I always laugh at the term ‘morning sickness’. I remember being so happy when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter (who is now 4). Less than one week later, I was out to dinner with some friends sitting down to eat when this wave of nausea hit me like a ton of bricks. It didn’t go away for close to three months! I wasn’t just sick in the morning, I was sick ALL the time. If my husband opened the refrigerator, even if I was sitting in the other room and I just barely heard the sound of it opening, I hurled. Sorry for the TMI but I know many of you can relate. I was so sick; I had to take medication that is normally reserved for chemotherapy patients! I couldn’t even function at my job without this medication. It is actually for this reason that I have not tried to get pregnant again.
Enter Kristen Michaelis of Food Renegade and her new book, Beautiful Babies. First of all, this book is amazing. Of course I skipped right to the chapter on morning sickness. What could I have possibly done differently to prevent this from happening? I discovered that I could have done a lot to prepare my body ahead of time and avoid this suffering and so can you. I am going to share this with you now and I am also going to do a giveaway of Kristen’s book and her e-course to TWO lucky winners! This is a $224 value!
Keep reading until the end so you can find out how you can easily get her $199 e-course for FREE right now.
What Causes Morning Sickness?
According to Kristen, there are many theories of what can cause morning sickness:
1) Morning sickness protects your baby from toxins. This is one theory I believed when I was pregnant. This now makes no sense to me. I clearly was able to eat GMO laden cereal (unbeknownst to me at the time) and that is clearly toxic. Why was I able to eat that and not eggs or salmon which are clearly more nutrient dense?
2) Morning sickness is the result of your body adjusting to a flood of extra hormones. This makes some sense but why doesn’t it apply to everyone?
3) Morning sickness is caused by low blood sugar. This one also makes some sense but doesn’t answer the question fully for my experience. It really didn’t matter when or what I ate – I was just always sick.
4) Morning sickness is caused by a deficiency in vitamins B12 and B6. I had heard about this one too, but I had these vitamins in my prenatal vitamin – so no dice.
So what really does cause morning sickness? Kristen believes all of these theories can be explained by a magnesium deficiency. Hmm…now that is interesting. I have been doing a lot of research lately on magnesium. It is a pretty powerful mineral and we are not getting as much of this mineral as we once did due to reduced soil fertility and our municipally treated water supply which removes many trace minerals like magnesium.
Magnesium is involved in regulating our stress hormone levels by supporting our adrenals. A deficiency of magnesium allows for cortisol levels to remain high resulting in a rise in blood sugar. Your body will try to sort out these spikes in blood sugar by sparking an insulin response and the roller coaster will continue. This will make you feel nauseous and even vomit. This, in turn, causes more stress (it most certainly did for me!) which will then cause your body to build up even more cortisol pushing you into a vicious cycle.
The trick here is planning ahead. You need to build up your magnesium stores *before* you get pregnant. Kristen recommends giving your body three to six months to elevate your magnesium levels fully. If you are already pregnant you might be able to alleviate some morning sickness symptoms with magnesium supplementation but not totally.
So how do I get more magnesium?
Eat foods rich in magnesium like homemade bone broth, leafy green vegetables (cooked to neutralize oxalic acid), properly prepared soaked seeds and nuts, unrefined sea salt, and soaked or sprouted whole grains. To boost magnesium absorption, you also need to eat vitamins B6 and B12. Those vitamins are in shellfish, liver, fish roe, salmon, cheese, and eggs. For many of us, supplementation is probably not a bad idea either. I used to take magnesium orally, but let’s just say it has some undesirable side effects which one may want to avoid (ahem … the runs). To avoid this, I would recommend using magnesium oil (where to buy magnesium oil) that is absorbed through your skin or even taking daily Epsom salt baths. Apparently, for generations, midwives have been promoting daily Epsom salt baths throughout pregnancy to their patients!
Intrigued? This is just one of the many secrets Kristen shares in Beautiful Babies related to pregnancy, preconception and fertility, post partum, nourishing your babies and beyond. Beautiful Babies is very straightforward and intuitive. It is one of those books you read and it just makes perfect sense yet is so simple. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of becoming or is a mama.
Kristen was generous enough to support this giveaway to you, my readers. Not only did she agree to giveaway her book, she is also giving away her e-course along with it! This is a $224 value!
Enter to Win!
In this giveaway, TWO winners will be chosen and I will announce the winner on Monday of next week!
To enter to win:
1) Click on the link below:
Beautiful Babies: Nutrition for Fertility, Pregnancy, Breast-feeding, and Baby’s First Foods
2) Use the Rafflecopter widget below to log your entries.
Can’t wait to win? Get the $199 e-course NOW, for FREE
The Beautiful Babies book won’t be released until March 19th, but right now, everyone who pre-orders the book for only $15.21 before March 18th can get access to the online nutrition course worth $199, for FREE. Yes, everyone! But this offer expires on March 18th so do it now before it is too late!
Beautiful Babies Teaches You:
- How soy and a low-fat diets cause infertility
- How proper nutrition can reduce and even eliminate morning sickness, varicose veins, stretch marks, swelling, and post-partum depression
- How to help prevent a C-section, and have an easier, natural birth
- What you should eat before and during pregnancy to prevent ear infections, asthma, allergies, and autism
- How to prevent your child from needing eyeglasses and braces, and to give your child a wide, symmetrical face with high cheekbones
- How to flatten your belly after giving birth
Pre-order your copy of Beautiful Babies today so you can get this deal now, and get access to the online e-course so you can take it now before you get your book! Right now, the Beautiful Babies is 40% off on Amazon! If you end up winning this giveaway, you can save your copy of the book and class that you won and give it as a gift for a mama you know who needs it! I’m ordering a copy at this discounted price just to have on hand for a gift!
To receive your free enrollment to the $199 value e-course today do these 3 steps:
- Pre-order the book on Amazon
- Forward your receipt to booklaunch@foodrenegade.com and you’ll get enrolled for the course.
- Enroll in the class for free – After Kristen verifies your pre-order, she will email you a coupon that you can redeem for your FREE enrollment in the Beautiful Babies class.
HURRY! This special offer ends March 18th!
Thanks for the info, I hope I win this book!
would love to win this! after reading it I would donate it to the lending library of the lady that gives independent birth classes in my area!
Thank you for the giveaway! This looks like a great resource!
I would love to win!
I would love to win. I suffer from morning sickness for about the first seven months of my pregnany’s.
i would love to learn from this!
Would love to win this! 🙂
Does Kristen have any anecdotes from anyone who suffered from hyperemesis
but after correcting a magnesium deficiency was able to prevent it? I
had severe nausea and vomiting for all five of my pregnancies and while I
can believe that a lack of magnesium was a factor, there is also
evidence that poor liver function also plays a vital role. I know Shonda
Parker recommends milk thistle (prior to getting pregnant and then
while pregnant) and there are anecdotes from women who have tried that
and had no nausea during pregnancy.
I’m not saying magnesium isn’t a factor. But I think for those of us who
have a severe form (hyperemesis or close) where we had to take leave at
work and barely got out of bed for months, there seems to be multiple
factors and multiple nutritional deficiencies. Call me a skeptic but
I’ve been through it multiple times and I think a poorly functioning
liver plus deficient nutrients answers more questions.
I am wondering, too. 🙂 I was sick all 9 months with both of my pregnancies, not as severe as HG but still sick enough that I am really nervous to be pregnant again. The only thing I can use to describe my symptoms was that they mimic gastroparesis, except only when I am pregnant. Reglan helped some with my first pregnancy but I had to take it far enough in advance so that there was enough in my bloodstream to help. Certain foods would just sit and putrefy in my stomach until they came back up because I was not digesting them. The problem with taking the Reglan was that then I had to wait to eat, causing the “normal” kind of morning sickness caused by low blood sugar to kick in. Yes, I could tell the difference. I had two different things going on, and the one mimicking gastroparesis was the more severe one and lasted the whole 9 months. I’m wondering if magnesium would help with that at all. My husband is very nervous for me to ever get pregnant again b/c he doesn’t want me to be sick and having to care for our now almost 4 and almost 2 year old.
Hi Aimee,
I had a similar experience, and I was also afraid to try again with another baby. The first experience was traumatizing, especially because I didn’t see it coming.
We spaced our children 5 years apart so that I was able to get the rest I needed when I was pregnant. That did help, but still, it wasn’t easy, but I survived and now I have two wonderful girls to show for it.
I did take Zofran for 18 weeks, which worked wonders for me (and was the only thing that helped–I tried many other things), and I also look Thorne Bio-Gest each time I ate, in addition to Biotics Intenzyme Forte between meals. This helped the food move through my stomach, and also making sure my food and drink were warm when I consumed them.
Best wishes to you, and I hope that your next pregnancy will be the best one so far 🙂
Lisa
I had the same thought.
This topic hits a nerve with be because I had two pregnancies with hyperemesis and had to take Zofran in order to survive. The second pregnancy was extremely well prepared for because I knew about these issues of nutritional deficiency, so I spent 5 years eating according the WAPF guidelines and the Brewer diet and was checked for nutritional deficiencies and given the “all-clear!”. I was very optimistic. However, I was just as sick as the first time, and because I was 5 years older, my body handled it worse and by 10 weeks, my blood pressure dropped dangerously low and I was hardly able to stand.
The biggest difference between my two pregnancies with hyperemesis was this: in the second pregnancy, the hyperemesis ended at 18 weeks right after I had a session of hypnotherapy. Because of this (the nausea with the first baby lasted until 30 weeks), I have a strong feeling that hidden psychological issues and beliefs played a large role in my hyperemesis in pregnancy.
I had a third pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. I had no nausea with it, and I had a strong feeling this was a bad sign–and it was! Some nausea clearly is a good sign, at least for me.
I am more inclined to think that most or all of these theories could be correct, and each individual situation is different. I have suffered from adrenal fatigue for years and have notably low magnesium levels, but have never experienced severe morning sickness. When I do get to feeling nauseated, it seems to be a low blood sugar issue, for me. (Magnesium is important, regardless, for lots of other reasons! Too-low mag can, for instance, prompt premature labor.)
If you’re going to take oral magnesium, though, chelated magnesium is better-assimilated by the body than “regular” magnesium.
I would consider going gluten-free to avoid morning sickness. I haven’t thrown up at all this pregnancy, and the main difference was that I went gluten-free beforehand. There is also a connection between gluten intolerance and gallbladder problems.
This type of information really interestes me! I would love to win this giveaway!
I would love to have this book to prepare for pregnancy!
Planning to have a baby soon for the first time, so it will be a blessing to have this book!!! =)
I could definitely use this!!
Hi! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a wonderful job!|
I happened to take Douglas Labs Magnesium Glycinate (recommended by Chris kresser) and topical Mg oil for a year before getting pregnant. I am now almost done with my first trimester and haven’t felt the least bit nauseous once! It’s my first so I have nothing to compare my experience with but I do feel great.