My family (in-laws included) refuses to interfere, even when I beg for advice. And so I beg all of you. Please advise.

I was raw vegan for almost a year before getting pregnant. My husband made me start eating cooked food during pregnancy because I had such aversions to veggies, and was losing too much weight living on just fruit. I have officially gained too much weight eating cooked again. I am due in March and I want to transition back into raw foods quickly. I've already lined up a Champion to be lent to my home on the day of birth (maybe earlier).

My questions are: Will losing weight quickly on raw (because I already know I will) be safe during breastfeeding? Will I have issues with detox and is that safe for baby? Should I transition now to 50% and then to 90% after birth? Will I be getting enough nutrients if I make the jump in one day (like i did last time)? Will the very low calorie diet affect milk supply? If my hubby insists that I eat game, but only twice a week, is that compatible with a mostly raw diet or will the conflicting sources of protein make it more difficult to absorb the veg protein?

Thank you for all of your advice. I will gratefully consider any nuggets of wisdom that any choose to share with me.

Why will you have a very low calorie diet when you return to raw?

I agree with flipperjan--why are you going on a low calorie raw regimen when you are breastfeeding? Breastfeeding increases your metabolism and you will need more calories and nutrients, not fewer.

Unless I didn't understand your question?

It will be very low calorie simply because of the difference in what I'll eat then and what my husband feeds me now. Also, I cannot have large amounts of fats (almost none) because of a digestive issue that started when I was raw last time. I am on medication for it right now, but I'd rather quit taking it. If I do not take it, I get very bad abdominal cramps and a huge amount of pain, sometimes vomiting, if I eat anything with fat. I had to be frugivorous in order to not be in pain.

I would like to not be medicated so that I can eat. If I have to, I'll live only on plain salad, fruit, and fresh juice. But this is naturally very low calorie, and I cannot eat so much that I'll hurt.

The doctors are not quite sure why I cannot digest fat, but I didn't really look a gift horse in the mouth while I was losing weight for my wedding. I'm sure the issues are a part of the healing process of being raw, but nothing can be confirmed while pregnant. They've already done ultrasound and a barium xray (before pregnancy). My husband thinks I stopped digesting fats as Bad Rep for the raw diet. He thinks it hurt me and I want to prove him wrong. In the meantime, I know that I've never felt more alive and healthier than I did while raw.

It's a compatibility issue, I guess. Meds and raw? Meds and cooked? No meds? I want to be healed, and I just happen to have a baby to nurse at the same time.

I nursed four children, and here is my input.

Questions: Do you eat less than 50% raw foods now? How "overweight" are you now? When I was pregnant with my youngest, I was at about 50% raw and on a vegetarian, not vegan diet, which is essentially where I stayed while nursing (about 1 1/2 years). I don't have a problem digesting fat, though, and I always gained a healthy amount of weight (at least 30 lbs.), and was only skinny with my first one to begin with. If you don't eat fat after you have the baby, the fat you have gained while pregnant will go into your milk first, as will all nutrients you ingest or store -- that is the nature of our bodies, to provide for our children first. If you are genuinely chubby (say 5'4" and 180 or more now), I wouldn't worry about the fat intake. If you are 5'4" and 130 or even 150, I would try to get some fat in there. Do avocados bother you? If not, load up on them. If you have a good 30 lbs. or more of fat on you, by the time your stores are depleted, you will be able to feed your baby avocados and other fatty foods. Also, our bodies do turn unused energy, whether it is protein or sugar, to fat, so if you get enough calories (2000 or 2500), you'll be okay.
Next question: Is this your first baby? Usually, moms who have trouble with milk supply or other problems with nursing have problems with most or all of their babies. I didn't have any problems with nursing any of my kids, so I was lucky there. If this is not your first baby, look at your experiences with your other kids.
If I were you, I would definitely eat as much raw food as you can, whether it is in addition to cooked or not, and I would eat at LEAST 2000 calories a day, and I would keep track of this, because if you are not getting enough calories, your milk supply will be jeopardized. This is a vegan forum, so I cannot recommend that you eat meat, but if you do, I think game or organic free range meat is the healthiest. You have to do what's best for your baby, and I sympathize with you, because I hate taking pharmaceuticals and avoid it at all costs, and I don't eat meat, but if that's what it takes to be able to nurse your little one, then you gotta do what you gotta do. Good luck!!!

Sundancer: Thank you for your wisdom. I can see that I need to do a little more research, and I'll start by finding the answers to your questions.

I am 5'8", and I don't do pregnancy well at all. With my first, I gained 80 pounds and I'm looking to end this pregnancy the same way. I do know from past experience that it comes off fairly quickly. I nursed my daughter until she naturally weaned at 28 months, and I always had a copious milk supply - enough for a couple of babies!

I won't know if I can digest fats on my own unless I quit taking the medication. Perhaps I'll cut back the dosage after birth and see what happens. As for calorie intake, perhaps I'll do better on a mostly raw vegan/natural hygiene approach. Then I know I'll be getting enough calories. I am a natural vegan anyways - lactose intolerant and eggs make me hurt.

I will keep researching.

[The doctors are not quite sure why I cannot digest fat]

It can't possibly be fat per se, it must be something else in the food that has fat in it.

Which fat sources exactly were you having trouble with? I suspect, without knowing anything else, a nut sensitivity, I think it's normal to be very sensitive to certain foods when pregnant that might otherwise not bother you.

Did you have trouble with avocado and olive oil?

Did you have trouble with ground flax?

Did you try incorporating smaller quantities at each meal?

So how exactly are you gaining so much weight if you can't eat fat? I think it's impossible. You have to be eating fat.

I weigh 105 and I'd have to eat about 20 lbs of produce a day just to maintain if I were not eating any overt fat sources.

The sources of fat that I was having trouble digesting were....everything. Nuts, avocado, EVOO, flax, you name it. A small handful of pine nuts put me in the hospital last spring. All of it caused me pain, even in the smallest quantities. This is why I lived mainly on watermelon and other fruits for 6 weeks.

The reason that I can gain weight while pregnant is because the doctor has me on 150mg of ranitadine twice a day. I'm not sure how it helps, but it does. I can eat fat while on meds, but I hate medicating myself just to be able to eat. I avoid as much pharmaceutical interference as possible.

Weird. The drug makes you produce less stomach acid.

I am sitting in my armchair making the diagnosis of pregnancy-induced Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome.

Don't know if my diagnosis is right but if the pills allow you to eat, take them, just until you have a safe delivery.

I'd be afraid to skip fats during pregnancy. Even if I had to split 1 tbsp ground flax and 1 tbsp walnuts into 12 smoothies during the day I'd still do it like this rather than forego them completely. But you probably already tried it that way.

[familydoctor.org]

[www.myelectronicmd.com]

You can check your symptoms on these symptom checkers and try to figure out what you have.

i personally would continue eating mostly raw with some cooked foods - i dont think i could have made it through my pregnancy w/o omega 3's and DHA( i did use fish oils) ...but you can get those in vegan supplements. you should see if you can talk to shazzie - she went cooked vegan for her pregnancy and then went back to raw at some point.

it seems to me its more important to have a healthy baby than to be 100% raw right now..and although raw is the ultimate, detoxing and possibly losing wt seems bad to do at this time, IMHO. i think with nursing you can deflect some detox symptoms (as i am doing now while nursing my 22 m/o)...but pregnancy - dont you and the baby share the same blood?

I've been raw for 2.5years, early pregnancy and raw food aversions had me eating some cooked foods. As soon as I entered my second trimester I came back raw full swing. I didn't experience any detox symptoms, well maybe an extra couple hours of sleep the first day or two... that's it.

Did you have trouble digesting fats before eating raw food? The reason I ask is I developed trouble digesting fats. I've been told my liver is weak and had just started a liver cleanse when I found out I'm pregnant. Prior to raw I had no problem with fat, in the beginning of raw no problem, I think my problems arose after green juice feasting. I started to get a rash after eating fat (any fat), I've tried leaving everything out, and eating things singularly and it seems to be any fat that can upset me. Strange thing is now when I am pregnant it is not as bad as prior to being pregnant, most of the time I am okay, sometimes I am not (with no rhyme or reason to which fat it was that set me off). Sometimes I think it's the complexity of the meal (ie. two many types of veggies in salad mixed with olive oil or flax dressing).

Anyways, in my opinion, add more raw, whatever you are comfortable with. And after you deliver, give your body a chance without the drugs.

Sunflower
Raw Food Chef and Writer
Comfortably Raw
[www.comfortablyraw.com]