::BOOK REVIEW:: Eating for Pregnancy by Catherine Jones & Rose Ann Hudson
A common question we get is where to find good resources for a healthy diet during pregnancy. Babies will mostly get all the nutrients they need from mom’s body regardless - and if mom isn’t getting adequate nutrients, her health can greatly suffer. Parents are really busy, and need a good overview of what a healthy prenatal diet looks like, and easy recipes that they can plan for, cook, and eat over the course of their busy day without too much difficulty.
Eating for Pregnancy by Catherine Jones, Rose Ann Hudson, RD, LD, and Teresa Knight, MD, OB-GYN, provides helpful and relatable advice for prenatal nutrition and other pregnancy-related topics, broken down by trimester.
You will learn about the wide variety of nutrients and how much you should be getting each day, as well as just what function of pregnancy each nutrient supports. You will not have to worry about painstakingly calculating all of these from the labels on your food - the nutritious recipes included in the book ensure a healthy balance of all of them if you select some for your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
In addition to discussing vital nutrients and lots of recipes, I liked that a lot of other common questions were answered in this book. Other subjects covered include:
- Your daily calorie needs
- Rate of weight gain
- Special diets and food allergies
- Food safety tips
- Common annoyances during pregnancy
- Special conditions during pregnancy
- Safe exercise during pregnancy
While many pregnancy cookbooks focus only on the three trimesters of pregnancy, Eating for Pregnancy actually has a few more sections in the back which are pretty helpful - eating for breastfeeding, navigating postpartum depression and mood disorders, and gentle weight management after birth.
The recipes themselves are easy to prepare and most of them involve ingredients you are likely to have on hand or easily locate at a grocery store. There are 150 recipes included in the book for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks, and they include notes on alternatives for special diets such as gluten free, dairy free, and vegetarian/vegan. There is a good mix of comfort food and world cuisine represented in the recipes for times you need more variety or have a certain craving.
The only nitpicky thing I had with this book was the style of writing, which attempted to come across as a sisterly “hey girl hey” vibe, but seemed just a little bit forced and trying too hard to sound fun and popular. However, I did think most of the prenatal advice was good and the recipes easy to prepare!
You can get your own copy of Eating for Pregnancy by Catherine Jones & Rose Ann Hudson here!
I was provided a free copy of Eating for Pregnancy by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.