Pregnant? Eat Sauerkraut!

Bite This: The current prevalence of autism is 1 in 59 children.

For one reason or another, I have had many recent conversations about autism. There seems to be much anxiety surrounding the fact that autism seems to be more prevalent than ever before and no one knows exactly what is causing it. Some speculation about the MMR vaccination (which has led to the anti-vax movement), but also the chemicals in our food and our environment. Likely, by nature of my profession, I lean more towards the fact that our food has changed greatly in the last few decades to the point where some of what we are eating is not even food. Through ingesting chemicals we change our DNA. And it all starts in utero.

So this recent study peaked my interest and I thought I’d blab blog about it. A study done at the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggested that a mother’s gut microbiome (which I have talked about here and here) may make her child more susceptible to developing an autism-like or another neurological disorder. (Not to say that all cases could be prevented by changing the gut microbiome.) They also discovered that by blocking a certain immune response inflammatory marker may also reduce the risk for developing neurological disorders. This study was done in mice and cannot be extrapolated to humans, but it does suggest some interesting ground-breaking information. The gut microbiome can easily be manipulated through diet or taking probiotics, so if a mother makes these changes during pregnancy, she may be able to reduce the risk for autism or other neurological disorders.

We all know that a developing baby’s health depends heavily on the mother’s health and dietary habits during pregnancy. And maybe by just adding probiotics, the baby will be less susceptible to these neurological disorders that are becoming more and more prevalent.

More and more research is emerging about the benefits of favorably changing the gut microbiome, and not just during pregnancy. The best foods to incorporate into the diet to help change the bacteria in the gut are:

1. Wide variety of fruits/veggies (fiber helps tremendously)
2. Yogurt, cottage cheese, or any food with live active cultures (I recommend plain, greek yogurt)
3. Fermented foods (I could write a whole blog post about these) - sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, or kefir

Foods to limit:

1. Sugar
2. Processed foods
3. Simple carbs

Interesting stuff, no? Not surprising again that a diet full of fruits/veggies, and limited in processed foods and sugar is the way to go. Got the point, yet? Do as I say, not as I do.

Sound Bite: Try incorporating a fermented food into your diet and see what happens.