What You Must Know About Prenatal Nutrients with Cady Kuhlman
Few things are as important as the health of your baby, but finding trustworthy information about the do’s and don’ts while pregnant can be difficult. Opinions abound when it comes to health and everyone pretends to be an expert. Pregnant women are often told to take a prenatal vitamin or fish oil with little to no direction about proper dosing, sourcing, or ingredients.
Meet Cady:
Fortunately, we have people like Cady Kuhlman who are passionate about holistic, natural prenatal health. Cady has a Master’s of Holistic Nutrition and has been a part of this industry for the better part of 10 years. She’s expecting her own little one soon and truly practices what she preaches. If you’re pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant, this episode is packed full of useful knowledge to help your body function at it’s best.
Some Topics We Discussed:
What is the prenatal core 4 supplement plan? (5:42)
What to look for when you’re buying prenatal vitamins? (11:46)
Why is fish oil so important in pregnancy and how to choose a good product? (19:40)
Key Takeaways From This Episode:
Folic acid is synthetic. Folate is natural. (7:32)
Look for actual certifications on product labels to ensure it’s not false advertising. (12:17)
70 to 80% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D so we need to supplement with it. (15:56)
Most studies are showing around 2000 milligrams of omega threes daily for before getting pregnant and during pregnancy. (25:17)
Eat foods that have high iron content. (31:06)
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CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Brian Strickland 00:11 Hey gang, welcome back to another episode of The Holistic Navigator Podcast, where we believe in the body's ability to heal itself. My name is Brian Strickland. I'm the producer of the show. And today we've got another fantastic episode lined up for you. We're speaking with Cady Kuhlman all about prenatal care for moms to be and the babies they're carrying. Few things are as important as your baby's health. And that's exactly why we wanted to address some of the misconceptions behind prenatal health, including what nutrients moms should focus on getting, how to pick out safe and quality prenatal supplements, and what role a healthy diet and nutrition plays while pregnant. I'm gonna keep my part short and sweet here. So without further delay, here's the host of this show, Ed Jones.
Ed Jones 01:27 Thank you so much, Brian. I look so forward to coming in doing this podcast, The Holistic Navigator, I am excited about today, we are going to be talking about something that's near and dear to my heart, which is the lack of information or wisdom that is being presented to pregnant women, and those who are wishing to be pregnant. You know, the medical field and again, I'll continue to repeat, I don't hate the medical field or the people in it. What I despise is the fact that it's a broken system. It's a sick care system, not a healthcare system. And the people who are in it are generally wonderful, smart, loving and wise. But they only have a toolbox that they were given based on their experiences and training. And one of the worst is when women who are pregnant, seek their nutritional advice from their normal conventional physicians and health care people. And why do I say that? Because the studies today are very clear about the impact of nutrition on the developing fetus and the life of that baby after it is born. In fact, in 1970, autism was one in 2,000. And this year, it is one in 59. Nothing can be affecting that except nutrition and toxins. That's the only two things. Well today we have a guest that who is very experienced in the field of nutrition, and especially into prenatal nutrition care, because one is she's only three weeks away from delivering her first child. And also because she spent so long studying this whole subject. So welcome Cady Kuhlman.
Cady Kuhlman 03:23 Thank you. Thanks for having me on here today. This is definitely, as Ed was saying, a topic that's near and dear to my heart. You know, future babies and generations to come need this information so that we can have a lower rate of chronic diseases, a lowering of the widespread autism that's going on. And the only way we can do that is through knowledge and empowering people to know how to really change their health, and what nutrients to take before, during and after pregnancy. So this is a great subject to you know, I hope to spread.
Ed Jones 04:10 Thank you. And you know, you and I both were on TV yesterday, we were interviewed on this same subject. And that's one reason we're doing the podcast today because we certainly are fresh on this conversation. But I made an analogy yesterday, and I came up with a minutes before going on TV. What if the people all of you listening we all have cell phones I can almost guarantee and many of us go to Verizon. What would you do if you went to Verizon to buy a new cell phone and all they had on the shelf and they could offer you is a flip phone? You would realize very quickly that they were living in the dark ages. Well guess what your conventional doctor is where he's living and she's living? About 15 years behind the studies. And the reason I say that, and Cady going to expand on this is because they're still talking about recommending things like folic acid. If they do recommend omega three, it's not even close to where the studies are showing brain, better brain development, better IQ development, and so many other factors. They're talking about prenatals. And they give out prenatal vitamins in the office that has so many ingredients that are questionable talc, which is you see the commercials that everybody's suing everybody over the addition of talc, because it causes cancer. And then you've got artificial this and red dyes. And then the big one is folic acid, which Cady is going to explain a lot of these different components over the next 20 minutes. But I know Cady, you've come up come up with something called the core four for pregnancy or prenatal. Tell us about that.
Cady Kuhlman 05:57 Yeah, so I want to simplify this down for consumers so they don't feel confused or overwhelmed when trying to figure out, where do I start? What supplements do I take?And, you know, the last thing we want to do is confuse a consumer. So what I've done is I've really distilled it down to four essential nutrients that I believe every female that is trying to get pregnant, or especially if they're currently pregnant, these are the four nutrients that they need to have at optimal levels in their system. Now, I didn't just pull these nutrients just from, you know, my brain or some random source. These are the four most clinically studied nutrients for baby's development, baby's brain development, for helping prevent chronic disease long term. You know, one of the the facts is very clear that the time that you can affect a baby's health, the most is while in the womb, and up to two years old. That's when all these neural connections are being made. That's when the brain is developing the most. So why not give the most nutrients possible to a baby to really begin their best life possible? I think every mom wants that for their baby. I think they just don't know where to start. And they're given misinformation so they don't dose things properly. So these four nutrients that I believe so heavily in is, as Ed mentioned, not folic acid, but folate. So it's B9, so it is a B vitamin, but it's a different form of B9, it's a naturally occurring form of B9, folic acid, a synthetic folate is natural. Without getting too heavily into it, about 60% of Americans cannot utilize folic acid. So if you turned your multivitamin around, and you were one of those 60%, and you saw folic acid in there, your baby would not benefit from that multivitamin. Instead, it's actually harmful. And so why not go on and just take the natural form that every person can absorb which is folate.
Ed Jones 08:20 Well, very, very well spoken. And the thing is, back in this, I don't know, the year when we discovered that deficiency of folic acid would cause birth defects. And it was the best information we had at the time everyone makes the wisest decision they can given the information they have at the moment. Well, during those years, we did not even know what this gene defect called MTHFR is, which I have spoke about on several occasions on The Holistic Navigator. So it did prevent those birth defects to a great degree. But on the other side, we don't know what else it caused because the research now shows such an increase in miscarriages and autism and depression and and and, and so it's time to change people who are out there in the medical field. You know, the thing is, again, so many individual health care practitioners really are fear thinking for themselves, they look for their over arching agency or whoever they're under to give them guidelines. Well, the guidelines I can tell you from 41 years of super observations and study is always 10 to 15 years behind the the cutting edge information. Now they do that because they're very conservative, and they'd rather stick with the wrong things that are reliable, than take any chances on getting too aggressive with new ideas. Because once in a blue moon those can be wrong and in a court of law, then that could look pretty sour for them. But that's not the way I live, I don't think many people listening to The Holistic Navigator there. Many of you listeners are brave, you're willing to partner with wise information and take heed of the real wisdom that we now have access to. So again on folate. Folate is the natural form from food. Folic is synthetic. So if you're looking at any vitamins, including people who are not pregnant and use the folic acid, I recommend strongly to throw it away and get food grown. And isn't this true Cady most of the supplements still being sold and recommended has folic acid in it?
Cady Kuhlman 10:38 Yes, I went shopping recently at some stores that I won't mention, but you know, drugstores and convenience stores and every single multivitamin and prenatal had folic acid. So you have to intentionally shop to not find the folic acid, unfortunately, at these big name stores.
Ed Jones 10:59 Right. That's exactly you have to intentionally shop and do not trust just because the label looks good and says all the fancy words like natural. It doesn't mean anything. You know, there was a company and I guess they're still in business called seventh generation. Are they still in business?
Cady Kuhlman 11:14 They are.
Ed Jones 11:14 Yeah, you know, they kind of got they were a big name at one time. But the reason they came up with that is because when there's danger, when there's toxins, when there's injuries to an infant a developing infant, it doesn't matter if it's animals are humans, it takes seven generations to truly work your way through that one exposure of an infant. So we're exposing every infant and I don't know how many generations is even possible to work through the damage we've already done. But the only hope we had the big hope we have is this information you're giving us so the multivitamin we've kind of covered, don't trust the doctors multivitamins, they are giving us prenatal in my opinion. be skeptical, question it. And secondly, if you're buying it over the counter, make sure it doesn't have folic acid and it has, you know, more food grown and truly non GMO. What are some of the magic words Cady, tell me some,
Cady Kuhlman 12:12 Some magic positive words?
Ed Jones 12:15 What you would see on a box. Non GMO is one.
Cady Kuhlman 12:17 Yes. I think you know, organic, non GMO, whole foods sourced, potentially, I do want to touch since we're on this subject, a lot of companies use something called marketing kind of fluffy or fluff where they, they use words like natural or and they use words like you know, plant based or derived from natural ingredients or something. And so maybe that's good, but that's also a very loose terminology. That's not some certification. That's not some process of, of cleanliness that this brand has gone through. So looking for actual certifications like the non GMO seal, the organic stamp, the kosher, the you know, there's all these the actual certifications that give a little bit more. A little bit more truth behind the supplement rather than just throwing these marketing kind of hype words natural and all that. So just be aware of marketing is smart and they know how to do that.
Ed Jones 13:20 Perfect, perfect. And again, repeat for the property. Third time you go to your physician, because they have a skill set. There's no doubt, really smart people, but it is not in the field of nutrition. If you went to get your oil change to where you're going to expect that person to be able to change your transmission. No, you're not. So find people who you can trust in that arena. Secondly, Cady, I want to talk about vitamin D. You know, I was looking and I have studied extensively for decades, this vitamin D connection to disease and health and I found something yesterday that was new to me. You know, we know and you're going to talk about this the importance of vitamin D, making sure you have enough before you get pregnant is the best choice. But if you haven't, then at least work on it as soon as you find out. But in Scotland, they in 2017, the Scotland government has decided they're going to offer every single pregnant woman in Scotland a dose of free bottles of vitamin D, because they kind of operate differently than we do. It's not just profit centered healthcare. And what they're wanting to do is actually make a true difference in the rate of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and low birth rates. All these things can be triggered somewhat by the low vitamin D, isn't that correct?
Cady Kuhlman 14:47 Very correct. So in a study in the journal New England Medicine, it said the risk of low vitamin D levels for infants includes a lower birth rate, impaired skeletal development, respiratory infections and more allergic or more allergies later on in their life. So right now, I mean, if you if we read that again, that is four huge chronic problems that could be avoided, potentially. Nothing's 100% in life, but huge problems that could be avoided by just optimizing your vitamin D. Vitamin D does come as we all probably know from the sun. However, we all run scared of the sun, it seems, in our generation because of the fear of skin cancer. I don't but you know, a lot of people do. And then second of all, vitamin D is not found in food very commonly. You might find it in some wild caught salmon, some sardines, potentially and things, but you are not going to find large copious amounts of vitamin D in food. So 70 to 80% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D. So what does that mean, we have to supplement with it. The studies for this are showing between 2000-4000 IUs or international units of vitamin D daily, during pregnancy, we always say the best way to truly know what quantity you need would be for you to get blood work or lab work. And maybe you need more than this. But a safe dose would be between two to 4000 a day.
Ed Jones 16:27 Well, you know, I have not been one who's been really great at getting blood work. But I actually did about two weeks ago, I got my vitamin D checked. And did I tell you what it was Cady?
Cady Kuhlman 16:41 No, you didn't.
Ed Jones 16:42 Okay, well, before I even tell you what it was, you know me pretty well I take and if people listen to my previous podcast, on my personal, you know, program that I take, you know, I take about 70 supplements a day. My vitamin D is about 48 nanograms. If I did not take the supplements, it would be about 12. At 12. Every single disease is tripled or more because of the low vitamin D, I take about 12 to 14,000 units today. The magic of vitamin D occurs about 50 nanograms. So I am at the point of being really, you know, good levels that are therapeutic. But only because I take the supplements. I'm in the sun and axes go the suntan beds once a week. I've done that for years, and I still have to struggle. What about these people who are living on Twinkies and and Krispy kremes, and french fries and all the bad food? They don't have a chance especially if the woman is a female, and they're going to get pregnant there. Their reserves are so low. And you know, I look at vitamin D the other day, you can get 5000 units for $5.60 for 100 pills. So what is the dose that most should be taking if they don't get a blood test? And it was saying this before you'd answer if you want to get a blood test, and you don't want to fool with the conventional ways to do that, go to our product page on The Holistic Navigator. And under direct labs, you can order any blood work that you desire, including vitamin D, and you go to a local lab to get your blood drawn and you get the results in two days. So don't there's not an excuse for not knowing.
Cady Kuhlman 18:28 Or I will throw in my obgyn was very good at allowing me to ask for certain blood tests when I would go into her office. I don't know if every midwife or ob would be this way. But I did have an interesting thing that occurred with me. I tested my vitamin D before getting pregnant. And I was at 78 nanograms after I believe about three months of being pregnant. I was down to 48 nanograms.
Ed Jones 18:56 Wow.
Cady Kuhlman 18:56 So that shows right there, the baby was really needing that that was used in his development. He was pulling that from me and I still was maintaining the same level of vitamin D supplementation that I had previously been on before getting pregnant. But it shows how powerful that nutrient was for him. So I did have to up my dose a little bit and that bloodwork was able to show me that.
Ed Jones 19:20 But you are also the the informed consumer who is asking those questions because there are, you know, really people out there in the conventional medical field who are willing to work with the patient, but you have to be informed to know what to ask. So we've covered the multivitamin, and we've covered the vitamin D, what's the next two things?
Cady Kuhlman 19:40 Fish oil would be my next big topic. So I this is one of probably my most passionate nutrients. There are over 1,196 scholarly articles published on fish oil during pregnancy.
Ed Jones 19:55 Wow.
Cady Kuhlman 19:55 So this is not just fish oil in general. This is not you know, oh you know A 70 year old man needs fish oil kind of thing. This is for the nine months that you are pregnant there are that many studies 1196 studies on fish oil during pregnancy. Fish oil, most people probably know at this point, but I just want to give a little background. Fish oil contains something called omega threes. These are anti inflammatory, long chain essential fatty acids. Distilling that down, what that means is essential. Every cell needs this type of fat. So our brain needs this fat, our digestive system, our respiratory system, our immune system. And the problem is, well positive and negative looks thing, how you look at it, these fats are not synthesized by the human body. So our body is not going to make these fats. This is not something naturally occurring. They must be obtained from your diet or from supplementation. So from our diet, do we eat wild caught salmon three to four times a week? No, I'd say maybe .1% of the population does. Therefore, we have to get omega threes through supplementation.
Ed Jones 21:10 Well, and you and I could talk on this for two hours on this one subject. I do want to say that the choice of the product again, as you know, is just as critical. And maybe even more so for omega three than on the multivitamin. Because wherever the fish is swimming is going to accumulate the toxins and what is the number one toxin is mercury? And do you know that a good really good study has, has shown that elevated mercury levels that we now presently have has cost us 700,000 IQ points in this country. If you you know, I don't know what that means per person. But mercury blocks the ability of the brain to think. Now that's really super important for most of us. And for those of us like if I had a wife and I was younger, what I would do before she ever got pregnant is I would do a heavy metal test. And you can do that through our website at The Holistic Navigator under products, you go to Thorne, and they have a saliva kit, which is very, very accurate. And it tests for many of the heavy metals. But when buying the omega threes, what do they need to look forward to make sure that they do not get an inferior product?
Cady Kuhlman 22:29 So unfortunately, just reading labels alone is kind of hard for the consumer, I will say. So what I would recommend, as you know, a consumer from their standpoint, would be to go to a trusted health food store in your area, and really speak to them about the sourcing of fish. And so I can tell you right now, after a lot of research on different types of fish, wild caught Alaskan Pollock is typically a very clean sourced fish. That doesn't mean that every brand that is using the Pollock is perfect. But the way what the waters that the pollock are found in to how they migrate and and what they're around and all that seems to be a cleaner source fish. So if you turned your label around and saw the wild Alaskan Pollock, I could give that some confidence. But I also think just you know, looking for something called the triglyceride form of fish oil is also important. That's a form that your body is able to synthesize and use a little bit easier than the Ester ethyl form. And then looking for things like third party testing, or verification that they have been tested free of mercury. And like I said, it's not always easy on the consumers end but I would hope you would have a trusted health foods store in your area that could vet these products for you. I will say the cheaper the fish oil and the more capsules you can get that would concern me some because you go to Costco and Sam's and I'm not just generally hating on all of their supplements, they may have some that are okay. But for the most part, the cheaper they can source fish means the nastier the waters the fish were in, the less testing they've done. And there's a known process that the cheaper the the fish oil pill, probably the older the fish were in that process. So you're not going to eat old fish. Why would you want to take a fish oil that's old?
Ed Jones 24:34 That makes total sense because, you know, you don't really smell those rancid oils inside that capsule very much so it can be hidden. So that's great information. And again, you know, I'm a huge adversary of farm raised foods or fish as a general rule. That doesn't mean I don't eat them. I have to do the best I can with what I have. What's in front of me if I'm out to eat but it is the you know, the farm raise foods are the ones that you primarily are getting when you go, wherever to get fish. And so those are extremely low in these omega threes. Just to wrap up the omega three, how many milligrams does a woman probably need to consider to be at her optimal?
Cady Kuhlman 25:17 Most studies are showing around 2000 milligrams of omega threes daily for before getting pregnant and during pregnancy.
Ed Jones 25:26 Now when you say 2000 does that mean the size of the capsule or the EPA DHA?
Cady Kuhlman 25:30 That means the total omega threes which is the combination of EPA and DHA together on a more conservative end, there are some studies showing at least 800 milligrams. I just think if someone was willing to eat really well and eat the fish and eat and get omega threes from their diet, I think 800 milligrams could be enough. But I think because of the massive deficiency of omega threes in our, in our food and in our current environment, I think 2000 is the safest bet to go with. I do want to say before we move on from omega threes. The last thing would be to large studies have shown that women that consume at least 800 milligrams of omega threes daily reduces their risk of preterm birth by more than 45%.
Ed Jones 26:16 Wow. That's is not to be sneezed at. That is life changing. And we got one more topic and then we'll be done. But before we get there, and we're not dismissing the power of healthy foods, we're just simply focusing today on the supplements. But this is a huge insurance that you have to have. In fact, there's a physician named Dr. Geo that I got his email about once a week and he traced prostate cancer. And he just had this little article, why can't I get all I need from food? Because he wrote many articles on the power of supplements and food for prostate cancer. Well, he wrote, I have gotten some pushback from the pure foodist people arguing that food is all one needs to beat cancer and live long and well. Well, I fight this argument too, because we have seemingly a chunk of society that is worshipping food and and dispensing with all of the value of supplements as though they were worthless or even dangerous, was dangerous to me to not take the proper supplements. And he like he says, first of all, no one will ever get made an argument against the medicinal components of good food. And yes, food is essential in managing or outright beating prostate cancer. No argument here. But the best food is clean meaning organic, plant based, locally grown and prepared properly. The problem is that consistently, eating clean is hard. The moment you have a meal outside your home that you did not probably grow the food or shopped, you know endlessly to find the right food, there's less control of the quality of food you ingest. And also we have evolved from eating wild foods that contain dramatically higher levels of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, that that rather than what we're purchasing now. So is we're not trying to replace good food with supplements we're adding to it because it's simply impossible unless you're living in a cave, or you're super rich to have the food you need. So lastly, what is the last thing on this core four?
Cady Kuhlman 28:23 Oh, well, before we do that I had one more stat on food just because food is very important to me as well. But I also am a huge believer in supplementation as we can tell. So I want to give one study here that kind of blew my mind. A 2013 study published in the Journal of Family and Reproductive health evaluated the eating habits of 485 pregnant women, they found that only 1.9% of these women met the fruit and vegetable guidelines for pregnancy. So less than 2% of females were getting the appropriate amount of fruits and vegetables. What that means is the nutrient dense foods that contain the phytochemicals, the antioxidants, the minerals, the vitamins, only 2% of the population was getting it. So if you're not going to get it through food, you How are you going to get it are you just hoping it flies into your skin through you know, osmosis through the air or to the baby it just won't happen. And so I also found this very interesting and I, this really resonated with me. A baby's first experience with flavor actually occurs before birth, when he tastes and smells flavors within the amniotic fluid. So what that says to me when a mom eats you know, I think I've heard that most Americans eat 12 foods, that's that they only eat 12 different foods a year. So that's like potatoes, bread, chicken, beef, you know, their variety is so limited. That baby's gonna come out and the mom and dad are gonna wonder why is my baby so picky? Why does he not like any of this food? Why does he not like that? Of course there are developmental stages and there's times the child is going to be picky. So I'm not saying it's gonna be a perfect road, you know with getting your child to eat everything. But we do wonder, okay that mom ate 12 different foods or whole pregnancy, why is my baby's diet so limited while the baby wasn't used to flavors wasn't used to those taste wasn't used to that in the womb. So developing those tastes is a little bit harder outside of the womb. So think about your choices. while pregnant, you can actually help long term set your baby up for potentially liking vegetables and nutrient dense foods.
Ed Jones 30:38 Wow, a Twinkies during the whole pregnancy and guess what they like? That's great point. Lastly, we're going to touch on the iron because it has so much to do, again with development, IQ and other things. So tell us a little bit about that. So we can wind it up and why they don't want to, again, fall into the trap of advertising and products that look slick and or following the advice of your conventional practitioner if they don't have the right training.
Cady Kuhlman 31:06 So you know, iron is, is essential and carrying oxygen and red blood cells to the baby throughout the body to the placenta. And a lot of women struggle with keeping their iron at appropriate levels during pregnancy. I know by I believe it's by week 27-28 of pregnancy, your body has doubled its iron stores. So if you are not eating foods that contain a lot of iron, how on earth is your body going to double its iron. And I know a lot of women will say well iron hurt my stomach or iron constipated me. And if that happens, I understand the frustration, you're going to want to quit your multivitamin, you're gonna want to quit your iron supplement, because who wants to be constipated or nauseous when that's already two problems that can occur during pregnancy. So what I look for in iron is a food based iron, meaning iron that they've gotten from beets and spinach and sources that our bodies used to and they're extracting that into a really concentrated dose. studies are showing at least 27 milligrams of iron per day. I still think that's with you eating you know clean ground beef, you eating dark leafy greens and things that can help support the uptake of iron within your body. For me, it took about two to three times that amount during pregnancy, I had a little harder time building up my iron. I don't know why I was eating tons of leafy greens, I eat lots of good clean source beef. But I was having to take two to three pills throughout my pregnancy to keep my iron where it was at. And I did that and I did it with like I said iron that did not constipate me and did not hurt my stomach.
Ed Jones 32:56 Well, again, for the most important points on supplementation for any female who wants to get pregnant or is pregnant. So you know, we could talk for another hour. But we may do this at another time. But I think this is filled people's head with so much. And I do want to again encourage individuals to know that it is time to move out of the flip phone going into the cell phone place. If someone's offering flip flops only you move on to someone who has a lot more to offer. And that is such importance that you need to empower yourself this webs this podcast the holistic navigator is here to educate. We are in a place that we have experienced we we know the stories we know the studies. And I hope that all of you can take this and share it with your friends. Anyone who you think would would value from learning this because you're not going to learn it in the office, you're not going to learn it from the mass media. You're not gonna learn it from Web MD. There's so much out there that's outdated, even though it looks current. And I will put a plug in for one last thing. Visit your local health food store if it's you know people who are passionate who have had years of study. Those are the people who generally not always but generally will give you the sound advice that you need, the kind that you're hearing from Cady today. So thank you, Cady for joining us on The Holistic Navigator.
Cady Kuhlman 34:24 Thank you for having me.
Ed Jones 34:26 And again, I want to repeat if a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm. That was Hippocrates long ago. Thank you everybody for joining us at The Holistic navigator. This is Ed Jones.
Brian Strickland 34:40 The information on this podcast and the topics discussed have not been evaluated by the FDA or anyone of the medical profession and is not aimed to replace any advice you may receive from your medical practitioner. The holistic navigator assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials. The holistic navigators not a doctor, nor does he claim to be, please consult your physician before beginning any health regimen.