Feeding And Nourishing Your Postpartum Body

Feeding your postpartum body is essential for healing and producing a healthy milk supply. Nourishment verses feeding are two vary different things. Nourishing your body means providing nutrients. Feeding your body is providing fuel to your brain, muscles, organs and more. Many mamas find it hard to properly do both while breastfeeding. There is a delicate balance of energy and nutritional needs while breastfeeding, that play a major role in losing the weight gained during pregnancy. A common issue is a loss of milk supply when reducing calories, which often times is a result of a reduction of nutrients as well. Nourishing your postpartum body means getting the essential macro nutrients: carbs, fat and protein. Yes, you need all three. The Keto diet is very popular right now for weight loss, and as long as there are plenty of vegetables, it can be a great way to get healthy versions of all three macro nutrients. Breastfeeding mamas tend to prefer carbs over fat because glucose is preferred by the brain, and is the first choice of energy by your body. Fat is eaten to be stored as fat, and protein is supplied to skin, cells, hair, organs and more. Protein even gets into your breast milk, as well as some fats, so all of them play an equal part in nourishing your body. In addition to macro nutrients, your body also need micro nutrients postpartum, which include vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients and more. Here at Milk Dust, we've gone over some of the critical nutrients for breastfeeding mamas, which also are important to your baby. Nourishing your body is much more complicated than feeding your body. Your body will use the food you give it as energy to function. It will take everything you put in, convert it to fat or glucose and function. But, if it doesn't have essential vitamins and minerals, it can't as easily work without them. For example, if you eat very little fruits and vegetables, but lots of processed carbohydrates, your body will convert and use those carbs as glucose. It will do the same with the fruits and veggies. BUT, it can't manufacture the vitamins, antioxidants and phytonutrients on its own. In other words, eating processed carbs gives you glucose for energy, just like fruits and veggies, but it is missing the nutrient-dense component necessary to fully nourish your body.

Healing postpartum is a much smoother process with a nourished body:

By offering your body lots of nutrients through nutrient dense foods (fruits, veggies, lean and clean proteins, beans, nuts etc.), it is getting energy and the building blocks it needs to create a healthy milk supply, heal from birth and support a healthy mama.

Why a clean protein is very important to nourishing mama and baby:

Protein is one of the macro nutrients that can pass through to breast milk. Many mamas experience a gassy, fussy baby while starting a healthy diet not because of the fibrous foods, but because of protein allergies. Milk protein, egg protein and gluten protein all can find their way into the breast milk, leaving little ones with intolerance not very happy. This eliminates some of the healthy sources of protein a breastfeeding mama can eat, which makes it difficult to get the required protein needed for cell repair, growth, support and function. Enter in Milk Dust, a clean, plant-based protein that is dairy-free, soy-free, corn-free and gluten-free. With organic ingredients, there is less-likelihood that a baby will have any gas reactions to the protein, and mama can get her required daily intake, without eating eggs or dairy. Our protein powder also provides some of the very essential nutrients necessary for postpartum mamas, as well as lactation-boosting ingredients to support a healthy milk supply. Herbs and supplements have been used for years to help new mothers supply baby with enough breast milk, and we've combined them into our powder as well. By offering essential nutrients and minerals like Chromium, and herbs like Cinnamon Bark, Milk Dust also curbs sugar cravings and balances blood sugar postpartum.  Or course, we can't fully nourish your body for you, but we can help. Combine our protein powder with fresh fruits and veggies in a smoothie, and you are fully nourishing and feeding your postpartum body.