Healthy Eating During Breastfeeding

Eat, sleep, cry, lather, rinse, repeat. Ah, that’s life. Remember the days when you had no worries other than where your next meal would be coming from and whether you could cry loud enough to catch someone’s attention so that they would bring you your next meal?

Of course, things get tricky when you’re at that age too. First off, those memories were probably before your formative years and thus, you might not have much (if any) recollection of those days.

Not to mention the fact that you could hardly string together sounds coherently enough to make sound out what you were feeling. If anything, you were probably 5 or 6 months in before trying to say “ma ma” and “da da”. So, it’s most likely safe to say that the first few months during the mother’s confinement and the months subsequent to that, mothers are most likely stressing out about whether their baby is hungry or angry or in need of a diaper change or having a fever or all of the above (yes, it happens, don’t judge).

In all of that confusion, how are mothers to know whether or not they are feeding you enough and/or if you are getting the proper nutrients you need from the feeds?

Well, that’s sort of the reason behind our article today. While your baby may not be able to articulate to you what they are in need of, be it a nutritional need or a comfort found wanting, we’ll try to take away one worry in today’s blog post

Food Groups

Right, let’s start off with something that’s probably going to make a lot of you panic and bring back nightmares from high school biology or health science classes. It’s the food groups, but in the interest of…well…holding your interest, we’ve summarised it into two groups that you’ll need during this time of breastfeeding your little one.

Group 1

Here are the nutrients in Group 1 and where to get them in typical foods:

~Vitamin B1 (Thiamin): fish,nuts, beans, pork

~Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): cheese, red meat, oily fish, eggs, nuts

~Vitamin B6: chickpeas, potatoes, bananas, dried fruit,nuts, fish, poultry,

~Vitamin B12: shellfish, liver, milk, fish, eggs, chicken, pork, beef, mutton, red meat

~Choline: eggs, beef liver, chicken liver, fish, peanuts

~Vitamin A: liver, organs meats, sweet potatoes, carrots,pumpkin, eggs

~Vitamin D: cod liver oil, oily fish, some mushrooms, fortified cereals, fortified milk or soy

~Selenium: Brazil nuts, seafood, whole wheat, seeds

~Iodine: Dried seaweed, fish & seafood, milk, iodized salt

Group 2

Here are the nutrients in Group 2 and where to get them in typical foods:

~Folate: beans, lentils, leafy greens, asparagus, broccoli, avocados

~Calcium: milk, soy drink, yoghourt, cheese

~Iron: red meat, pork, poultry, beans, green vegetables

~Copper: shellfish, whole grains, nuts, beans, organ meats, potatoes

~Zinc: oysters, red meat, poultry, beans, nuts, dairy

In a very simplified manner for explanation, Group 1 are nutrients in the breast milk that are dependent on a mother’s dietary intake while Group 2 are nutrients in the breast milk that are not dependent on a mother’s dietary intake so long her body stores are sufficient. This means that foods that provide Group 1 nutrients are foods that we need to ensure that we are taking adequately in our meals regularly. All in all, both groups are equally important in order to ensure that the health status of both mummy and baby are well taken care of. 

Right, now that the boring and complicated bits are out of the way in that you now know what the components and nutrients are that you require as well as where to find them, we get to the more tasty bits…specifically, we’ll talk you through what delicious meals you can have to help you eat healthily while breastfeeding!

Suggested Meal Combination

First up is our recommendation for a comprehensive and balanced meal for healthy eating during breastfeeding.

Broccoli With Braised Shiitake Mushroom

How can you not like mushrooms? It’s got that chewy texture, that umami flavour, the undeniably interesting savoury goodness that is undeniably mushroom-y. The broccoli isn’t too shabby either with its crunch, its flavour, and its exciting green colour. The whole dish is packed with ginger, vitamins A, C, D, and Folate.

Steamed Wolf-berries Pork Ribs With Red Dates And Black Bean Sauce

Wolf-berries, pork, red dates, black beans, and saucy. That should be enough to give you an indication of what goodness is in store for you here. It’s got vitamins B1, B6, C, A, and contains ginger.

Dispel Wind Chicken Soup With Lemongrass

Well, who can say no to chicken soup, right? It’s named in line with traditional TCM foundations in mind to dispel ‘wind’ from your ‘Qi’ and keep you healthy. The lemongrass gives it a refreshing scent and an exotic flavour profile.

Tri Colour Rice

Now, to cap the whole meal off, as Asians, we can’t forget the rice, right? So, why not go to the max and go with three different colours of rice – red, brown, and white! Brown rice and red rice in general are high in fibre which is essential in a healthy and balanced diet as fibre helps to promote healthy bowel movements. This combination provides a great way to sneak in more fibre into your diet especially for those of you who may not be used to the nutty earthy flavours of brown rice. 

Closing words

At this point, you should have a general idea of what healthy eating looks like and have a somewhat rough picture of what breastfeeding diet plan to put in place especially now that you’ve seen our suggested meal combination.

However, if all this information is making you feel somewhat overwhelmed, we understand that too and we’d like to make things more simple now. How do we do that, you might be asking. The answer is actually quite simple – a meal plan for breastfeeding mothers.

Yes, we at ReLacto don’t just deal with nutrition and bringing you information that will help you in your breastfeeding journey, we also deal in actually bringing nutrition to you…quite literally. We have door-step lactation meal delivery services.

So, if that piques your interest, feel free to drop us a call to find out more or simply swing by our homepage to browse through our breastfeeding menu plan selections today!