Dr. Mecola has recently written about how the microbes in a woman’s “gut” changing during each trimester. He discusses the following:
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- Your Gut Microbes Change During Each Pregnancy Trimester to Support Fetal Growth
- Mom’s Gut Bacteria Seriously Impacts Baby’s Future Health
- What Might be Putting Your Gut Flora at Risk?
- If You’re Pregnant, This is One of the Healthiest Types of Food to Eat
- What Can You do to Encourage Healthy Gut Flora Once Your Baby is Born?
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In my experience the sugar and grains that many mothers consume during pregnancy not only adversely affect gut flora, they also have a negative effect on fetal brain development.
Excessive fructose from consuming sugar and HFCS is the primary driver of insulin resistance and when you have insulin resistance and consume grain-based carbohydrates, you end up with unstable glucose levels. These unstable glucose levels can trigger a chronic brain condition called CARB syndrome in both the mother and the fetus. The first symptom you get with CARB syndrome is craving for sweet and starchy foods. This pushes the pregnant mother to consume more of the very food that is frying her and her developing baby’s brain. Because of the hormonal changes associated with pregnancy, it must be considered a secondary trigger of CARB syndrome.
When the baby is born, the most obvious symptom of CARB syndrome is irritability in the nursery. One the baby starts to consume breast milk or formula, CARB syndrome goes into remission. When the infant starts eating foods containing sugar or grain-based carbohydrates during the second year of life, CARB syndrome takes off with a vengeance. This also happens to be the age where autism first surfaces. That’s why giving infants finger-foods like Cherrios is such a bad idea.
So to protect your gut flora and brain, consume whole real foods and stay away from processed foods that contain sugar, HFCS and grain-based carbohydrates. Eating fermented foods is also very good for your gut and brain.
[external_link url=”http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/23/trimester-pregnancy-affects-baby-health.aspx” target=”_blank]Click to read Dr. Mercolo’s article.[/external_link]
