Ingredients of Milk
Something to remember if you’re nursing is that your body will literally harvest itself to produce the optimal milk. I never liked the reproachful language of pregnancy books that told you to Think of your baby! every time you ate a bite of food. Is this the best thing you could be feeding her? It doesn’t set up a great relationship with your unborn child to imagine them as some sort of nutritionist Santa Claus, tracking your every move to eventually wear all your fuckups on their helpless body.
No, the main reason to eat well when you’re pregnant and afterwards is for yourself. If you’re pumping out 20 oz of milk every day, it’s important that your body doesn’t extract all the nutrients that you need, and deplete your fat and energy and ability to feel good during a time when all of that will be challenged. You’ve also just given birth, so whether or not you’re nursing, you need food that will gently but firmly coax you back to health.
Many cultures around the world have postpartum traditions that emphasize the mother’s body, making the assumption that a healthy and strong caregiver is the best thing for the baby’s health. Some of them, like China’s zuo yue zi, are strict to the point of imprisonment, prohibiting the mother not only from cooking and housework but from reading or going outside, while a family matriarch does everything for her. Most of the traditions establish a period — forty days for zuo yue zi or Latin America’s cuarentena — during which particular foods are eaten that are meant to promote the mother’s health and comfort her at the same time. That they’re often abundant in the vitamins and minerals needed for nursing is probably no accident, because there’s nutritional wisdom that all food traditions accrue over time.
After asking friends, learning what I could about cultural traditions from the Internet, and reading some scientific studies, I’ve gathered an idea of how to eat postpartum that’s basically common sense, but a little more.
The first week: Soft, wet, and warm
Most cultures emphasize soups in the immediate postpartum period. For Koreans, it’s pretty much soup all the way through, and in particular miyeok guk, a seaweed soup with garlic and usually a meat or fish broth. (“I think our daily meals are generally soup/broth heavy — I remember one of my friends asked me if there was any not hot thing he could have on a sizzling summer day,” my friend Hanbyul said.) Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) prioritizes keeping mothers warm during postpartum, which means no cold food or ice water and more yin-nourishing food, which is food that isn’t necessarily hot in temperature but produces warming effects, like ginger or jujube dates. Indian and Ayurvedic traditions pay extra attention to the digestive qualities of foods, making sure everything is well-cooked and avoiding ingredients that cause gas, like brassicas and some legumes. Most postpartum diets exclude spicy foods, but other spices can be emphasized, especially those that aid digestion.
I wasn’t as hungry during the first week as I was later on, so variations on soup or porridge felt right to me. Miyeok guk, congee with kabocha squash, oatmeal with banana, kitchari and other mung dal preparations, creamed greens soup, and shiitake broth were all good staples during my first week.
The first month: Rich and strong
Fat and protein are the macronutrients needed for repairing your body and powering another one. You can see that in the prominence of ghee in Indian postpartum cooking, beans in Indigenous American, or organ meats (and meat in general) in Chinese. Since I’m vegetarian, most of my protein has come from lentils, nuts, and eggs. After the first week, my hunger picked up and now seems to abate or intensify differently each day, maybe in synchrony with Miro’s growth spurts.
The food I’ve been eating is a little more substantial now, though it’s still mostly all cooked and served warm, and since I’m having less broth or soup I’m drinking enormous quantities of water. Our friend Maureen made a lasagna filled with tofu, vegetables and a delicious bolognese made from red lentils. Jenn brought us tempeh rendang sliders, which we sandwiched in Martin’s potato rolls with slaw and toasted coconut chips. Last weekend I turned all the leftover pieces of bread into savory French Toast, which we ate with broiled feta and sautéed ramps.
I crave sweets and carbs, which seems to be typical for nursing people. One of my favorite treats has been carrot halwa, which is shredded carrots cooked with milk and sugar and mixed with cashews and raisins that have been fried in ghee. It’s rich and sweet without the crash that follows eating stuff like donuts or cookies, which I haven’t been avoiding (shoutout to Fan Fan) but in excess just don’t make me feel good. I’ve also made some puffed quinoa-peanut butter-honey bars that are delicious, and whose recipe I’ll share once I figure out how to get their texture right.
Choose your own superfoods
As I’ve talked about before, the whole idea of “superfoods” is kind of fake, and it can be harmful if it means limiting your variety of foods or causing stress over what you’re forcing or denying yourself. Paying attention to your body and giving it what it wants is always more important than following anyone else’s idea of what you should be eating.
So here’s a list of potential superfoods — foods that for one reason or another are great for healing or milk-making, and that I’ve been relying on heavily myself. Pick and choose based on what you like and what feels good.
Oats - Oats are galactogogues (meaning they increase milk production) which I haven’t really needed, but then I’ve eaten oatmeal for breakfast almost every day for years, so maybe that just means it works? They’ve got fiber and a lot of minerals that you need more of for making milk, like iron, folate, and zinc.
Broth - Meat, fish, or mushroom, though each has different benefits. Broth and broth soups are good for those early days, and the animal-based ones carry a lot of protein. Shiitake mushrooms are especially rich in B vitamins.
Congee - Another staple of early recovery, because it’s easy to digest and very versatile. It can be made from alternative grains like millet, which is considered a healing food in TCM. A friend made me some kabocha squash millet congee that I ate by itself, for dinner with eggs, and even with a little maple syrup as a dessert.
Seaweed - One of the few plant groups that contain DHA and EPA, which are omega-3 fatty acids that most nursing people don’t get the recommended levels of. Plus B-vitamins, protein and iron (especially in nori). There’s a reason seaweed shows up so frequently in postpartum foods.
Lentils - Lentils are among the easiest to digest legumes, and mung dal, in particular, is a staple Indian postpartum food (I had three different preparations show up at my house). For extra flavor and fat, you can make a tadka by frying whole spices like cumin and coriander in ghee, and pour it over the dal.
Eggs - If you don’t eat meat, you can still get many of the same nutrients from eggs, like iron and B vitamins. They also contain choline, which is recommended at higher doses if you’re breastfeeding for its role in nervous system development. They’re full of protein and healthy fat, and easy to digest.
Ghee/butter - Ghee is just butter with its milk solids removed, so it has less lactose and may be easier to digest. Butter isn’t bad for you, especially when it’s made from good milk, as it delivers a bunch of nutrients along with fat, which you need for milk production.
Peanut butter - A great source of healthy fat and protein, like all nuts and nut butters, plus recent studies indicate that exposure to peanuts through milk may reduce the risk of a later peanut allergy.
Ginger - TCM goes heavy on ginger, which has a long history of medicinal use, proven anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, and is another galactagogue. Ginger tea, fried rice with ginger, or a ginger-heavy broth just feel right after birth.
Spices - cinnamon, cumin, coriander, fennel, turmeric, fenugreek - I heard about methi, or fenugreek, from Indian friends, but it sounds like it’s used by many people around the world to facilitate milk production]. Cumin, coriander, and fennel are a classic Ayurvedic digestive aid, and cinnamon and turmeric may also improve digestion.
Coconut - I drank bottles and bottles of coconut water for hydration and electrolytes in the hospital and the first few days at home. I added coconut milk to stews and oatmeal afterwards, and I sprinkle toasted coconut into museli and on sandwiches now. It’s a healthy fat and contains a high amount of lauric acid, which may facilitate lactation.
Chocolate - Apparently some doctors counsel against eating chocolate while breastfeeding, because it contains caffeine and the stimulant theobromine, but the amount that passes into breastmilk is minimal. Chocolate boosts serotonin and maybe even dopamine, which is depleted during lactation. I think if you’re craving it, then eat it.
What I’m Cooking
Ginger fried rice
This is a warming and easy-to-digest meal that you can eat postpartum or if you’re recovering from anything. Ginger has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, and is a galactagogue, meaning that it increases milk production. Garlic is a flavor that gets transmitted to breastmilk and may actually increase sucking time, which is wild. Regardless, the flavors here are simple and comforting and the meal is a great one any time you could use a little comfort.