Real Food for Gestational Diabetes: An Effective Alternative to the Conventional Nutrition Approach Paperback – January 19, 2015

I had higher numbers with my second born during pregnancy. It would only occur after certain meals (white flour, rice, junk food), so my midwife recommended this to help manage and avoid any additional interventions. The book is well written, easy to follow and implement. A common sense approach. I was able to get my numbers under the threshold and have a successful pregnancy and home birth.

I was diagnosed with GD at 32 weeks. Got the phone call, and then they tell me I will them in almost a MONTH for my first appointment. Okay? GD is no joke, and I was so beyond frustrated that they would just leave me hanging for almost a full month after giving me a diagnosis like that and having a prescription for meter and strips sent to the pharmacy that day. Thank God for this book because I was able to start implementing the diet and blood sugar parameters immediately. Thanks to the information in it, I was able to be diet only controlled. So I get to the first meeting with the dietician and they were shocked at my numbers and that I had been tracking for 3 weeks on my own already. They then gave me their info and it was so bad. Sugar Free foods were all "freebies" so they pushed those. Except that I can't eat fake sugar because it literally makes me sick. Stevia makes me projectile vomit, aspertame gives me headaches. Aside from the fact that I don't believe in eating that stuff because it's so bad for you. The carb amounts were so high that I would have absolutely been on insulin [which is FINE if you need to be, but this was entirely preventable in my case] and the guidance looked like it came from the 60s. I spoke to a family member who was a diabetic counselor and she said everything I was doing from this book was spot on with what she recommends to people and that the outdated guidelines are really bad, and not to use those. So if you get diagnosed, buy yourself this book. It will give you clear info and is MUCH better and more current than most hospitals give. Our baby was NOT gigantic like everyone kept telling me. I did have high amniotic fluid, probably from GD. But I was diagnosed late, and baby was totally fine. She weighed 8 lbs and was totally normal. No blood sugar issues and mine returned completely to normal after she born. This book is absolutely worth every penny and gave me a clear plan when my hospital left me hanging.

Words cannot express how grateful I am for this amazing book!! Lily Nichols changed the direction of my pregnancy in the best way possible.I was diagnosed with GD around my 28th week and everything was going smoothly until I met with the hospital's dietitian and she dropped the bomb on me, "Based on your BMI you will have to eat 265g of carbohydrates a day". When I asked her how anyone could physically eat that much (it's equivalent to 17 slices of bread), she insisted that I HAVE to find a way or else my baby will not have a high IQ (the ketone argument) and I need to gain weight because I was too "skinny". She really lost me though when she insisted that vegetables do not have the good fiber that grains do. mmmmm ok.I left her office crying hysterically! There was absolutely no way I could physically eat this much but I also did not want my child to suffer. I stuffed my face for the first few days with all the carbs I could find and ended up feeling HORRIBLE physically and mentally. My doula ultimately saved the day by introducing me to Lily Nichol's book and all the suffering I had been going through finally went away.I ended up being able to eat 125g-150g of carbs a day with no problem whatsoever and feeling great. I only had an issue with my fasting numbers so I decided the stress was not worth it and started taking 10 units of NPH every night. The peace of mind every morning made this pregnancy so much more enjoyable!! I also would like to note that I passed my ketones (even though it wasnt important to me) by eating 120g of carbs....NOT 265gr like the dietitian had said I would need to pass.Moral of the story, if you are diagnosed with GD buy this book. You will learn SO much about nutrition and what your body REALLY needs....not what they tell you to eat based on your BMI. Lily I cannot thank you enough for everything!!

I thought this book was so incredibly helpful for me when I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. It gave me insight to the issues itself, but also super helpful to plan out what I could eat. I think a lot of times, education like this can tell you what you need, but leaves you overwhelmed at where to start at the grocery store. It has recipes and ideas to help you get started. Highly recommend!

If you are expecting a cookbook, like I was, I think you will be disappointed. However, I don't regret my purchase: This book is full of great information for women who have been diagnosed with prediabetes or gestational diabetes. I find Ms. Nichol's approach very reasonable, and I like her emphasis on mindful eating. She makes some very convincing arguments that challenge conventional GD treatment (see chapter 11). I like that she includes a list of foods to eat and foods to avoid. There's a fairly robust list of snack ideas,. which was really helpful as I try to figure out what/when to eat.A couple of things, though, that I didn't like about this book. There's little information about fruit. It's included in some of the meal plans and snack ideas, but it's not really addressed like other carb sources are. This was confusing. Secondly, I was hoping for more recipes to get me inspired. I was really disappointed by the number of recipes included. I think she is purposely trying not to make this a "what to eat / diet plan" book, but for people that really need to change how they're eating, a few weeks worth of ideas would be very welcome.