Post-pregnancy diet for new mums

You’ve just become a mum and have your hands full caring for your newborn baby. Thinking about what and how you should eat is probably the last thing on your mind.

Read also: What to eat when pregnant – good advice for a nutritious pregnancy diet

But blogger Alicia from Editor’s Beauty in the UK wanted to find out about a post-pregnancy diet to help your recovery, and improve your energy and stamina. So she turned to Nutritional Therapist Gabriela Peacock, who shared the following tips for a nourishing post-pregnancy diet:

Tips for satisfying snacks

• Natural yoghurt. Full of protein and calcium, it’s a great filling snack.
• Fresh fruit and vegetables. These are the best foods to carry in your handbag. Cut vegetables up into sticks to make them portable and even bring little snack pots of dips such as hummus for the extra protein.
• Avocado. Have it mashed up on rice cakes/oatcakes/crackers.
• Flapjack. If you have the time, make a sweet treat from fresh fruit – like mashed banana, apple and oats and create your own little sugar free flapjack.
• Nuts. Satisfying, vitality-boosting, and also contain fibre and healthy fats.

Read also: Toddler recipes – healthy snacks for kids

Tips for nutritious meals

• Breakfast. Eggs with a couple of slices of rye bread and a side avocado, oats with yoghurt and chopped fruit, or toast with nut butter.
• Lunch. A good portion of vegetables or fresh colourful salad with protein such as salmon fillet, mixed beans, eggs, or meat (chicken, ham, turkey) with a wholegrain such as barley, rice, brown pasta or wholemeal bread.
• Dinner. Similar to lunch just make sure you get lots of vegetables in at both meals for all the vital antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

Other helpful tips

• Bring on the iron. If there’s one supplement you should take post pregnancy it’s iron, an essential for supporting energy levels especially in breast-feeding mums.
• It’s all about tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid that helps to make the neurotransmitter serotonin – the brain’s ‘feel good’ hormone that also aids sleep and what new mum doesn’t need sleep! Vitamin B6, which helps the body convert tryptophan to niacin and serotonin aiding relaxation. Foods high in tryptophan include turkey, seafood, bananas and cottage cheese.
• Magnesium rich foods can help with relaxation too. Look for dark leafy green vegetables such as kale, spinach and swiss chard.
• Natural herbs such as camomile and passion fruit, used in herbal teas for their natural sleep inducing properties.
• Avoid caffeine (and remember it is also found in chocolate!) after 4pm if you want to have a good night’s sleep. Caffeine disrupts blood sugar levels by stimulating the adrenal gland, which can interfere with sleep even if you have consumed it hours before bedtime.
• Avoid large meals and excess alcohol before bedtime as it demands a lot from your digestive system at a time when it’s trying to rest and repair.

Read also: Who needs sleep anyway?

/Alicia