Healthy Mum, Happy Baby

So the whole time I was writing the book Health Canada was promising to update their Food Guide, it was coming out in the fall of 2006. Well, that’s exactly when the book was due, so I was hoping it would come out before my deadline so I could include up-to-date recommendations. Don’t quote me but I believe the previous recommendations were from 1992 and there’s been a lot of knowledge under the bridge since then. Anyhow, the long and short of it was I had to use the old guidelines if I actually wanted to meet my oft delayed publication date (you try writing a cookbook when you have morning sickeness and a toddler and getting it in on time!). So here’s a link to the updated info (which includes more specific recommendations for pregnant and breastfeeding women): Canada’s Food Guide to Health Eating

I attended an event at Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks a few weeks ago by the two authors of Ultimate Foods for Ultimate Health that was full of good info. One author, Liz Pearson, is a registered dietitian, while the other, Mairlyn Smith, is a home economist. Pearson does the research and then lets Smith know what foods to focus on and Smith creates the recipes. We were served a three-course meal and it was all the kind of food that left you feeling virtuously healthy afterwards – I was also still a little bit hungry, but then I’m still breastfeeding, so I’m still often a little bit hungry – but also with a happy tummy.

I’ve tried a few of the recipes since – two were hits (an immune boosting mushroom soup for Andrew and I, who seem to pass around whatever the girls have, and kid-friendly salmon cakes) while a supposedly kid friendly cheese and broccoli soup didn’t thrill any of our palates, even Lucy who’ll basically eat pretty much anything and enjoy it.

The best thing? The authors advocate eating chocolate and drinking red wine. Plus the book is full of heaps of info on flax, soy, croccoli, pomegranate juice, berries, green tea, red wine, healthy fats. It’s not child-oriented, although there are lots of recipes marked kid-friendly but I think some of them are for slightly older kids than our one-year-old and three-year-old.

Breastfeeding & Nutrition, South Community Health Mum’s Group

Healthy Mum, Happy Baby will be hitting bookstores near you today!