MYF 17 | Vegan Diets for Fertility & Pregnancy: What You Need to Know

Welcome to Episode 17!

Are you currently eating a vegan diet while trying to conceive or while pregnant? Are you considering a vegan diet due to ethical, environmental, or health/fertility concerns? In this episode we discuss what you absolutely MUST know if you plan to start or stay on a vegan diet during preconception and pregnancy, including the NINE essential nutrients that you may be missing out on from food and what you can do to try to close these gaps. We also talk about some of the major reasons people choose veganism and why the ethical and environmental concerns are not as black and white as you might think.

We do talk a lot about KEY supplements in the episode and you can access our entire FREE course on How to Choose the Best Prenatal Supplements here!

Other resources we recommend:

Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols RDN, CDE

The China Study: A Formal Analysis and Response by Denise Minger

The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith

A Vegan Dietitian Reviews “What the Health” by Virginia Messina MPH, RD

Show Notes:

5:00        Nutrients that are difficult to get or completely missing from a vegan diet

                5:10        Preformed vitamin A (not beta-carotene)

                8:15        Vitamin B12

                10:55     Choline

                18:15     Vitamin K2

                20:50     DHA

                26:50     Glycine

                31:00     Iron

                33:55     Zinc

                39:00     Carnitine

42:45     How to try to close nutrient gaps on a vegan diet during preconception and pregnancy

53:00     Health reasons you may be considering a vegan diet – does the evidence support them?

                53:40     Dr. Haylee’s personal and family story with veganism

                57:20     Plant-based documentaries and some of issues with nutrition research

                62:30     Problems with the popular book The China Study

                64:30     Cholesterol and fat

                66:45     Protein and carbohydrate intake

                69:30     Digestion and the potential problems with a grain-based diet

71:00     Is going vegan truly the most ethical dietary choice?

79:45     Environmental concerns with meat production and why a vegan diet won’t save the earth

84:05     How to truly eat more ethically, sustainably, and healthfully

88:50     Wrap-up