Have Morning Sickness? What to Eat to Stay Nourished - Ask a Nutritionist

Transcript:

Britni: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's midweek segment called “Ask a Nutritionist”. My name is Britni Vincent and I am a Registered and Licensed Dietitian at Nutritional Weight & Wellness. And today I'm going to be talking about a topic that almost always comes up with my clients that are pregnant, and that's morning sickness, because it affects about 75% of pregnant women. Despite the name morning sickness, it really can hit any time of day; sometimes causes vomiting too. Typically it's going to happen in the first trimester.

Often it gets better or completely goes away in the second and third trimester. So with the morning sickness, you have the nausea, sometimes vomiting, low appetite. Many women also have food aversion. So this can make eating extremely difficult and at the same time, this is a season when your nutrient needs are actually higher than ever.

So I think this episode is really important for anybody struggling with morning sickness or if you're planning on getting pregnant in the future, you'll have some of this knowledge ahead of time. And I've been there, you know, it is rough. I had morning sickness with both of my pregnancies. And it can be a really tough go.

But today I'm going to talk about why morning sickness happens, strategies to improve morning sickness, and you know, most importantly, I'll provide some practical real food strategies that will help you stay nourished even when your appetite can be low or just completely unpredictable, and whether you are struggling with nausea all day, or maybe it's fairly mild for you. And my goal is that you can walk away with simpler, realistic tools that support you and your growing baby.

Why can sickness happen during pregnancy?

So let me start by talking more about why this happens. And morning sickness is not usually random. It's often driven by a combination of things. And during pregnancy, especially that first trimester, you're going to have a rise in the hormone HCG.

There's also going to be a rise in estrogen and progesterone. So these hormonal shifts that can be rapidly happening, that can be a big contributor to morning sickness. Another big piece of the puzzle is blood sugar instability. And I'm going to talk a lot about this today because it's something that you have a lot of control over through your diet choices.

There's also metabolic changes that happen during pregnancy. Your body's metabolism actually speeds up, so this can contribute to morning sickness. Heightened senses are common during pregnancy, and you're going to have an increased sensitivity to smell and taste, and that can get really hard to eat or trigger nausea. And morning sickness can also be exacerbated by stress, anxiety, lack of sleep.

So let's take a deeper dive into the blood sugar part of this. So during pregnancy, your glucose metabolism changes to make sure there's constant fuel for the fetus. And in the first trimester, especially your fasting blood sugar can actually be lower because of this.

And during that first trimester, your body has an increased insulin sensitivity, meaning insulin is binding to insulin receptors more efficiently. And because of all this you, that increases the likelihood of having low blood sugar. And then in the second and third trimester, your body actually becomes more insulin resistant because of hormonal changes that are happening during this stage of the pregnancy.

So going back to the first trimester, because this is again where most women are going to be hit the hardest with morning sickness. You know, if you're not eating regularly during this time or you're not able to eat enough, blood sugar can dip more easily than when you're not pregnant. And low blood sugar can show up as nausea, gagging, dry heaving, dizziness, lightheadedness, shakiness, feeling worse if you don't eat right away.

I remember one of my worst days of morning sickness and it was after I had to fast for some blood work and I spent most of that day vomiting and. I had to fast longer, whereas typically I would eat right away when I got up and I think fasting for that blood work just caused my blood sugar to get too low, and it exacerbated my morning sickness that I typically felt.

That experience really stuck with me because it highlights how important eating regularly really is to help or prevent morning sickness. With the blood sugar component, it's not just low blood sugar. But it's also big blood sugar spikes and crashes that are going to play a role in this as well. For example, if you're gravitating towards eating plain crackers, toast, or juice, you're going to get a quick blood sugar spike.

But then you might get a quick crash, which creates worse nausea later, you know, skipping protein, which I know can be easy to do when you're not feeling well, that's going to make your blood sugar less stable, making that nausea worse, or making it stick with you longer throughout the day. And I completely understand during this time you are not feeling well.

Carbohydrates, they sound the most appealing and they can be the easiest to just grab. But eating carbohydrates alone or eating a lot of processed carbs, is going to create this really common cycle of, you have that nausea, the morning sickness, you grab the carbohydrates. You get some temporary relief, but that is going to cause worse nausea later on.

Focus on nourishment over perfection

So when we think about morning sickness, the goal we really want to focus on is nourishment over perfection. So this is not a time for rigid food rules, guilt. And frankly, this is very individualized. What helps during one pregnancy might not help during another, and this might even change day to day. I know I can recall certain foods might sound appealing one day and the next day they sounded terrible to me.

During this time, which can be difficult, instead of focusing on what you should be eating, focus on what your body can tolerate and how you can optimize that. So the key nutrition priorities during morning sickness, focusing on stabilizing that blood sugar. This is so important. So eat right away when you get up.

Some women even benefit from keeping something on their bedside table so they can eat before they get out of bed. Eating regularly is really important and you're likely going to need to eat more frequently during pregnancy than you did prior to pregnancy. And please do not skip meals because that is just going to contribute to that low blood sugar.

Like we always talk about on Dishing Up Nutrition and “Ask a Nutritionist”, we want to be pairing protein, fat, and carbohydrates together because those carbohydrates are what's going to create that quick rise in blood sugar, but pairing them with the protein and the fat will slow the absorption of carbohydrates and prevent that big blood sugar increase.

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Prevent dehydration & get adequate protein

Another component to prioritize during morning sickness is preventing dehydration, and then getting protein, even small amounts throughout the day is going to be greatly beneficial. Protein needs increased during pregnancy and we know that protein is going to be key for keeping that blood sugar stable and helping morning sickness.

And I really want to emphasize, please let go of food guilt during this time. I know it can be easy, especially if you're on social media or reading a lot during pregnancy. Seeing all of these foods that you should be consuming. You know, it might not be possible during that time, and if you can't eat the way that you envisioned during pregnancy, you are not failing.

Just adapt and focus on what's realistic during that time. You know, I personally could not eat how I wanted to or envisioned eating during pregnancy during my first trimester, but I really tried to focus on what was realistic for me that time, again, optimizing the foods that actually did sound appealing to me.

So now let's talk about real foods that many people tolerate better during morning sickness. So focusing again on protein, this is very key for blood sugar stability, but keep it simple. You know, and unfortunately, like I mentioned earlier, a lot of women do have food aversions, and this can be more pronounced during the first trimester, and meat can be a common food aversion.

I experienced that myself. So thinking about proteins that are easy that might work well. Eggs, Greek yogurt or cottage cheese, if you tolerate those, bone broth, you might even sip on bone broth. Or if you're making a soup, make it with bone broth to bump up the protein. You could add collagen to soup.

You could add collagen to your coffee or tea or smoothie or other beverage. Keeping protein powder around so you can make a protein smoothie and then of course poultry, meat, fish, seafood, if you tolerate that and those sound good to you, those are fabulous choices. For myself, I always kept easy protein options on hand when I just did not feel well, cooking felt impossible, or my husband wasn't around to get something for me.

So I kept frozen little egg bites or egg muffins around, yogurt. I made a lot of smoothies, so I always have protein powder around and meat was hit or miss, but if I felt like eating it, then I took that opportunity to, to get more protein in. You know, I think smoothies in particular can be a really great way to pack in the nutrients when eating food just sounds really difficult.

We have a ton of great smoothie recipes at weightandwellness.com. You know, I remember recently working with a client that was pregnant and she had morning sickness at some points of the day, and then there were other points where she just felt ravenous. And I think that really goes back to blood sugar and how blood sugar can be less stable during pregnancy. And focusing on the protein for her was completely game-changing. Prior to, she was waking up in the middle of the night having to eat, but getting more protein on board and balancing it, having the protein, carbohydrate, and fat together prevented her waking up in the middle of the night having to eat.

Focus on real food carbohydrates as much as possible

And she just felt significantly better throughout the day by doing that. When we think about the carbohydrates, you know, again, I know it's really easy to gravitate towards the processed easy carbohydrates, comfort foods, but try to focus on those real food carbohydrates as much as possible.

You know, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cooked veggies. If they sound appealing, that's great. Maybe a little brown rice or quinoa. And then again, pairing those with the protein and the fat. And those more real food carbohydrates are going to have less of an effect on blood sugar than the processed carbohydrates like breads and crackers and pasta and things like that.

Healthy fat options to incorporate

And the fats, you know, that could be butter, ghee, olive oil, nut butters, olives, avocados. Those will all be great fats to include every time you eat.

Practical strategies to help with morning sickness

So let's talk about some practical strategies that can really help with morning sickness. I mentioned this earlier, eating right away when you wake up or keeping something by your bedside table. This can be so helpful during pregnancy. Starting that day with more balanced blood sugar is going to help to make you feel better throughout the day and prevent or improve that morning sickness.

You know, even a few bites can help to prevent blood sugar dips. You might find that smaller, more frequent meals work better for you. You could utilize ginger. That can be very beneficial during pregnancy. Ginger tea, ginger chews. Lemon can also be beneficial. Putting lemon in your water. This was helpful for me. I just kept, I kept things simple and had a bottle of pure lemon juice in my fridge that I would add to my water and that aroma, and that sour taste from the lemon can help to calm the nausea.

I mentioned hydration earlier. Really preventing dehydration because that's only going to make all of these symptoms worse. So you might choose to incorporate an electrolyte once a day and then taking small sips of water throughout the day. You might find it helpful to drink more between meals than drinking a lot of fluid with your meals.

And there are also some key nutrients that may help to support nausea relief: vitamin B6, focusing on food sources, poultry, salmon, dairy, eggs, sweet potatoes, avocados, these are all good sources of vitamin B six. Your prenatal should also have that in there.

Magnesium, you know, be sure to choose if you're going to supplement with it, be sure to choose an absorbable form such as Magnesium Glycinate. If you're struggling with constipation, which is very common during pregnancy, you might choose, like the Nutrikey Mixed Magnesium or a Magnesium Citrate, and the magnesium citrate, which is in the Mixed Magnesium, will pull fluid to the stool to help to soften it. And your magnesium, you're going to burn through magnesium more quickly during pregnancy. And so this might be really beneficial to, to add to the mix.

Choline is very important during pregnancy and can help with nausea relief. Eggs are a great source of choline, and again, your prenatal should contain this as well. I know a lot of women struggle taking a prenatal during pregnancy when they're struggling with morning sickness because sometimes it can exacerbate the nausea that you're feeling. So what I found helpful is instead of taking it with breakfast, I took it with lunch. Having more food in my system seemed to help to prevent the nausea.

You might take it after eating that meal instead of before the meal. Those might be some helpful things. And I have found on our Nutrikey website, we carry a Prenatal Complete. And I have found that that product is very well tolerated during pregnancy.

When food gets really difficult those really tough days, and think of kind of these quick yet nourishing options: smoothies. If you are having a day where you feel well, maybe you make a big batch of smoothies that you keep in the freezer for days that you're not feeling well. Soups, broth, same thing. Maybe that's something when you're feeling well or your partner could make a batch of and throw some in the freezer so you have that on hand.

Or other frozen pre-made protein options that could be easy for you to grab. Eggs are easy to cook up and give yourself permission. Repeat the same foods, eat what works for you right now, and prioritize nourishment over variety. I think those are all strategies to just simplify food during this time.

If you are struggling with nausea, you are vomiting three or more times a day, you're starting to lose weight, you're having signs of dehydration, you definitely want to talk to your medical provider. There is a condition, called hyperemesis gravidarum, which is a much more serious condition where women struggle with nausea and vomiting much more severely.

Recap

So let's recap the episode today. If you are struggling with morning sickness, please hear that you are not doing anything wrong. Let's be real. Pregnancy can be really tough, but it's beautiful all at the same time. And during this period, your body's adapting. It's working really hard to grow a baby, and so the goal during this time is not perfect nutrition.

You just think about what's realistic for you at that time and optimize what is sounding appealing to you. You know, those small real food choices provide a lot of nourishment and support for you and your growing baby. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone who's pregnant or navigating early pregnancy and remember, nutrition during pregnancy, it is a journey and it might change along the way, so please be kind to yourself during that time.

I want to thank you so much for tuning in to Dishing Up Nutrition's, “Ask a Nutritionist”. If you found this episode helpful, please take a moment, leave a rating or review on your favorite podcast app. It helps more people find our show and feel empowered in their food choices. And if you yourself have a nutrition question you'd love answered, you can join our private Dishing Up Nutrition Facebook group. You just search for it in Facebook, request to join and drop your question there. We would love to hear from you. Thanks for listening.

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