(Please remember that this post contains my personal experiences and opinions and is not intended as a how-to or an educational article. I am not a doctor (of human animals) nor a registered dietician – nor do I wish to be!)
Just over a year ago I had a few dreams about eating meat. At the time I was eating a pescatarian diet. I had never been much of a meat eater, even as a child I had ordered salads from the adult’s menu while the other kids were happy with sausages and chips from the kid’s menu. I used to hate the smell when mum was cooking mince and I always avoided helping with cutting up the meat. (You can read a little about my reasons for not eating meat at the bottom of the article.)
As an adult being a yoga practitioner it felt right for me to eat ‘lightly’ however my nutritional training and knowledge meant that I knew I was going to be lacking some vital nutrients if I didn’t include some animal protein. To compromise, fish, shellfish and dairy foods provided me with highly digestible protein, omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, calcium, iron and zinc – all of which are hard to eat and/or absorb adequate amounts of on a strict vegetarian diet. However one morning towards the end of the year I sat bolt upright feeling terrible that I had eaten a chicken overnight! Of course I hadn’t but I had dreamt it pretty vividly and therefore had an awful feeling of guilt when I woke up. I assumed that I was probably lacking in protein being quite an active person and so I started using a protein powder a few times a week or when I found I was running low on time to prepare a good meal. Yet recommending a paleo-based diet to all of my nutrition clients and avoiding meat myself felt more and more wrong and I really knew that at some point I was probably going to start eating meat again.
The decision was made for me when I fell pregnant and received my initial blood test results. All was fine except for very low ferritin (a measure of the amount of iron stored in the body) and low haemoglobin levels (haemoglobin carries oxygen in the blood). I had always felt that if my iron levels became low and something had to be done, then I would change my diet rather than take supplements. I never went so far as to have my iron levels checked pre-pregnancy as I generally felt well and enjoyed good health and immunity. (It doesn’t help that I am severely needle phobic – my trip to the doctors to get this initial pregnancy blood test involved crying for a good hour before, during and after the blood test and then promptly falling asleep on the floor for two and a half hours after just lying down for a minute… I also ended up with a light head cold two days later! Stress!!) So looking at the results, knowing what I probably already knew, now I actually felt foolish. My body had clearly told me something needed to change a good year ago and I pushed the intuition down and continued stubbornly on my way. Only a week or so later I was introduced to all of the crazy hormonal changes of pregnancy and I found myself often exhausted, easily breathless and with a racing heart after doing almost nothing. Needless to say, my day’s worth of food is a little different to what it was last year.
Things to note in my current diet: Increasing sources of heme-iron, increasing absorption of non-heme iron with foods high in vitamin C and avoiding coffee (went off it in first trimester anyway, not giving up tea though!), ensuring I eat regularly and generally eating a few more carbs than usual. However no amount of carbs will likely match the number consumed in my first trimester…
Yep this happened!
Day 1:
Breakfast – 2 sourdough + butter + peanut butter and banana.
1/2 cup orange juice + iron tablet.
Lunch – Savoury mince (mince, carrot, zucchini, onion, passata, garlic) + sweet potato. Apple.
Banana.
Dinner – Smoked cod with onions, peas, potato.
Cod liver oil, probiotics.
Magnesium chews throughout the day.
Day 2:
First thing – Homemade chai – whole milk, black tea, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, grated ginger, honey.
1/2 cup grapefruit juice + iron tablet.
Breakfast – 2 sourdough + butter + jam. 😛
Lunch – Two sausages, roast pumpkin and Brussel sprouts with tomato relish. Watermelon.
Dinner – Beef curry with homemade paste (coriander/cumin/fenugreek/mustard seeds, turmeric, pepper, fresh garlic, ginger, coriander stalks, coconut oil) and coconut cream, sweet potato, potato and pumpkin. Pappadums (lentil flour).
Plain yoghurt.
Cod liver oil, probiotics.
Magnesium chews throughout the day.
Day 3:
Breakfast – Pre-soaked hot oats with sultanas, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, milk.
Banana.
Lunch – Eggs with silverbeet, mushrooms and buttered sourdough.
Blueberries and raspberries.
Dinner – Lamb chops with garlic, carrots and oranges.
Magnesium, probiotics.
And if I’ve been a good girl…
Side note – I didn’t intend to post about the ethics of eating animals… but I wound up writing this: As an ex-veterinarian I do know how the industries work, have worked with cattle, dairy, sheep and goat farmers and visited numerous abattoirs during my training. I don’t agree with certain aspects of the intensive farming of livestock that is common practice nowadays. Having said that there are many, many unfair mis-conceptions about farmers’ treatment of animals, what are ‘common farming practices’ and how humane the slaughter process is. I also dislike the general over-consumption of meat in the West due to our “ignorance is bliss” approach to eating animals and the convenience of protein portions being provided in neat packages at the supermarkets, entirely removing the consumer from any deeper thought process or appreciation for the animal. In the natural world, humans have always had to work hard for a meal that contains an animal, the animal is a prized source of nutrition (particularly the organs which were traditionally consumed first), appreciated and shared and certainly none of the animal would go to waste.