S1E9: Lily Nichols - Updating Pregnancy Nutrition Advice for Better Blood Sugar Management

Lily Nichols is a registered dietician and nutritionist, a certified diabetes educator, researcher, and best-selling author who has a passion for uncovering evidence-based prenatal nutrition.

She comes on the show to share the research behind why our pregnancy nutritional advice should be updated, how her approach differs from conventional policies, why she focuses on blood sugar management in pregnancy, the macro and micronutrients to focus on while pregnant, and so much more.

Here's a peek at what Lily and Chris Irvin get into:

00:00 Introduction

4:20 How Lily's Real Food for Pregnancy book helped Chris and his wife

4:50 What led Lily to write this book and the problems she saw in current pregnancy nutritional advice

14:40 The role real foods have in pregnancy and why it's so important

17:30 How Lily's approach differs from conventional pregnancy nutritional advice

20:49 What Lily recommends from a macro standpoint

22:57 Protein and fat requirements in pregnant women

26:28 Why Lily's approach differs in the carb amount compared to conventional advice, how carbs affect blood sugar, and the risks that come with high blood sugar in pregnancy

32:19 Using a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) and the traditional glucose drink for testing for gestational diabetes in pregnant women

34:30 What happens when you have food aversions in pregnancy and all you want or can handle are carbs?

41:38 What happens towards the end of pregnancy when you can't eat large meals? Should you snack or eat smaller meals throughout the day?

44:28 Can overdoing it in calories lead to gestational diabetes?

48:20 Micronutrients to focus on during pregnancy

52:55 The role of organ meat in pregnancy and, can eating too much liver be toxic in pregnancy?

1:01:19 How to eat organ meat while pregnant

1:01:54 Foods to avoid while pregnant

1:05:32 Why the fats in your diet are really important

1:08:18 Why Lily recommends avoiding soy

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Lily Nichol's website (where you'll find 250+ blog posts)

Lily Nichol's Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

Download the first chapter of Lily's book for free

Lily's books, Real Food for Pregnancy and Real Food for Gestational Diabetes