After reading Nina Planck's first book, "Real Food", I found myself beginning every conversation with the words, "Nina Planck says..." A day after reading "Real Food for Mother and Baby", I'm doing it again.

I picked this one up because my daughter is almost 6 months old and eager to try solid food, so I wanted some ideas for good first foods. I agree with most of her views on food and nutrition, and I love her independent attitude towards opinions she disagrees with. This book was a good reminder of things I mostly already know, and I'll be referencing it often.

While I’m not yet at that point in my life where I’m settling down and getting married and having babies, I really enjoyed reading through Real Food for Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating for Two, and Baby’s First Foods by Nina Planck. It’s loaded with information about food and nutrition while maintaining an easy-to-read style, and perhaps best of all, it doesn’t preach. Planck tells you what she knows – which is, admittedly, a lot, and she brings in the experts to verify what she’s saying, so you don’t have to take only her word on it – and she relates stories about her own pregnancy, but then she leaves it up to you to decide what’s best for your body and your baby.

The book is broken down into five sections, beginning with the chapter entitled ‘What is Real Food?’ that starts with a basic explanation of, you guessed it, what the author calls ‘real food’: the old and the traditional. Foods that were eaten long before food became part of an industry, foods that aren’t processed within an inch of their life, and foods that haven’t been enhanced and added-to before they’re sold are the staples of the ‘real food’ diet. Planck then moves on to chapters covering ‘The Fertility Diet’ [what to eat when you’re trying to conceive, and what foods best prepare your body for the rigors of pregnancy], ‘Forty Weeks’ [how the foods you eat can influence your baby’s development], ‘Nursing Your Baby’ [championing the benefits of breastfeeding over formula use], and ‘First Foods’ [introducing your child to something a little more solid]. The back of the book also provides a list of resources for further reading on a range of topics, from postnatal depression to autism and allergies and various birthing techniques.

Overall, this is a stellar book. Like I said, I’m nowhere near ready for the baby-specific information, but I read this book cover to cover, and it’s now full of post-it flags for easier future reference. I’ve found myself returning to the first chapter on foods basics more than once. A lot of what Planck presents just makes sense, and with so much information and misinformation floating around in the media – eggs are bad! no, wait, eggs are good! – it’s great to have something to fall back on when everything gets confusing. I’ve even broken it out when having baby-related discussions with friends and plan on presenting a copy or two as gifts to friends in the future. And, yeah, maybe I do look forward to using the information for my own personal use some day. ( )

Nina Planck is an advocate for what she calls 'real food.' These are the staples of our ancestors, prepared in traditional ways. Fruits, vegetables, eggs, meats, cheese, and milk minimally processed if processed at all. Planck provides compelling arguments for eating this way based on nutritional comparisons.

While some of the ideas she presents for general eating and eating during pregnancy fall quite far from mainstream thinking, she does provide science to back up her claims. The stories she shares of her own pregnancy and how it shaped her diet are interesting. Although there were some aspects of her experiences that I would not have shared during my own pregnancy (such as having glasses of wine), I was able to take away some good information from this section of the book.

Planck lost me, however, when it came to the section on baby's first foods. Essentially she fed her son chunks of various table foods almost from the beginning of his solid food experience. While I do not doubt the nutritional value of the foods she was feeding him, my concern is that some of the foods she mentioned would present a potential choking hazard. I simply cannot imagine letting my eight month old daughter chew on a pork chop! Planck also threw out all conventional wisdom regarding babies and allergies, giving her son many foods before his first birthday that most doctors do not recommend.

I enjoyed reading this book and I do feel that I learned something from it. I think each person reading this book will have to find their own comfort level with the information presented and take what they can use while leaving the rest behind. ( )

First let me remind my readers that I am a 55 year old woman, long past fertility with four children who are old enough to worry about that delicate and complex joining of cells themselves. Why would I then ask for an advanced reading copy of Real Food for Mother and Baby? Precisely because I anticipate more grandchildren and do not want to be that old fogey grandmother who remembers how it used to be and constantly reminds the young hipsters that I certainly know better than they do what is good for their new child. If only I could get back to my great-grandmother’s advice to my grandmother – then I might have something of value to add along with my views of never being able to spoil a newborn baby. Instead I happily and quickly read Nina Planck’s wonderful book and I am very grateful to Bloomsbury for providing me with the Advanced Reading Copy. I know that I will continue to consult this book for my own health and nutrition and have something of substance to talk with my children about when their children are born.
To read the rest of my review, click Here ( )

Nina Planck is a proponent of ‘real food.’ She had even written a book on the topic, and was touring for said book when she discovered she was pregnant. As a food activist, Nina did her research about eating before, during, and after pregnancy, as well as feeding young children. When the conventional wisdom sounded wrong to her, she dug deeper to find out what really is best for mothers and babies.
This book is broken into 5 parts: What is Real Food; The Fertility Diet; Forty Weeks; Nursing Your Baby; and First Foods. The most important thing to know is probably Nina’s definition of real food. Real food is “old and traditional.” If someone hasn’t been eating it for hundreds of years, you probably shouldn’t either.

What I really liked about this book was Nina’s approach. While scientific she was also very relational, sharing her experiences of pregnancy, nursing, and feeding her young baby. She laid out what sorts of foods one should eat and why, but she was not dictatorial about it and suggested certain supplements if you simply cannot eat that food for one reason or another.

This book is quite informative and an engaging read at the same time. If you have enjoyed any of Michael Pollan’s books or articles on food and are pregnant, have a young child, or are considering getting pregnant, this is something worth picking up. ( )