Conversations… | with Dr. Greene

Calories
.Eating for two. is an oft-repeated phrase during pregnancy. But when it comes to the additional amount that women need to eat, it is more like eating for 1.1! Okay, for some women, perhaps a bit more - but generally not as high as eating for 1.2. If you would have had a 10 ounce […]

Calcium!?
My favorite OB textbook says that vitamin D requirements double in pregnancy, and that calcium and phosphorous requirements each go up by 50 percent. The latest scientific evidence, however, suggests that requirements for vitamin D, phosphorus, and calcium, don’t go up at all during pregnancy.
It is true that a woman delivers about 25,000 to 30,000 […]

Not Found in Most Prenatal Vitamins!
Chromium is a mineral that works with insulin to maintain normal blood glucose levels. This can be especially important during pregnancy. Only 30 micrograms a day are needed, but many people don’t get enough. Food sources include brewer’s yeast, onions, broccoli, turkey, tomatoes, Romaine lettuce, grape juice, ham, potatoes, green […]

Niacin, Riboflavin, Thiamin, Pantothenic Acid, and Omega-3 Fatty Acids
These are the only remaining nutrients of which we know women need to increase their proportional intake during pregnancy. Pregnant women are designed to eat diets richer in these nutrients. Like all of the nutrients we have covered so far in this chapter, niacin, riboflavin, thiamine, pantothenic […]

Zinc
The only other nutrient whose requirement increases by more than 30 percent is zinc. Zinc is found in almost every cell in the mother’s and the baby’s bodies. The baby needs zinc to support its burgeoning growth and to make each new copy of DNA. Zinc is vital for the newly awakened sense of taste […]

Vitamin B6 and Iodine
We only know of two other nutrients whose requirements increase by more than 40 percent during pregnancy. Again, we have one vitamin and one mineral: vitamin B6 and iodine.
Vitamin B6, also called pyridoxine, is actually a group of six closely related compounds. This gang of six are coenzymes in over 100 different […]

The Gift of Iron
Iron requirements also soar during pregnancy. Both the mother and the baby need iron to build red blood cells. A pregnant woman’s blood supply increases by 1/3 over the course of the pregnancy. Babies must grow their entire blood supply from scratch - and scratch includes iron. Iron is also a foundational […]

How Much Folate Do You Need?
Preventing neural tube defects is the poster child for folate supplementation. But folate is also critically important whenever a new copy of DNA is made. Each new cell in the baby’s rapidly growing body requires a new copy of the baby’s DNA. In addition, folate is critical for the process […]

Folate and Iron
Out of all the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in our diets, we only know of two whose requirements increase by 50 percent or more during pregnancy: one vitamin and one mineral, folate (also known as folic acid) and iron. Deficiency of either folate or iron can lead to anemia in the mother […]

A Special Time
During pregnancy, every ounce of baby’s growing body after that very first single cell has come from her mother’s own body. The brain, the heart, the muscles are all built from nutrients that were once part of her mother. The baby is quite literally her flesh-and-blood offspring. Nutrients that Mom eats during pregnancy, […]

Today was the first known slip-up of the second year of my organic journey. But the real slip might not be what you think.
I’m in Oregon tonight on a college visit, and when I mentioned that I was only eating organic food a local parent enthused about a quick spot to pick up a delicious, […]