Real Nutrition in Pregnancy: Beyond Supplements, Towards Real Food
Pregnancy is a time when every cell of your baby is being built from what you eat. The placenta itself – your baby’s lifeline – is made from your nutrient stores and daily food choices. We now know that nutrition in pregnancy doesn’t just affect birth weight; it programs your child’s long-term health, from heart and brain development to risks of diabetes, obesity, and blood pressure in later life.
And yet, most pregnancy advice still boils down to: “take your prenatal vitamin and avoid alcohol.” Supplements can help, but food provides nutrients in forms that work together, in balance, and with far higher bioavailability. In other words: real food builds real babies.
Nutrients That Are Hard to Get on a Vegan Diet
Some nutrients are particularly difficult
– if not impossible –
to source in adequate, bioavailable amounts without animal foods.
These include:
Choline
Essential for placenta function, brain development, and memory formation.
Raw egg yolk and grass fed beef liver are the richest sources.
A large trial found higher maternal choline intake improved children’s sustained attention at age 7.
Plant foods contain only tiny amounts, and most vegan supplements are flown in from overseas.
Iron & Zinc
Critical for blood expansion and immune development.
Heme iron (from red meat and organ meats) is up to 3× more bioavailable than plant iron.
Zinc absorption is also inhibited by phytates in grains and legumes.
Collagen & Glycine
Glycine becomes “conditionally essential” in pregnancy,
needed for connective tissue,
skin stretching, uterine growth,
and preventing tearing.
Plant foods provide almost none;
collagen-rich cuts of meat, bone broth, and slow-cooked meats are the best sources.
Vitamin A & B12
True vitamin A (retinol) is found only in animal foods such as liver, butter, and egg yolks.
Beta-carotene in plants does not reliably convert, especially in pregnancy. Vitamin B12 is absent from plant foods altogether.
Fats, Brain Development & Long-Term Health
Your baby’s brain is being built from scratch – and about 60% of it is fat.
That means the quality of fat in your diet matters.
DHA
(an omega-3 long chain fatty acid) plays a fundamental role in brain and vision development.
Some trials link higher DHA intake in pregnancy with better IQ and attention in children,
though not all studies agree.
The consistent finding is that DHA directly influences brain structure.
EPA?
EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) is another long-chain omega-3 fatty acid,
found mainly in fish and seafood (and in smaller amounts in grass-fed meat and pastured eggs).
EPA’s main role is in the mother’s body, rather than directly building the baby’s brain.
It supports:
Anti-inflammatory balance (counteracts the excess omega-6 from seed oils).
Blood flow to the placenta (better nutrient and oxygen delivery).
Mood stability in pregnancy and postpartum (low EPA is linked with postnatal depression).
EPA vs DHA
DHA = structural.
It’s literally a building block of your baby’s brain, eyes, and nervous system.EPA = regulatory.
It keeps inflammation in check, helps DHA get into the brain,
and supports the placenta and maternal wellbeing.
They work together.
A diet high in DHA but without enough EPA
(or with too much omega-6 oil) won’t give the same benefits.
Plant Oils vs Fish Oils
Like DHA, EPA is only found pre-formed in animal foods — oily fish (salmon, sardines, anchovies, mackerel) are the richest.
Flax, chia, hemp, walnuts → only contain ALA, which is the precursor -
a short chain fatty acid that has to be converted to EPA or DHA.Conversion to EPA is slightly better than to DHA, but still inefficient:
maybe 5–10% of ALA → EPA, then only 0.5–1% → DHA.
Cholesterol, Choline, Vitamin A & Fat-Soluble Nutrients
All rise in demand during pregnancy and are found in high concentrations in liver, egg yolk, butter, and cream.
Omega-6 vs Omega-3 Balance
Modern diets are heavy in processed seed oils (soy, corn, sunflower), pushing the omega-6:3 ratio as high as 30:1.
Traditionally, humans ate closer to 1:1.
Too much omega-6 crowds out DHA pathways and has been linked to poorer motor outcomes in infants.
Traditional fats like butter, lard, and dripping – once staples – are far more nourishing than industrial seed oils. When local, grass-fed, or wild, they bring the bonus of fewer toxins and higher omega-3s.
Pre-Eclampsia & Blood Pressure Disorders
Pre-eclampsia is one of the most dangerous pregnancy complications,
linked to preterm birth and long-term risks for both mother and baby.
Nutrition plays a huge role:
Large studies show a Mediterranean-style diet in pregnancy reduces pre-eclampsia risk by 20–26%.
Adequate protein and minerals (magnesium, calcium, zinc) also support blood pressure balance.
The Brewer diet – a high-protein diet used with good outcomes.
Twins & High Nutrient Demand
Twin pregnancies are often labelled “high risk” with expectations of preterm birth.
Yet, I’ve worked with independent midwives who have found that when women are deeply nourished,
many do carry twins to full term and give birth to healthy-sized babies.
Protein needs for twins are significantly higher
– around 100g+ per day – along with extra calories, minerals, and essential fats.
Meeting these needs reduces the risk of growth restriction and supports placental function for both babies.
Essential Nutrients Chart
The Vegan Narrative vs. The Reality
It’s easy to get swept up in the vegan messaging that claims plant-based diets are the healthiest choice and that you can meet all your pregnancy needs with beans, greens, and supplements. But when you look closer, these claims are not supported by long-term studies in pregnancy.
Much of the research that does exist is either:
Weak or indirect (based on general adult populations, not pregnant women).
Funded by billion-dollar vegan conglomerates profiting from plant milks, powders, and supplements.
In truth, a purely vegan pregnancy cannot supply vital nutrients like B12, DHA, glycine, or retinol vitamin A in meaningful amounts without heavy supplementation.
To claim otherwise is misleading at best, dangerous at worst.
And yet, many who choose veganism do so from a place of compassion – for animals, for the earth, for wanting to tread lightly. That intention matters. But there is another path:
One that honours your lineage of ancestors who thrived on local, seasonal foods.
One that works in balance with the flora and fauna of your ecosystem.
One that rejects industrial factory farming while embracing wild meat, regenerative farming, and heritage grains.
One that allows you to nourish your body and your baby fully without betraying your values.
This is not about choosing between compassion and health. It is about restoring harmony between nourishment and ecology.
Local, Wild & Ancestral Eating
We can learn from ancestral diets, studied by Dr. Weston A. Price, which consistently prized nutrient-dense foods like organ meats, raw dairy, and seafood for fertility and pregnancy. These foods provided the very vitamins and minerals that modern diets often lack.
Relying on global monocrops – rice, wheat, soy – not only provides lower nutrient density but also harms biodiversity and soil. In contrast, local and wild foods – venison, wild boar, seasonal vegetables – are sustainable, nutrient-rich, and in harmony with the land.
👉 If you’d like to explore sourcing, get in touch with me. I can connect you with trusted local butchers and DEFRA-approved game dealers in the Forest of Dean. I can even show you how to dry organ meats to make them more palatable.
Why Quality Matters
Not all animal foods are created equal. Just as modern wheat and processed oils strip the body, wild and traditional foods build it.
Wild-caught salmon → rich in DHA, selenium, iodine.
Venison from local butchers/game dealers → iron, zinc, B12, without factory farming.
Eggs from pasture-raised hens → choline, vitamin A, healthy fats.
Bone broth & collagen → support for connective tissue, placenta, and recovery.
Heritage or sourdough rye grains → kinder to the gut, without the gut-stripping effects of modern wheat.
Modern wheat is especially problematic: it damages the tiny villi hairs in the gut that absorb nutrients, leading to long-term deficiencies. This is why many thrive better on heritage grains or grain-free eating during pregnancy.
Cutting Out the Poisons
Pregnancy is not just about adding the right foods – it’s also about cutting out the toxins.
Here’s a quick guide (thanks to my blood sister Wild Words & Ferments for this visual!)
that shows the difference between harmful modern “foods” and truly safe, nourishing ones:
[Insert the FOOD GUIDANCE chart here]
Key points:
Avoid emulsifiers, refined sugar, seed oils, additives, and modern wheat.
Choose fresh fruit & veg, wild meat, pastured eggs, nuts & seeds, heritage grains, and homemade snacks.
A Note on Cravings
- Listening to the Body
One of the most fascinating things is how many women in pregnancy begin to crave meat, eggs, or dairy – even if they’ve avoided them for years. Your body is wise. These cravings often signal genuine needs: more protein, more fat-soluble vitamins, more minerals.
Instead of forcing down processed carbs or relying only on imported supplements, tuning into these cues can help you meet your baby’s needs in the most natural way.
Final Thoughts
Pregnancy is the time to stack the deck in your favour – for you, your baby, and even your grandchildren. Epigenetics shows that what you eat now shapes not just your child, but your child’s children.
This isn’t about guilt or perfection. It’s about cutting out modern poisons, listening to your cravings, and leaning into the nutrient-dense, ancestral foods that humans have thrived on for generations.
If you’d like support sourcing local, wild, and truly nourishing foods for pregnancy, get in touch – I can connect you with trusted butchers and game dealers, and help you find a way of eating that feels both sustainable and deeply supportive.
👉 Want to learn more about local sourcing, nourishing pregnancy, or personal support? [Get in touch with me here.]