Dana Angelo White - The Whole 9 Months: A Week-By-Week Pregnancy Nutrition Guide with Recipes for a Healthy Start

Copyright 2016 by Jennifer Lang

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Photography 2016 by Melina Hammer except Stocksy/ Maa Hoo, by Amy Dickerson

ISBN: Print 978-1-943451-48-7 | eBook 978-1-943451-49-4

To Sheila, Nico, and Sofia

I love everything about being a mom. Before having kids, I didnt realize it was possible to have this much love, joy, and happiness in my life. Its overflowing, unconditional, and selflessand the most profound experience Ive ever had.

But I didnt start out feeling that way when I was pregnant with my first baby, Honor. Honestly it was a little scary and overwhelming. Theres this tiny person inside of you thats completely dependent on you. Then, my motherly instincts kicked in (even before I had given birth) and I made it my mission to do everything possible to make sure my family had a healthy and safe environment.

This quest extended to helping all moms do whats best for their babies; in fact it drove me to start the Honest Company. I thought about the toxic chemicals that may contribute to conditions like asthma, allergies, autism, ADHD, and cancer, many of which are present in products that touch your baby (think diapers, cleaning products, even toys!). It became my lifes mission to educate people about these hidden toxins and to offer safe alternatives.

Dr. Jennifer Lang and I have very similar health rules for moms: Know exactly whats going into and on your body. Creating a safe environment for your baby begins the day your baby begins to grow in the womb. As youll learn in The Whole 9 Months, the food choices you make can have lasting effects on the long-term health of your children, including their brain and organ development, and even their future food preferences. Plus, how you eat during pregnancy can lay the foundation for good eating habits for life. Just think: if you develop their penchant for veggies early on, you probably wont have to create a kids meal and an adult mealyou will all be eating the same thing!

Creating a safe environment for your baby begins the day your baby begins to grow in the womb.

It can be daunting to sift through the claims on food packaging and to try to figure out what will nourish your family and whats just a gimmick developed to make you believe that a processed, additive-laden food is a smart choice. Thats where this book comes in. Dr. Lang focuses on what you can and should eatshes done all the hard work of research and makes choosing healthy food for yourself and your baby so very easy. Its the book I wish Id had with my pregnancies with Honor and Haven.

As moms and health activists, Dr. Lang and I are crusaders for healthy eating and safer nontoxic home products. We both know the joys and anxieties of pregnancy firsthand, and Im thrilled that Dr. Lang has put her valuable knowledge into these pages. This book provides fact-based advice that you can trust from a doctor who is also a mom. With this book in your hand, you are on your way to putting your health first and setting your baby up for lifelong wellness.

Jessica Alba

Welcome to pregnancy, and to this book. Even though Ive been through medical school, OB/GYN residency, gynecologic oncology (womens cancer surgery) fellowship, and counseled countless women on eating healthy during pregnancy, I can honestly say I didnt have a true sense of what it all meant until I went through pregnancy myself.

This book is a guide that I hope will serve you as a vital tool and resource. My aim is to weave together science, real-life experience, and some truly delicious recipes that will nourish your baby and your body, setting both of you on a track for optimum healthy living, right from the start.

You may be familiar with the age-old debate regarding nature versus nurture. Are we more influenced by heredity or our life experiences? In science-speak, this is sometimes referred to as genes versus environment. The more scientists learn about the way environment influences our genes, the more clear it is that nurture can become nature, and vice versa. The two are inextricably linked.