What to Eat While Breastfeeding – The Best Foods for Milk Supply (Episode #4)

So do you need to eat Oreos? No. Oreo is something that you shouldn't eat. I don't know that's up to you, but let's talk about macros. Macros are carbs, protein, and fats. So my favorite macro is fat. I think fat is super duper important and it's super overlooked. But let's talk about the other two as well.

Protein's also extremely important when it comes to maintaining all of the bodily functions that we have. We think of protein like the building block of everything else. Carbs and fat are fuel, but protein's, what we build with. So having really good protein stores in our body is really important.

You probably could eat closer to whatever your lean body weight would be, as in if you were just super fit, like bikini model, like how many pounds would you weigh, eat that many if you want to eat the amount of protein that your body weight is. I have a lot of clients who they are not. Uh, add a lean body weight, let's say.

And they're eating as many grams of protein as they weigh because that's what feels good for them. So we wouldn't think of protein as like, we definitely wanna eat enough, and if we eat a bit more in most cases, that's completely fine. Of course. Quick disclaimer, I'm not a registered dietician and I'm not a nutritionist and I'm not someone who thinks that you have to talk to either of those people to get information about nutrition, but I just wanna say that.

Carbs are also extremely important. Carbs are so important for our hormones, for our stress response. They're really, really valuable for most people. With that said, I am very comfortable supporting moms who are doing a ketogenic or carnivore diet for whatever reason that they choose to do it. I'm not anti low carb diets whatsoever, but I think we need to understand the why behind how we're choosing to eat.

So if you're thinking about choosing a low carb diet, just be curious about. The effects on your supply, the effects on your stress, all of those things, and make an informed decision. And if you are breastfeeding, definitely work with a lactation consultant like myself who is trained and experienced in supporting moms who are on lower carb diets.

People that we wanna focus on. Whole grain carbs and complex carbs. And while that can be very true, a lot of times postpartum, some of the best carbs to consume are simple carbs. Things like fruit, fruit that's ripe. We don't wanna be eating green bananas. We don't wanna be eating like. Hard peaches that we get at the store wouldn't eat ripe fruit that nature would want us to eat if we went out and picked it off the tree.

So ripe fruit, things like honey maple syrup, even sugar. Dare I say, I have a lot of moms who struggle with sleep, and so this was not what this podcast was about, but you guys are about to get a really juicy little tidbit here. A very helpful tip. I have a lot of moms who struggle with sleep. And if they wake up in the night and they can't fall back asleep.

So, so helpful for helping you sleep because a lot of times when you wake up at night, it's like a cortisol situation or it's like a blood sugar situation related to cortisol. And so if you can just tell your body like we've got the fuel. Typically you can fall back asleep really easily. So I skipped a bit over protein in terms of what proteins are best. So in my opinion, when we're focusing on any nutrients, any macro, any mineral. Anything we wanna focus on bioavailability of the nutrient.

So when we're thinking of protein, we wanna be focused on bioavailable protein. I know you've probably had a vegan friend or a vegetarian friend who tells you just how much protein is in broccoli or spinach or whatever. But if you look at the volume of broccoli that you would have to consume, it's really staggering compared to the amount of ground beef or eggs.

Bio available to your body, as in your body could use it. Well, so that's not saying that you have to eat meat if you're a vegan or vegetarian. I have lots of clients who are that way too. I have nothing against that. But it's worth keeping in mind and adjusting your nutrition plan and how you eat and how you nourish yourself accordingly.

'cause it's really important. So we talked about protein and we talked about carbs. Let's talk about my favorite. I save the best for last. Fat. I have so many moms who come to me and they're telling me that they're eating oatmeal and that they're doing the brewer's yeast, and that they're eating these lactation balls and they're eating, lactation brownies and lactation cookies and all these lovely things.

And they're like, well, do you think I should eat more oatmeal? And I'm like, no, I think you should put some butter in your oatmeal. Like butter is where it's at. Butter is so good for us. It has so many fat-soluble vitamins. Butter is my favorite. Butter is so good. Like the best. So why is butter so good?

It's a hormonal cascade that tells us to make more milk or less milk. That tells us, oh, let's use all of this now. I'm not gonna get too in the weeds, but let's use all this pregnant alone for cortisol instead of progesterone, or instead of whatever. So it's like we're starting at the top and we're going down and we wanna make sure that we're giving our body.

Everything. It needs to make enough of each hormone that it needs for us to produce enough milk. So eat enough fat. Now is not the time to be doing any of that. Almond mom, low fat nonsense. Full fat, dairy, butter, coconut oil, avocado, whatever. Nuts and seeds you like, if you tolerate those well, fatty cuts of fish, fatty cuts of meat, all of those things are so, so good for you and will make you feel so much better.

You're gonna have a hard time sleeping, and everything else in your life is going to be affected by that lack of nutrition. So what I'm really big on though is nuance. While I definitely think eating grass fed beef and raw milk and you know, local produce, all those things are really great. What we really wanna think about nutrition as is like a good, better, best.

So maybe you don't like raw milk or you can't afford raw milk. This is not a discussion of that really, but like that's. You know, the, the pinnacle, in my opinion, you're allowed to have your own opinion, but that's my opinion. Raw milk is the best. Right? So let's say I can't afford raw milk. Well, okay, I could get organic, low temp pasteurized milk at the store, let's say that's still kind of out of my budget.

What we have available to us. Some of us have more, accessibility to in season produce depending on where we live. Some of us have more access to pasture raised meats depending on where we live, and some of us are just trying to make our food budget stretch as far as it can. And wherever you are, that's totally fine.

Focusing on really good quality. Nutrients in terms of bioavailable. So good quality protein, good quality fat, good quality carbs as best you can is gonna make a big, big difference. Does this mean you can never have your diet Coke? No. I have plenty of moms who, and I had a mom just the other day send me a picture of her Zika coconut water next to her diet Dr.

A couple of the magnesiums that I've used and that I really like personally, I prefer magnesium glycinate because I find it to be more calming. Magnesium malate can be really good if you're a little bit sleepy with the glycinate. So typically when I'm talking and working with moms, I suggest getting both.

So that you can have your morning magnesium for when you need a little bit more energy. And then your evening magnesium for when you wanna wind down a little bit. So beyond that, my next favorite supplement probably is gonna have you either being like, hell yeah, or like.

Ew. So my next favorite thing I would say is dried beef liver. So like desiccated beef liver. I know that a lot of people are like, Ew, that's gross. Or like WTF. Why would you wanna have that? But beef liver really is nature's multivitamin. If you're feeling really good on your prenatal vitamin, then by all means, like stick with that.

So I take mine in a desiccated, format because that is a lot more palatable. I'll link my favorite desiccated beef liver in the show notes as well. Next to that, I guess we're just gonna go through the foods that maybe people either love or hate, would be oyster extract. Selenium is extremely important to our thyroid function, and our thyroid function really governs our metabolism, which governs hormone production.

So having enough selenium and zinc and all of those other awesome minerals is really, really important. So I also really like an oyster extract supplement. So it's literally like dried and ground up oysters shoved in a little. Pill capsule, and you take it if you're someone who likes canned oysters, which I actually do.

Really great. You really can get by with consuming oysters like once or twice a week and have sufficient selenium and zinc that way. Another source of selenium and zinc that, can be really awesome if you handle nuts well and you don't like oysters, is Brazil nuts.

So I would say those are really, really important. Beyond that, I would say whatever other things you feel you need, like if you, have been told you're deficient in something or you read about something or whatever other supplements, totally do your own research and make your own decisions there. But those are just my big ones that I think are super duper important.

Water that has minerals added to it, water that has electrolytes added to it, things like bone broth, juice, soups and stews and whatnot made with, you know, bones and different parts of animals. That's really great. Making sure you're drinking enough, really good quality water is super important. You do not wanna be drowning yourself like a Jimbo.

You wanna be drinking to thirst, and if you're excessively thirsty, it could be caused by something else, a lot of times from undereating, or stress, that sort of thing. So you definitely wanna be having good quality water in addition to all of that. One food item that I forgot since, I guess I'm just gonna be throwing out all the weird stuff, is, seaweed.

Seaweed is really great. So if you like kobu or wakame, any of those things are really great. If you like the little nori sheets that your kids probably, if you're like, kids are like mine. You have I packed from the store and then they're gone. Like before you even get home from the grocery store, anything like that.

Those can be a really awesome way to get all the minerals and protein in one go. And if you're a creative, you can add things like, fatty meats and some cooked potatoes or cooked rice, and then you hit all your things in one go again. I just wanna make sure that listening to this has made you feel better and not overwhelmed.

You can make one little change at a time. Let's say you have margarine in your fridge right now, that's probably not the most nutritious thing for you in terms of supporting your supply. If you're someone who just loves margarine or you're like one of the clients I had recently where your mom is like, well, you have to use margarine.

You can't butter, you know, educate yourself and and play around with it. Try some butter and see how you feel. Like you don't have to make big shifts overnight, but any little step or switch that you can make towards a more supportive food is gonna be better for you and it's gonna be better for your baby.

And I remember watching. What the hell is that show called? The show at Tyra Banks America's Next Top Model Maybe. Yeah. And like seeing this skinny, skinny woman have, like these men tell her that she like couldn't be a model because she had too much belly fat. And I was like, what the heck? Like what if she's, if she's fat, like what am I, so a lot of us have this.

Mental trash, like in our brains around nutrition and around how much to eat. But postpartum is not the time to be limiting when you have a little baby, who eventually is gonna be a big baby and then a child and a teenager, you wanna model really good, healthy. Relationships with food, and I'm not saying that you drink green juice every day and that you only eat Pasteur raised meat.

So don't feel like you have to limit yourself around nutrition. You should eat enough. Your child deserves to have a mom who's nourished. You deserve to be a woman who's nourished. So I hope you can use all this information to make some shifts in areas that you feel like you need some shifts or just reaffirming that. Yeah, eat more. Get that second plate of food, like nourish yourself. You deserve it. I really hope you all found this useful because I love talking about nutrition.