2. Nausea and Aversions in Pregnancy and How Nutrition can Help

In this episode of the Vibrantly You® Podcast, we’re diving into how to manage nausea and food aversions during pregnancy with practical, nutrition-focused strategies. We’ll share tips for overcoming morning sickness, finding foods you can tolerate, and staying nourished even when eating feels challenging.

If you’re in your first trimester and struggling with nausea and food aversions, this episode is packed with advice to help you feel supported and empowered through this stage of pregnancy.

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only and not to diagnose or treat any conditions. Before beginning any type of fitness or nutrition program, it is your responsibility to consult with a medical professional.

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• Caitlin's Instagram @wholesomehuntressnutrition

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And yeah, it it can just be really hard to eat when you're experiencing this like intense nausea, especially if it's all day long and it's not just reserved for the morning, like that morning sickness. So, what would you say your best tips are for getting in the nutrients that our bodies need when it just feels really hard to eat at all? Ideally, we're trying to pair something with carb protein, healthy fat fiber. Um, you'll probably hear me refer to this on this podcast a lot, the PHFF approach. Again, it really helps to keep our blood sugar levels more stable, which is in turn going to help reduce your nausea. Number two would be to try those smaller, more frequent meals that timing you might really help. Welcome to the Vibrantly You podcast. We're your hosts, Megan Martnow. Caitlin Cipriano. In this podcast, we talk about fitness and nutrition on your motherhood journey. Whether you're trying to conceive, pregnant, postpartum, or beyond, you're welcome here. Nothing is off limits, and our goal is to support you in this important season of life so that you can feel vibrantly you. As a reminder, this information is not medical advice. Please see the show notes for more details. Welcome to the Vibrantly You podcast. Today we're going to be talking about dealing with nausea and food aversions in pregnancy and how you can use nutrition to support yourself through these challenging pregnancy symptoms. Okay, Caitlin, let's start with nausea. This is probably one of the number one pregnancy complaints, right, is like nausea, vomiting, or morning sickness, as a lot of people like to call it. Although it can happen at any time of the day, it is not subjected to just the morning time. But it usually occurs for most people between that six to 10 week mark, and it's really peaking around nine to 10. And this is due to metabolic and hormonal shifts primarily. However, again, some women can really experience nausea and vomiting throughout their whole entire pregnancy. Yes, I know for both of my pregnancies, the nausea started actually right, you know, almost exactly at that six-week mark. And with my son, it lasted until about 10 weeks. Unfortunately, the second time for me, it lasted more like 16 to 18 weeks. I know you experience the same thing. And yeah, it can just be really hard to eat when you're experiencing this like intense nausea, especially if it's all day long and it's not just reserved for the morning, like that morning sickness. So, what would you say your best tips are for getting in the nutrients that our bodies need when it just feels really hard to eat at all? Totally. Yeah, I really personally mine was very similar to with like my son. I didn't have a ton of this, but then with my second pregnancy with my daughter, like also it was significantly worse and for longer. So it's like interesting correlation right there. Um, but yeah, there's definitely some things that you can play around with as far as helping to improve some of these symptoms. Again, I will say, like, not every all of these strategies that I'm going to talk about are gonna work for every single person. So it's gonna require some trial and error, most likely. Um, one of the biggest things that you can do is to try smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day. And this is really helpful both in the first trimester when you're dealing with this, and again, it'll come again helpful in the third trimester too. But, you know, try to, you can either have like smaller portions of foods and then like break it up and have that thing again a little bit later, or you can also think of it as having sort of like more snacks um throughout your day. The thing that we want to do is if you are having more like snack-like foods, is still making sure that we're trying to incorporate some nutrient density into these snacks and that we're not relying solely on like processed food items during this um time. Um, the other thing that is, I think, the hugest piece is that we want to try to pair protein with our carbs. Um, so carbohydrates are great. This is probably what you're gonna want primarily during the first trimester. And I say this with so much love like this is so challenging. Do the best that you can here. Um, but carbs are easy to digest and they can also cause a spike in our blood sugar, which can actually further aggravate your nausea. So by pairing that carb source with protein or healthy fats, if you can, you're going to have a little bit more complete meal. You're gonna delay that digestion period more and prevent that blood sugar spike from happening. So again, this can be like, okay, you know, shoot. I really am thinking I can only do toast, you know. See if you can put some like peanut butter on the toast, like something. Um, I'm thinking of like the easiest thing I know. Yeah, flipper toast for a little while here. Um, but you know, don't just have plain, plain toast. See if you can add something to it, or like if you can tolerate to, you know, have like some eggs, or you know, again, think about how you can pair something that you feel like you can tolerate at this point. Um, we'll talk about this a little more with like the aversions and proteins, but like you don't need to like force yourself to where you're good, then just like, you know, vomit up. Like really listen to your body and see what you feel like you can tolerate in the moment. Um this also comes with trying to identify if there are any like specific trigger foods for you. Like some things are going to like not feel great, whether it's like the smell or like the you know, the taste, or maybe you're getting like other symptoms like heartburn with more acidic foods, you know, try to like keep some mental notes on how you're feeling after having certain foods um throughout the day. And it might be that one meal is like more challenging for you than another. So if you know, like I am not gonna be able to do like as well at breakfast time, you know, I will do the best I can to try to like make up for some things later in the day as I know that I'm feeling better. Conversely, if you'd find you do better in the middle of the day, like try to see what you can do there. I know like dinner was really hard for me personally. So it's like I know that I'm not gonna dinner typically like is a little bit more like balanced from like a nutrient perspective for us, and so that was like hard. I needed to figure out how to shift some of that into other meals because I might have only been able to eat that toast with peanut butter at dinner time, actually. So this is where playing or experimenting with the timing of your meals to be really helpful. So again, this is gonna be experimental. Um, something that is really helpful for a lot of people is ginger or peppermint items um to really help with that nausea. So this can be tea, there's like chews and candies that are great. Um, I know you lived on life stamperaments for a while. Um any again, anything that you feel like is again helpful with like ginger or peppermint, both really, really great um evidence-based um information here as far as helping nausea control. Um, but yeah, there's some great like chews and stuff also. So um again, try some different things out with either of those. I find that's hugely helpful for people. Um and then again, like Megan and I are saying, this can really vary from like pregnancy to pregnancy. Um, you may not struggle with this with one, and you may with another. Like it's all about figuring out what works best for you, like in that particular pregnancy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I know for me, like in my pregnancy with my son, like, yes, I was nauseous from weeks like six to ten, but it was kind of more reserved for like that first half of the day, and I could kind of you know struggle through it, and then I was all right, but I don't know if it's like a girl pregnancy thing or what, but with my daughter, I just like from the second my eyes opened in the morning until I passed out at night, like I was just so nauseous, and even the thought of eating made me nauseous, it was awful. Yeah, and so I will say too, like, and you know this as well, like sometimes it is like a little bit more intense, and so I always tell people, like, check with your provider, you don't need to like suffer in silence here, but there are certain like supplements and medications that can be helpful. Um, also if you think it's like really significant, like you can't hold anything down. There's a condition called the hyperemesis scroptarum, which has in the past like year, like a lot more research and improvements and treatment plans. So, like let your provider know what's going on. Like, don't just think like, oh, this is just like a pregnancy thing. There may very well be options to help you feel better. Yes, that's such a good point. Um, I know like I ended up having to use some medication in that um pregnancy with my daughter because I just couldn't function throughout the day. And I know that you were using like different supplements and stuff. So, like, there's so many options out there. So, like Caitlin said, like, don't be afraid to have a discussion with your doctor and be honest with them if you're really struggling and you need some extra help. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Okay, so I love all of those tips. Amazing. Um, it seems like, you know, there really is a lot that we can do from a nutrition perspective. I know we just talked about like medication supplements, but there are a lot of things that we can do, like the timing, the pairing the carbs with protein and like that. I love that one. Um, you know, keeping tabs on our blood sugar, things like that, avoiding having an empty stomach. Um, so in addition to nausea, there are some other common symptoms that people tend to have, like food aversions. And I know this can be a really big one for people. So let's talk a little more about that. Yeah, this one can be really tough to get that past if you've got some pretty like strong specific food aversions. Um, so food aversions are actually like a physiological response um to protect our baby from toxins and pathogens. And this goes back, you know, like super far in why food aversions exist. It was just to really like help protect the mom and the baby to not eat something that would be harmful for them. Our food system is obviously like much, much safer now. But some of those things that maybe wouldn't have been safe in the past are things that we can still have aversions to now, like certain plants and meats that might be might have been potentially dangerous. Again, like from a food system perspective, like much, much more safe now. But you can still have that again, that physiological response going on. So, um, again, like common food aversions tend to be like certain vegetables, meats, eggs. Um, and so, you know, we want to honor this, like first and foremost, like don't force yourself to eat something if it's literally like making you get gas, you know. Um, but there are again ways that you can try to incorporate them that might feel a little bit better. Yeah. That's so cool that it was like a physiological response, like trying to protect us. I mean, obviously, like you said, now we don't necessarily need it, but it is really cool to just like know the origin and that there's a purpose behind it and it's not just like our bodies rebelling against us, which it can sometimes feel like. Um, but with those aversions, like you said, it seems like a lot of them do tend to be more towards those like animal protein sources. So if someone is having some strong aversions to those things and is struggling to get in protein, um, what are some recommendations that you have that might be, you know, something that sounds a little more appealing, maybe a little easier on the stomach? Totally. And I think again, between like the nausea and the food aversion piece, getting in enough protein in pregnancy is a really common challenge, not only in this first trimester, but just throughout. Um, really try to choose options that you feel like you can tolerate. Um, you know, it's like you can think about like theory sources like yogurt. If again, if you can't tolerate eggs, like that's wonderful. I know for me, like in my first pregnancy, like if I cooked the eggs, like the smell, like I could not. But if like my husband cooked them for me, like it was fine. So, like, there's just like weird stuff like that that happens during pregnancy, and you got to do the best that you can to like roll the punches. Um, but like our plant-based um sources of proteins are great too, like legumes, lentils, quinoa, nuts and seeds. So there's definitely other options so that you can still try to get like a wide variety of nutrients and protein sources in um smoothies can also be like a great way here because it also is like kind of like a little cold, which tends to feel nice when you're like hozzling like nausea, um, and adding some collagen protein powder to it can be helpful. Um, collagen is really helpful for skin elasticity and pregnancy. So I like to recommend that for like a protein powder if you're incorporating it. Um, again, like any supplements, like if you're unsure, like please check with like your provider or if you are working, you know, with like a nutrition professional. Um, like make sure that you feel comfortable before starting anything new there. Yes. Okay, those are some great options. Um all of this was so helpful. Um, so as we start to wrap up this episode, Caitlin, give us your top three action items for someone who's dealing with nausea, food aversions that they can take away from this episode and start implementing right now to feel better. Yeah, so number one, I want to go back to that point about pairing your carbs with a protein source. I think that is hugely important. Again, ideally, we're trying to pair something with um, you know, carb, protein, healthy fat fiber. Um, you'll probably hear me refer to this on this podcast a lot, the PHFF approach. Again, it really helps to keep our blood sugar levels more stable, which is in turn going to help reduce your nausea. Um, again, I know that that's not always going to be possible, but trying to do your best there um can make a big difference. Um, try those number two would be to try those smaller, more frequent meals that timing you might really help with reducing nausea too. And then for those food aversions, like really do the best that you can. Like I mentioned, like some of them are just can be a little bit wonky. Um, but experiment and try to see like what's best for you. And again, like with any of this stuff, like if you feel like you are miserable, like please, please let your provider know, like you don't have to suffer. Awesome. Okay. Well, that was great. That wraps up our episode on nausea and food aversions in pregnancy. Thank you so much for tuning in. And if you have more questions, be sure to follow us over on our Instagram page at Vibrantly You Podcast and give Caitlin a follow as well on her page at wholesome huntress on Instagram. And we will talk to you in the next episode.