Real Food for Pregnancy: The Science and Wisdom of Optimal Prenatal Nutrition

Although is a really good book for understanding what can you eat or not. I thought it would also come with quick and easy recipes, it does not! I ended up using other books more than this one.Still very good book

I really enjoy Lily's writing style and how she explains which foods and micro/macronutrients are essential in pregnancy. I am blown away by what this book has revealed. Our guidelines are so out of date and I feel I have to tell everyone I know about this book. I also have RFFF which is excellent. The advice is very clear and simple, 'eat real food', but for anyone interested in nutrition, you'll be fascinated by the detail this book goes into.I would love to see Lily Nichols far more heard and respected as she brings such wisdom to our lives through her work.

Lily’s book has been such a powerful tool for pregnancy and postpartum. I trust her perspective which comes very a highly researched and referenced background. She has practical advice in language that’s easy to understand but always based in scientific research and I so appreciate the work she has done for women. There is not enough focus on women’s health and Lily is doing her part to change that and educate us all!

I bought this book when trying to conceive and have kept it by my bedside ever since (my LO is now nearly 5 months old.) This book really helped me to prepare and support my body to carry my baby and to breastfeed. Not only does it cover what foods to eat to have a healthy pregnancy but it also covers what to eat to mitigate/ help with pregnancy symptoms, what to eat to support breastfeeding and what foods don't build a healthy baby - all in a scientific, non judgemental, easy to read way. This book also covers other areas of pregnancy; exercise, mental health and post partum preparation means that it really is the only companion you need to support you during your transition to motherhood. I particularly found the breastfeeding chapter useful, as I felt very prepared as to the reality of breastfeeding (anyone else felt like they were fused to the sofa in the early days?!), information which I didn't hear from anywhere else. It has also helped me to shift some of my baby weight (as well as a few stubborn pounds before I conceived too!) and the information has changed my eating habits for life. I'm just hoping Lily will publish a book on baby weaning in the next few months!

A must read for anyone preparing for pregnancy.This book happened to be really useful for me personally, since as a type 1 diabetic thriving on a low-carb diet, i was being encouraged/bullied by everyone to eat lots of carbs as soon as i became pregnant because apparently “babies need carbs”, while also being told that babies can’t grow properly if blood sugars aren’t perfect. For me, eating lots of carbs and having good blood sugar control are mutually exclusive, so finding a middle ground between these two conflicting things seemed impossible. Lily Nichols is one of the very very few dieticians I found online who doesn’t discourage pregnant women from eating low carb.This wonderful book gave me the confidence to go ahead and do what I knew I needed to do to maintain near perfect blood sugar control throughout my entire pregnancy. And much more of course! Confidently picking the right foods that encourage baby’s development, mama’s health in pregnancy but also avoiding depletion post-partum... all HUGE.Do yourself a favour and read this book!

Finished reading it in 3 days. Great source of information about prenatal nutrition. The nutrients and its needs during pregnancy are explained in detail. My only complaint is that information about lot of vegetables, millets and fruits from other cultures are not included at all. I’m not sure if it is because the target audience won’t find it useful or find it less interesting. But as a non-white person, living in a white country, I find the information provided really useful.

I am a nutritionist, but I still find this incredibly useful for pregnancy. Well-sourced information worth reading before and during pregnancy.

I was hoping for no-nonsense, well researched advice on supplements - and what I got was so much more. I LOVE this book and I can see it will be my "bible". I was so relieved to read Lily's approach, which is so robust and evidence based, and is predicated on using real foods and only supplements where necessary, which aligns entirely with the approach I would like to follow. Added bonuses where the sections on exercise and posture / core / diastasis recti which are so helpful. I've even been convinced to eat meat whilst doing IVF and hopefully pregnancy, having previously been convinced I would remain vegetarian. Next I'm moving on to replacing my cookware with cast iron & considering not wearing nail polish!The combination of science backed advice, and a holistic approach from someone who advocates the power of good food, exercise & mindfulness, is really refreshing and reassuring.