Michel Odent has written quite a bit about this problem of toxins
stored in fat and their release during weight loss, especially in
relation to preconception care. He has even developed a strategy for
preparing the body for pregnancy that involves ridding the body of
these toxins - he's called it The Accordian Method".
I am not in the office at present, but I can give you a reference
from his Primal Health Newsletter - one issue (from memory) was
devoted to these ideas. He has references as well. Will try and find
it and post it to the list.
Cheers
Andrea
At 02:04 PM 29/01/2006, you wrote:
Hi all,
I have been through my lactation textbooks, which are getting a bit
ancient I must admit, regarding the safety or otherwise of dieting
in pregnancy question. I was able to find a reference to toxins in
breastmilk in Breastfeeding Matters by Maureen Minchin on p28-30 "A
baby's exposure to toxins may be increased if his mother diets
sufficiently to break down body fat during lactation, as fat-soluble
chemicals may be excreted in milk. Hence mothers should not aim at
rapid weight loss during lactation. " It is easier for chemicals to
get to the foetus than it is for them to get to breast fed infants,
so one may assume that there is some degree of risk during pregnancy
from dieting IF there are pesticides in the mother's fat stores. It
may be difficult to assess the degree of risk for a particular
woman, but loss of large amounts of fat, particularly fat that has
been there a long time, during pregnancy may be inadvisable.
I have been trawling through some websites I obtained from a google
search and it seems that pesticides in human milk (and presumably in
everyone's bodies) are dropping, as many have been banned from use.
However the number of sites that I found indicate that this has been
of concern to many poeple. Worth a look, but I think the risks are
fairly small unless a woman has been working with the chemicals
herself or perhaps if she lives on a farm where they have used a lot
of these chemicals in the past (they take a long time to break down).
On the other side of the coin, I did some searches about dieting in
pregnancy and came up with this website for plus-size women:
<http://www.plus-size-pregnancy.org/Dieting_and_Pregnancy.html#Dieting%20During%20Pregnancy>http://www.plus-size-pregnancy.org/Dieting_and_Pregnancy.html#Dieting%20During%20Pregnancy
The other websites which mentioned dieting in pregnancy advised
against it due to the additional nutritional requirements of the
mother due to the needs of the fetus and physiological changes in
the mother. Personally, I always lose weight (up to 10kg) at the
start of my pregnancies due to 'morning sickness'. I usually regain
this weight, plus a little more, mainly in the last month. My
pregnancy outcomes seem to be fine (kids now 7-19 years old).
From all of this I think it probably inadvisable to lose large
amounts of weight during pregnancy, and particularly for women who
may have had exposure to harmful chemicals. However, a small weight
loss, such as that achieved by Judy's friend (6kg), particularly if
they are gradual, might be OK. It seems like an area that could do
with some more research, however, it is not a topic that lends
itself to a randomised controlled trial!
Regards,
Nicole.
-----
Andrea Robertson
Director
Birth International * ACE Graphics * Associates in Childbirth Education
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web: www.birthinternational.com
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