Give your baby a head start- Essential fats all mums should know about.
BY COREEN TIMM,CO-OWNER OF HEALTHY LIVING HEALTH SHOP
DID YOU KNOW THAT your intake of essential fats has a direct effect on your child’s IQ? If you want to create a healthy intelligent baby, eating the right kind of fats is absolutely vital. Like you, a baby’s brain and nervous system are composed primarily of fats, and their hearts and blood vessels are also rich in fatty membranes.
While it’s important to ensure an adequate supply through life, there’s no more important time than before and during pregnancy.
It’s wise to correct any deficiency before you conceive, because not only are these fats needed for a healthy hormone balance (necessary to help you get pregnant in the first place) as soon as you are pregnant your baby will need a good supply, especially in the crucial first three months of development when the brain and nervous and cardiovascular systems are forming.
In a developing baby, essential fats (also known as essential fatty acids, EFAs) are needed to construct the membranes of all cells and are particularly key to the development of brain and nerve tissue.
Yet despite all these crucial roles for EFTs in general health and pregnancy, many of us are fat-phobic. And while we should be phobic about eating ‘bad’ fat, restricting all fats means depriving yourself and your baby of essential health-giving nutrients and increasing your risk of poor health. In fact unless you go out of your way to eat the right kind of fat-rich foods – such as seeds, nuts and fish – the chances are you‘re seriously deficient.
The easiest way to get a good daily balance of essential fats before, during and after pregnancy (and while breast feeding) is to have a heaped tablespoon of ground mixed seeds and an omega 3 supplement that provides at least 400mg of EPA and 200 mg of DHA. (this should be pharmaceutical grade to prevent you getting any mercury into the bargain) this is usually an expensive supplement as the cheap ones are not pharmaceutically spun.
To make and omega 3/6 rich seed mix, put one measure each of sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds and two measures of flaxseeds into a sealed
jar and keep in the fridge. Grind a tablespoon FRESH every day in a coffee grinder and add to your breakfast every morning. Do not EVER use flaxseed oil, the whole seeds are wonderful. This is a subject for another time.
PHOSPHOLIPIDS: THE SMART FATS
Phospholipids are a type of ‘intelligent’ polyunsaturated fat found in our brains. They are the insulation experts, helping signals in the brain to run smoothly because they make up the insulating layer, or myelin, around all nerves. There are several different types of phospholipids, but in pregnancy, phosphatidyl choline has been identified as particularly important for your baby’s brain development.
Recent research has shown that supplementing phosphatidyl choline during pregnancy can create a ‘superbrain’ in the baby.
The richest source of phospholipids in the average diet is egg yolks. (free range eggs, not battery eggs) Lecithin is also a rich source and you can buy this in granular form from your health shop to sprinkle a tablespoon on your cereal or in soups or smoothies.
The dangers of trans-fats
Refining and processing vegetable oils can change the nature of the polyunsaturated oil. An example is the making of margarine. To turn this oil into
hard fat the oil is ‘hydrogenated’ and the body cannot make use of it. Even worse than that is it blocks the body’s ability to use healthy oils and raises cholesterol levels. This is now called a ‘trans’ fat because it has been changed. Check your labels carefully; most biscuits, cakes, ready meals and processed foods are made with hydrogenated fats. Rather make your own and use butter.
Research has shown that as well as blocking the functions of essential fats, too many trans-fats can also disrupt the pregnancy hormones reduce the baby’s birth weight and lower the quality of breast milk. In men it will decrease testosterone and increase abnormal sperm.
Frying is another way to damage otherwise healthy oils. If you do fry use olive oil or butter as these are less prone to oxidation than the other cold-pressed vegetable oils. If they aren’t cold-pressed they are hydrogenised.
General guidelines for getting the right kind and amount of fat in your diet:
- Eat 2 tablespoons of ground mixed seeds or 1 tablespoon of mixed seeds and an omega 3 supplement
- Eat oily fish such as sardines, salmon (not farmed) and mackerel or herring three times a week or take an omega 3 supplement daily
- Avoid fried food, burnt or browned fat, saturated and hydrogenated fat
- If you do fry use olive oil and/or butter
- To boost levels of phospholipids, have 5-7 free-range eggs per week, or put a tablespoon of lecithin granules on your cereal every day, or take a phosphatidyl choline supplement every day.
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