The Benefits of Eating Eggs During Pregnancy

Superfoods: Eggs

Recommendation:

The “Diet for Pregnant and Nursing Mothers” recommends “2 or more eggs daily, preferably from pastured chickens” and “additional egg yolks daily, added to smoothies, salad dressings, scrambled eggs, etc.”

Nutrition and Fun Facts:

“Many pregnant and nursing moms in the Orient eat twelve eggs per day,” writes Simontacchi, who adds, they “know that eggs, rich in saturated fats, are a brain food.”

Dr. Mercola also recommends, “A very important food for pregnancy [is] raw eggs.”

Egg yolk is considered the brain food for the growing infant. Similar to fish oils, Fallon and Enig say eggs are “an excellent source of special long-chain fatty acids called EPA and DHA, which play a vital role in the development of the nervous system in the infant.”

“Properly produced eggs are rich in just about every nutrient we have yet discovered,” write Fallon and Enig. Eggs are a fantastic source of nutrients needed for the growing baby: cholesterol, essential fatty acids, protein, calcium, iron and Vitamins A, D, E, and K. Fallon and Enig add that eggs provide “sulphur-containing proteins, necessary for the integrity of cell membranes.”

Fallon and Enig add that it’s important for eggs to be from pasture fed chickens, “so they can eat bugs and worms.” Because the appropriate essential fatty acid ratios are so important to the developing infant, they warn against using conventionally farmed eggs.

Like milk products, Fallon and Enig say “It’s fine to eat raw yolks of fresh eggs,” blaming salmonella scares on “crowded production methods” of conventionally farmed chickens that “require extensive use of antibiotics in feed.” They continue, “Eggs from pasture-fed hens pose no danger provided they have been properly refrigerated.”

Like discussed in Chapter 30-Stressed, Hormoned, and Drugged Animals and Chapter 34-Pasteurization, the issue with raw versus cooked eggs seems to be that “Bacteria thrive in unsanitary conditions. Make sure you know the farm where your foods come from.”

Notes:

Hay tells the pregnant woman not to eat conventional eggs—“the antibiotics and dyes [used] to color their yolks…are toxic to you and baby.” Also, in order for eggs to achieve the correct fatty acid ratio, they must be truly free-range, preferably from a small farm, where chickens have access to eat insects and grubs.

Preparation:

Hay recommends pregnant moms to “eat the yolks raw in smoothies or just crack the egg into your hand, let the white run through your fingers and swallow the yolk down. The precious B Vitamins will stay intact this way. Though adding water or milk to the shake is fine, it is possible to make an “Egg-Shake” using only raw eggs for the liquid. If eating a larger number of raw eggs, Fallon and Enig recommend boiling them for one minute. This breaks down factors which can interfere with vitamin-B or protein digestion when egg whites are eaten in large quantities. Otherwise, there is no restriction to eating egg yolks as long as you know the farm where they come from.

Strawberry Egg Shake

• Boil 6 Eggs for 1 minute
• Blend eggs with 1-Part FROZEN Broccoli or Spinach (compared to the strawberries in step 3)
• While blending:
  1. Add one big scoop honey
  2. Add FROZEN Strawberries until you’ve added 4 or 5-parts, allowing shake to thicken to desired consistency

Shake Notes: Any fruits and any vegetables can work, so have fun experimenting; we’ve used mango, peach, and raspberry. Also, you don’t have to add any vegetable, but it’s a handy way to get some additional nutrients. Bananas add creaminess to the consistency as well as sweetness, although their taste can quickly take over. The honey brings out the flavor of the berries. This is also a great opportunity to throw in other superfoods for the fun of it, like kelp, bee pollen, and other powdered or fermented foods.

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