Real Food for Gestational Diabetes: An Effective Alternative to the Conventional Nutrition Approach

I am so happy to have discovered this book. When I got pregnant I had a good idea of how to eat to keep my blood sugar steady, but this guide was invaluable in its advice and insight on how to build a diet that not only kept blood sugar in a healthy range, but offered the most nutritional bang for your buck for mom and baby. The focus on what to ADD as opposed to just what to avoid was a welcome and insightful addition. Not to mention the fact that reading it made me feel understood and validated in my choices, when seemingly everyone around me was pushing the status quo. For the past four years I’ve been focusing on eating real, whole foods. I’ve cut out gluten and most grains, reduced my sugar intake drastically, and found a level of health and comfort in my body I never thought possible. Throughout this time, my husband and I were also trying to conceive. It took a long time, but we were thrilled to find out we are expecting our first child several months ago. Since then, I’ve continued eating pretty well. My appetite took quite a hit the first trimester, but I avoided morning sickness for the most part. I was surprised at my lack of crazy cravings. From my experience over the last few years, I knew my body does not handle refined sugar or processed grain products well. Those foods are also pretty devoid of nutrition so I keep these types of foods to a minimum, although I no longer think of them as “bad” or “never”. That tends to insight my inner toddler who doesn’t want to be told “no”. Instead, I try to eat what makes me feel best at any given time. It works for me! Knowing this, I had a bad, bad feeling about having to do the diabetes testing done during pregnancy. My doctor does the 1 hour glucose tolerance screening followed by the 3 hour test if your first results cause concern. I did the first screening (despite my reservations) and my results came back high. I was not surprised that my body didn’t know what to do with all that glucose all at once. Ironically, if I was taxing my body with a high carb diet on a daily basis, I’d probably do OK on the test. My body just wasn’t used to dealing with that load. At this point, I decided to take a stand and refuse the three hour test. It sounded miserable and I knew I’d fail. It took some serious negotiating, but my doctor finally allowed me to get a blood sugar meter and just test 4 times a day to see how I was handling the food I was actually eating (I requested this from the get-go but was shot down earlier). Basically, she agreed to treat me “like” a gestational diabetic but would hold off with an official diagnosis as long as my numbers stayed in range. That was when I found this wonderful book! As a result of following the advice in this book, I have kept my blood sugar steady and my doctor is happy! Whether you have an official diagnosis of GD or not, following this author’s protocol is perfect for any pregnant woman. We all want to do the best for ourselves and our new little ones. This is a great way to start! Thank you!

I was diagnosed with GD at 32 weeks. Got the phone call, and then they tell me I will them in almost a MONTH for my first appointment. Okay? GD is no joke, and I was so beyond frustrated that they would just leave me hanging for almost a full month after giving me a diagnosis like that and having a prescription for meter and strips sent to the pharmacy that day. Thank God for this book because I was able to start implementing the diet and blood sugar parameters immediately. Thanks to the information in it, I was able to be diet only controlled. So I get to the first meeting with the dietician and they were shocked at my numbers and that I had been tracking for 3 weeks on my own already. They then gave me their info and it was so bad. Sugar Free foods were all "freebies" so they pushed those. Except that I can't eat fake sugar because it literally makes me sick. Stevia makes me projectile vomit, aspertame gives me headaches. Aside from the fact that I don't believe in eating that stuff because it's so bad for you. The carb amounts were so high that I would have absolutely been on insulin [which is FINE if you need to be, but this was entirely preventable in my case] and the guidance looked like it came from the 60s. I spoke to a family member who was a diabetic counselor and she said everything I was doing from this book was spot on with what she recommends to people and that the outdated guidelines are really bad, and not to use those. So if you get diagnosed, buy yourself this book. It will give you clear info and is MUCH better and more current than most hospitals give. Our baby was NOT gigantic like everyone kept telling me. I did have high amniotic fluid, probably from GD. But I was diagnosed late, and baby was totally fine. She weighed 8 lbs and was totally normal. No blood sugar issues and mine returned completely to normal after she born. This book is absolutely worth every penny and gave me a clear plan when my hospital left me hanging.

Excellent book! She gives excellent explanations of eating low carb and explains the Why’s and How’s to do it. I stuck to the methodology and only had high blood sugar when I ate something I knew I shouldn’t (baked potato, kit kat, pho with noodles, etc.) and it only happened 4 times my entire pregnancy. I avoided those foods after realizing how much they increased blood sugar. I was able to keep my blood sugar under 120 and never had a high fasting blood sugar in the mornings. The recipes were good, too. I wish there would have been more; since I needed something else to make, I followed recipes on DietDoctor.com. They also recommend this book and author. On a side note, I’m 38, this was my 2nd pregnancy and i didn’t have GD with my first baby. I was shocked I had GD as I wasn’t overweight before I got pregnant and my only risk factors were age (over 25) and my dad has type 2 diabetes. The nutrition advice I received through insurance and the hospital I went to was from 1982, I swear. They recommended 175 grams of carbs per day (!) and low-fat food. I wasn’t even eating that many carbs when I was diagnosed with GD! They also recommended margarine over butter and instant microwaveable breakfast sandwiches as a healthy option...what?! Processed foods are terrible in general, especially for pregnant women with GD. Blew my mind. I had previously done keto, so was very familiar with low carb eating. I was appalled that the healthcare system is still recommending such a garbage diet, especially to pregnant women.

Having just been diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes I needed a book that had all the key information. This book is heavy on the explanation but has helpful information on snacks and a few recipes to try at the end of the book. I feel more informed for my diabetes appointment and how to try to manage my blood glucose levels.

When I found out I had gestational diabetes I FREAKED out. The conventional advice given to me by the hospital seemed to spike me more than assist in managing my blood sugar levels and the answers given to me when I asked questions did not sit true. This book was a God send providing me with information which made sense, supported my belief of eating good wholefoods and finding a balance between what the hospital was telling me and staying true to myself. It took a lot of the stress out of having GD. I recommend it to anyone who is on the GD journey. Most importantly, this book isn’t some crazy person providing advice based on a whim. All her opinions are backed by peer reviewed research which I love!

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This is the only book that exactly aligned with my goals, cleared my fears out of my own understanding of the correct low carb diet that worked for me.

I really enjoyed reading this book, IT gave me a lot of Support in better understanding what was going on in my body. Within days of practicing what she says in this book, I could See my numbers drop, not only that, for the first time in my pregnancy I didn't feel nauseous anymore.