#10: Happy Belly & Baby

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What to eat during pregnancy?

Today we’re going to talk about motherhood. I myself am coming out of a few months of roundness. “Being pregnant,” as my son says.

But rest assured, we will also talk about fatherhood.

When life blossoms within us, our attention naturally intensifies regarding the contents of our plate and what we will share with our child. The doctor generally gives some basic recommendations about listeria, dietary supplements, coffee and alcohol.

But these are rather meager pieces of advice given the life that is multiplying inside us and that goes beyond us.

Motherhood is also often a turning point and raises questions about our lifestyles, our eating habits, the pollution around us, and what we will pass on.

So we invite you on a little journey to explore, from a dietary point of view, this very special period.

Guest: Isabella Obrist

To talk about motherhood and nutrition, I have the great pleasure of welcoming Isabella Obrist, a specialist in Chinese dietary therapy and in Five Elements cuisine.

She has 25 years of experience in private practice and she created “Petit Ventre Heureux“, which is simultaneously a brand of energizing potions, a website, the title of three books, a community of learners, and a mission: to remind those we love that we are what we eat and drink…

She told me that one evening at Tian Tai Shan, a monastery at the foot of a sacred mountain, she discovered a fascinating aspect of Chinese dietary therapy: cooking in harmony with the movement of nature, imitating the workings of the cosmos…

She is with us today because she is, in particular, the author of “Petit Ventre Heureux Is Expecting a Baby: A Pregnancy Full of Wisdom According to Chinese Thought“, published by Éditions Trédaniel.

My questions

• What is your background? How did you become interested in nutrition?
• Your approach is called “Petit ventre heureux”. What, in your opinion, is a happy little belly?
• What are the principles of Chinese dietetics? Do you specifically mean the five elements?
• What should you pay attention to in terms of diet when you’re pregnant? 
• Do you specifically talk about the Moon’s cycles?
• And just after childbirth, during the famous “Golden Month”, a key 40-day period that is so little discussed in France?
• What dietary balances should be monitored and what are the risks of deficiency?
• What are the star foods of pregnancy? And which ones should be avoided?
• Are some cooking methods better than others during pregnancy?
• What is the father’s role in the mother’s and child’s nutrition?
• Can you share a recipe for each of the four trimesters? (including the Golden Month)

Resources to learn more

• Petit Ventre Heureux, the website.
• Petit heureux is expecting a baby (Editions Trédaniel), her book.

Isabella Obrist’s 4 recipes for pregnancy

1st trimester : Mushroom and chickpea soup with miso flavors

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil 
• 2 small onions
• 2 carrots
• 2 bay leaves 
• 300 g of cooked chickpeas, homemade or bought in a jar 
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 250 g of button mushrooms
• 1 stalk of celery 
• 1 good sprig of thyme 
• 1 handful of marjoram leaves (or 1 teaspoon of dried marjoram) 
• 1 handful of chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon of barley or rice miso
• Freshly ground pepper 
• About 600 ml of vegetable infusion (made, if possible, with the cooking water from the chickpeas) 

Recipe

1. Thinly slice the onions, press the garlic.
2. Dice the carrots.
3. Thinly slice the mushrooms and the celery stalk. Dissolve the miso in a little warm water.
4. Heat a saucepan, add the olive oil, and cook the onions for 3 minutes.
5. Add the carrots and celery and cook for about 4 minutes.
6. Add the mushrooms, bay leaf, garlic, and marjoram leaves, then stir. 
7. Add the cooked chickpeas, then the parsley.
8. Add the sprig of thyme and the vegetable infusion. Cook for 5 minutes. 
9. Add the pepper, then the miso, and lower the heat (the miso should not boil).
10. Adjust the seasoning; you may want to add more miso. 

Tips

Barley miso has a stronger flavor than rice miso. So, start with one tablespoon before adding more. To make this soup a more complete meal, you can add soba noodles to the vegetable infusion, or blend part of it to make it creamier 

2nd trimester: Beet hummus

Ingredients

• 200 g cooked beets
• 70 g walnut kernels
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 garlic clove 
• 1 pinch of salt
• Juice of one lemon 
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pinch of caraway 
• 1 tablespoon oat cream 
• 1 pinch of coconut for garnish

Recipe

1. Toast the nuts in a dry pan or in the oven, then set aside.
2. Dry-toast the coriander seeds and caraway too, then crush them in a mortar.
3. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Serve with a dollop of oat cream and a few coconut flakes. 

Tips

You can replace the tahini with peanut butter. 

3rd trimester: Knödels with sweet potatoes and sheep’s cheese

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes 
• 1 egg (optional)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice 
• 80 g crumbled sheep’s cheese (or tofu feta)
• 100 g coarsely chopped hazelnuts 
• 1/2 bunch chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon mustard 
• 40 g ground pumpkin seeds
• 2 thinly sliced onions
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pinch of salt 
• 1 pinch of sweet paprika
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons seaweed flakes
• 5 g of grated Parmesan 

Recipe

1. Bake the sweet potatoes in their skins and peel them.
2. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan.
3. Add the onions and cook them for 3 minutes.
4. Add the salt, lemon juice, sweet paprika and the sweet potatoes. Cook for another two minutes and mash the potatoes, then turn off the heat. 
5. Add the hazelnuts and half of the pumpkin seeds.
6. Add 2 turns of the pepper mill, the mustard, then the seaweed and the parsley. Mix and add the sheep’s cheese or feta, the tofu and the egg.
7. Let rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before forming the knödels.
8. Mix the Parmesan and the remaining pumpkin seeds.
9. Brown your knödels on both sides in a skillet and sprinkle them with this mixture.

Tips

You can also roll them in the Parmesan-hazelnut mixture and bake them at 180° for 20 minutes. 

Golden month (4th trimester): Feta Tofu

Ingredients

• 200 g of semi-firm tofu
• 120 ml of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of dried basil
• 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed
• 1 teaspoon of whole peppercorns
• 1.5 teaspoons of coarse salt

Recipe

1. Put everything into a nice glass jar and let marinate for at least 24 hours.
2. You can keep it for 7 days in the refrigerator.

The (R)évolutions Alimentaires podcasts are presented by Louise Browaeys

Agricultural engineer (AgroParisTech) specializing in nutrition, Louise has worked for ten years in the agriculture, food, and ecology sectors.

She is the author or co-author of several books on the topics of food, ecology, permaculture and corporate social responsibility. Notably: “La part de la terre : l’agriculture comme art” (Delachaux et Niestlé, 2014), “Permaculture au quotidien” (Terre Vivante, 2018), “Le régime planétaire” (La Plage, 2020).

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