Newbie question re - LE diet and low/hi GI intake

Hi there,

I'm new to this forum, and ordered a plan a couple of days ago, which I'm looking forward to receiving, but in the meantime, I've made an attempt at starting my girl swaying plan, as New Year's Day felt like a good day to begin! :)

I have been reading some of the info on this site about the LE diet, and have a couple of general questions which I'm hoping someone may be able to answer.

Firstly, it seems that white-flour foods such as white pasta, white rice, white bread etc. are preferable to wholemeal/wholegrain foods (wholemeal or spelt pasta, brown rice, wholegrain bread etc.). I am assuming this is because they contain less nutrients, making them better for a 'low nutrient diet'. As we are meant to be restricting calories though, and wholegrain foods are low GI, wouldn't it also make sense to eat wholegrain products in preference to white because they keep you fuller for longer and also keep your blood sugar levels more stable (whereas foods made with white flour cause insulin and blood sugar levels to spike)?

Additionally, if fibre helps absorb fat, then wouldn't it also be helpful to eat a pasta sauce with wholemeal pasta or a Thai curry with brown rice rather than white, as the fibre will help to absorb the fat in the rest of the dish?

I know that I am going to struggle to restrict my calorie intake so much, but know that I feel much less hungry between meals when my main meals include low GI foods.

So I was just wondering what the thinking behind white flour products is over wholemeal/wholegrain and does 'low nutrient' trump low calorie/low blood sugar when swaying?

I guess I'm just also trying to get my head around following such a nutrient-poor diet, as with my two boys, I followed a four month pre-conception plan that involved taking a huge amount of vitamins and herbs and eating a super healthy, nutrient-rich diet in the hope of creating the healthiest possible babies (I was following the advice of my naturopath who was working for Francesca Naish, an Australian naturopath who wrote 'The Natural Way to Better Babies', in which she argues that the healthier both parents are before conception, the better the chances of conceiving a healthy child and the lower the chances of miscarriage, birth defects etc.). This is of particular concern to me as I've had a Downs Syndrome pregnancy in the past.

I totally understand the thinking behind restricting calories in order to trick the body into thinking times are lean in helping to conceive a girl, and don't doubt that it works (interestingly, all the naturopaths in the practice I mentioned above have boys, and none have daughters), but just wonder if those on the girl swaying diet end up with higher rates of miscarriage or higher rates of babies with chromosomal issues or anything? Sorry – I hope this question doesn't offend anyone. I'm just a bit nervous because of my history…

Many thanks,
Zara

Refined grains are preferred BECAUSE they cause insulin spikes. Low blood glucose seems to sway pink so it is the goal.

I was on a Western Price type diet before doing my version of LE (which does include some whole grains in my case), so I share your opinion re: the LE diet seeming quite unhealthy. That's kind of the point. I too am curious if calorie restriction alone (without substantial dietary changes) would be enough, but many women stop ovulating if they are too strict, myself included.

There does seem to be a higher rate of miscarriages and chemical pregnancies among pink swayers, especially those who changed their diets. It's possible that alone means there are more chromosonal abnormalities since that is often the cause of a m/c. However, there doesn't seem to be an increase in abnormal baby girls, of those who are eventually born.

I share your views on pre-conception health and its importance. My hope is that more than 32 years of eating organic, high quality food and living a healthy lifestyle will matter far more than a few months on a semi-junky diet (though still organic and better than many people's diets). The body stores nutrients and that store should be plenty to conceive a healthy baby. By briefly but significantly eating more poorly (but still by no means badly), I'm just hoping to send a certain message to my body.

Pink swaying isn't about being unhealthy...just less healthy. That's my take, at least. You will have to decide for yourself how much 'decline in maternal condition' you feel comfortable with. Welcome, and good luck!

Following out of interest....

1)Refined vs. whole grains.

The reasoning there is twofold, primarily it is because for anyone without PCO/IR tendencies, the empty grains raise your blood sugar high and then it drops super low after eating (thus forcing your body to burn off its stores of glycogen to keep you going). This seems to be better for pink than keeping blood sugar levels steady. The nutrient content is actually secondary to the blood sugar. And there is also the fact that a lot of people NEED empty carbs to keep weight on and to continue ovulating - quite a few people really require a lot of quick-burning cals to prevent excess weight loss.

For anyone with PCO/IR tendencies (can't lose weight easily or actually gain on LE with empty carbs), I DO recommend that they use only whole grains as a part of an overall LE-type diet. There are a few different styles of LE, the "crash and burn" is the one with the higher intake of empty carbs, but there's also the "slow burn" where the focus is on small amounts of whole grains, fresh fruits and higher carb vegetables - they are BOTH LE Diet. I do agree about fiber absorbing fat but I think it's better to get the type of fiber that doesn't bring with it a lot of other nutrients (fiber supplements)

That having been said, this is one area I am not totally sure about and I have speculated about that in this essay (second essay from top) http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gend...ys-attack.html

2)RE diet and safety, we already discussed this a bit Zara but for everyone else reading this thread, I cannot state strongly enough HOW much safety is my primary concern above all else. I would NEVER do or recommend anything that I believed to be unsafe for an unborn child. The LE Diet is based on the recommendations of reproductive endocrinologists and the World Health Organization for a safe pre-pregnancy diet. There are definitely people who go against my recommendations and cut back too far, and I do everythign in my power to prevent that from happening. But that is NOT LE DIET. The lower limits of the LE Diet are actually MORE important than the upper limits because they are for safety and not for swaying.

I do feel like we may have somewhat of a higher rate of losses among pink swayers (at least, higher than our blue swayers have) but without a side-by-side study, I can't say for certain if that is higher or lower than the population as a whole. It IS much, much lower than the rates of miscarriage on the other swaying sites, which was devastatingly high for both pink and blue. I take this issue VERY seriously (please see second essay below) but at the same time I am not totally convinced that it is dietary in nature, because if you look at the ladies who are presently going HT, they are taking tons of supps to boost fertility and eating diets that are optimized to improve egg quality and STILL get a surprising number of abnormal embryos and suffer losses at a much higher rate than the population as a whole (to be expected to be sure, but it is evidence that diet is in no way a magic cure for egg quality issues.)

I have a full explanation of the issues that come into play here: http://genderdreaming.com/forum/tryi...-diet-faq.html

and here http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gend...scarriage.html

My 2 cents on this (and this is from our previous discussion zara, but sharing for those who are wondering about the issue)

At no time in human history have people ever taken this level of vitamin/mineral supplements. We don't know if they're safe and they're certainly not "evolutionarily familiar" meaning that these massive doses of nutrients simply cannot be prerequisites for having healthy pregnancies - our ancestors had babies for millions of years while eating a rotten mango, some termites, and a couple of bites of scavenged meat a day. The body is very good at extracting required nutrients from foods. In fact there are some disorders (autism, ADHD) that have been on the increase simultaneous to the rise in vitamin supplementation - I'm not saying that high doses of vitamins cause health issues in unborn babies (I don't count it out, either) but certainly they cannot be a magical method of prevention, either.

I have everyone take higher than normal dose of folic acid and iodine (either in the form of supplements or iodized salt). For other nutrients, your body stores up many of them and the others (or the precursors to them that your body can then use to make the nutrients it requires) are available in adequate amounts on LE Diet. The exceptions are zinc and potassium, and so I urge everyone to get 2500-3500 mg potassium from diet, and if you do a strict LE Diet with no cheating for 3-6 months I would have you add in a zinc supplement at that point. These recommendations are in every sway plan that I do. Additionally, I do use other nutrients from time to time in various circumstances for anyone who requires them for their health.

Hi maidentomother and atomic,

Thanks so much for your very helpful responses, and apologies for the delay in responding – I was away on holidays last week.

I just have a question, atomic – do you have any idea of the success of the LE 'crash and burn'-style diet and the LE 'slow burn' version. Does one tend to produce more girls than the other? Which version are most women on Gender Dreaming following?

It's reassuring to hear that safety is of prime concern and that the LE diet is based on recommendations from the World Health Organisation. That definitely helps put my mind at ease.

Thanks again, and I'll go and read those essays now! :)