My wife is due in December and we are seriously considering LCing. We both have seen what LC can do, but we are so nervous to do this durring pregnancy because we have been wanting this for so long. PLEASE help me by soothing my concerns.


1. What is so important about whole grain wheat? All I hear about is the fiber, but if you look at WW bread it only has a couple more grams than white bread. My wife eats more veggies than anything and i know she gets her fiber from them. Is there something she'll be missing?

2. I'm sure she shouldn't eat induction levels of carbs, but is there a limit you guys would keep yourself above?

3. Are there any kinds of fats she needs to get? Avoid?

Basicaly she was going to eat fresh meats, lots of veggies, some fruit (mainly apples and pears), and get her dairy from cheese. We get milk from WIC, and since her family comes from dairy farmers so she wants to get skim milk and make her own cottage cheese. I also mentioned making flax seed bread (that'll put some fiber in your diet). Does anyone see any problems with this?

Lastly, what are the arguments against LCing durring pregnancy? I am not looking for what I want to hear, I'd like honest answers. Thank you all so much for your help in advance. God bless!

I can't type well tonight (just got shots in my wrists) but wanted to say congrats and reassure you that what you have planned for your wife sounds GREAT. A bunch of us here have done different levels of carbs through our pregnancies - there is another thread here you should look at that is fairly recent, it'll have an obvious label.

Overall the diet you mentioned sounds very healthy and as long as she's comfortable eating that (no morning sickness issues) I say enjoy in good health! Fats are important for a pregnant woman but I'd just be cautious of fish oils. (You can see what fish to avoid or keep low quantity for the duration of the pregnancy on almost any pregnant-food-advice list out there on the internet and in pregnancy mags.) I can't for the life of me think she'd be missing anything with bread, but she may crave it. LOL The level of carbs? Well that is very personal. I can't say for sure though I'd say that most commonly I think the lower range was probably 50-75 with many coming in closer to 100. But again this is all over the charts. My first trimester I was much much lower and with ElleH she LCed pretty low in her subsequent trimesters after morning sickness was better. I hope what I've written is a step in the right direction in terms of reassurrance. Good luck and good health to you both!!

She doesn't NEED wwbread, unless she wants it. You can get plenty of fiber from green fibrous veggies, berries, avocado. Lots of fiber will help with constipation, one of the fun side effects of pregnancy hormones. But some ww bread won't hurt, especially if she's eating it with some protein and fat.
I wouldn't go lower than 60g total, lower than that can, in some people, mess with the thyroid. Most experts will recommend a pregnant woman eat enough carbs to stay out of ketosis, which would be at least 100gC. That is important if you are worried about ketosis--see my last point.Avoid trans-fats like the plague--nasty stuff. Not good for YOU either, Fish oil supplementation is actually a really good idea for both pregnancy and lactation. The growing fetus will get his omega 3 needs filled at the expense of your wife, so she'll need extra. Part of the reason for "Mommy Brain", IMO. She should make sure to get it from a reputable brand to avoid contaminants, etc. For this same reason, the experts suggest pregnant and lactating women limit if not eliminate their actual fish intake.

Since the omega 3's can affect blood clotting, it's wise for a pregnant woman to stop taking supplementation a few weeks prior to delivery, just in case.
Nope! Although full fat milk is better, IMO--slows down the rate of carbs to the bloodstream, and there is evidence that the fat in dairy helps with the absorption of the calcium.
No one really knows what the effects of ketosis is on the fetus because no one can ethically study it. So all they can do is guess, and rather be safe than sorry, the docs will caution against ketosis while pregnant.

The thing is, a lot of women are in ketosis frequently in the first trimester due to morning sickness, etc., and babies turn out fine. I was in deep ketosis when I got pregnant with #2 and #3, and they're totally healthy. As Lisa above mentioned, ElleH has written a lot about her experiences with low carb pregnancies, too.

My opinion on this is I would prefer to not be in ketosis while pregnant, but if I happen to be, I don't worry about it--just increase my carbs a little.

Good luck to you, your wife, and your impending wee one!

Thank you both for your posts.

We don't prefer skim milk, but I THINK skim milk is the only thing you can make cottage cheese out of. At least all the recipes we've seen used it.

Not true. It's just us fat-fixated types who want low fat or fat-free cottage cheese. In Poland, you can buy cottage cheese of all sorts of fat concentration up to about 20%. Much tastiest too.

SWEET! Thanks

I found this on a web site, and many others look the same.

Cottage chese should be made using skim milk, because the cream solids don't stay in the curds, it stays with the whey. A gallon of skim milk will make about a pound of cottage cheese. If you are planning to use raw milk, let it set for a while and then skim off the cream to use later in your finished cottage cheese.

With Alton Brown's recipe he mentioned that once you form the curd you mix in some dairy (half and half, or heavy cream) to serve it with. Pretty simple to make though.

I made a batch of cottage cheese tonight and it was great. Helen if you find one of your higher fat cottage cheese recipes please share them. I just couldn't find one.

I never tried making it, I just buy it in the Polish shops.

The cheese that turned out is completely dry. I'm sure the fat in it comes from the liquid added. We use heavy cream. I like the dry curds by themselves. But, then again I never liked traditional cottage cheese.