnant, you have a higher need for some vitamins and minerals”, but fails to mention which vitamins and minerals you need more of.
- Skirts the issues-MyPyramid never actually says how much your nutrient needs are increased during pregnancy. It has an eating plan–but you’d never know from MyPyramid that for most women, “eating for two” means only an additional 300 calories per day (about the calories in a large candy bar.)
Please take a look at the MyPyramid for Moms website and let me know what you think. Was my assessment correct or am I way out there? Even the non-Mom’s can participate in this one. Just do as I did–enter 12/01/09 as your due date for the pregnancy calculators and enter 05/01/09 as your child’s birthday for the breastfeeding calculators. I’d love to hear what you think (and your insight might add something worthwhile to my class’s discussion of the topic as well!)
On 06.10.09 – 11:30 pm
Davene said:
Woah, you did scare me! :-)
I took a look at that site; and although it does have some good features like you pointed out, I would honestly not take the time to wade through it or follow their recommendations. I’ve always been of the mind of just do what makes sense, as far as eating: obviously, limit fats, sweets, etc. Eat more fresh veggies and fruits. If you start gaining weight, exercise more or eat less, etc. I’ve never been one to count calories or fat grams too closely or follow somebody else’s meal plans. But that’s just me.
I’m sure the website does fill a real need for some people though.
On 06.11.09 – 6:56 am
Becky@BoysRuleMyLife said:
Um… yes, you scared me. I was like… ok.. I HAVE to read that post. There is no way that Beka is pregnant! What is she talking about? But what if she is? Oh, my… I must read.
:-)
You little stinker!
Well, that’s one way to grab your readers!
On a nutrition note, though, have you ever read the book “Nourishing Traditions”?
On 06.11.09 – 8:01 am
Casandra said:
I wasn’t fooled :-)
I read the first sentence and I was like “what the heck is she getting at?” Honestly, at first I thought you were going to be relaying a story about someone who asked you those questions :-)
On 06.11.09 – 12:50 pm
bekahcubed said:
Becky–I haven’t read “Nourishing Traditions” yet. I’m putting it on my “To be read” list though–I know you’d mentioned it before. I’m expecting to get around to it mid-July or August.
On 06.11.09 – 11:00 pm
MarBear said:
hahahaha…. I know you my friend Rebekkah… I knew something fun was to follow your oh so fun title. :-)
On 06.24.09 – 9:24 pm
Banana said:
Darn, I thought you had taken the cardiologist’s advice and I was going to be an auntie! JK
On 06.25.09 – 9:52 am
bekahcubed said:
Oh, banana–you crack me up!