Any expecting or lactating mother simply needs to have a well-balanced diet. Meat need not come into the argument. Eat it or leave it – that is not the point. Broad-based and balanced, in quantity and quality, that is the crux of the matter. However, if meat and / or dairy products are not normally part of your diet, you simply need to make sure that you eat plenty of the foods which contain high quantities of complex carbohydrates, complementary proteins, calcium, iron, vitamins, minerals. For a non-meat eater this simply equates to a nice daily mix of whole grains, pulses, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, fresh fruit and vegetables, with dairy or soy substitutes if you wish. That’s all there is to it.
   As regards the vegan diet – which I do not consider appropriate for a pregnant woman as it does not include any animal food sources – there will be certain nutritional deficiencies which will require additional supplements.
   The whole of Chapter 8 is devoted to the issue of food and diet in general, as applicable to all people at all times. If any woman were to read and implement the dietary recommendations in it, there would be no need for any special recommendations, adjustments or supplements during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

Food Cravings
   For someone with a healthy body and a reasonably good diet there need be little disruption to normal eating habits. However, the problem is what defines “healthy” and what defines “good diet”. What happens during pregnancy is that low quality foods or bad eating habits, which may have been tolerated under normal conditions (or were not noticed) become intolerable (or brought to notice) when needing to build a foetus. Enormous chemical changes are required following conception, and both your body and the foetus are pre-programmed to demand what they need.
   Personally, I don’t believe in the way cravings are popularly portrayed – “It’s OK because it’s just your body catching up on what it needs”. This is a very simplistic interpretation, and one which can lead to further dietary imbalance, thoughtless over-indulgence, and an easy excuse for “comfort eating”. The combination of obvious intolerance to some things, strong demand for others and the natural increase in hunger which pregnancy brings, is all too frequently interpreted as unexplainable hormonal cravings which have to be satisfied for the good of the baby. Some examples might be:
• A particular craving for bananas may
 

really be a need for more potassium which may just as easily be satisfied within a properly balanced day’s food which includes (for example) some brown rice and root vegetables. It can also just be a subtle way of having lots of bananas on hand (sorry!) as a convenient thing to scoff down whenever you feel bored or depressed – but all in the name of the baby, of course!
• A craving for deep fried chips may simply be a need for the salt you normally shake all over them. The potatoes, fatty oils, mayonnaise, tomato sauce and lemon juice, which just happen to come with the salt, might in fact be doing you no good at all.
• Milk shakes and ice cream are frequently justified as cravings for what the baby needs, but the protein and / or calcium boost you may be unconsciously craving could be satisfied far better (and with less sugars) by soy-based products and whole grains.
• Sometimes cravings can manifest as a rejection of all things rich, and a need to return to simple and bland things like boiled rice, dry biscuits, pasta. This sort of need is indicative of the digestive system requiring a break from foods which might usually bring on nausea. Cutting back to bland, light, simple meals is OK – for a while, and up to a point – but try to do that in balance with the inclusion of lightly steamed greens, salads and lots of fresh or poached fruits.
   It is very hard to tell specifically what any particular craving might mean, in terms of micro nutrients or food chemistry. But what that craving is really telling you is that your body chemistry is presently way out of balance due to your past and present diet. A person with balanced body chemistry before pregnancy, and who makes a few intuitive dietary adjustments during it, will have no cravings – other than a healthy increase in appetite. As well as myself, I have met many women for whom this was the case, and the common thread was their quality, well balanced diet prior to and during pregnancy.
   Given that each baby will be invested with his / her own individual nature, some of a pregnant woman’s intuitive dietary adjustments may in fact be coming from the baby itself. One factor which might explain a mother craving certain foods during pregnancy she may not normally eat, is that she has a foetus in her which is the sum of her partner and all their familial ancestors, and that foetus may require elements its own diet which are different to your own at present. In families who have migrated from one culture or climate to another, there may be dietary throw-backs to previous generational needs.