WASHINGTON – A healthy baby – that’s what pregnant moms want most. How to get what they need depends on what moms eat.
Renowned pediatrician Dr. William Sears has an unusual view of growing fetuses: “You’re growing a little baby brain inside. We call them little fat heads. A baby’s brain is 60 percent fat, so the first thing a mother needs to eat in pregnancy is healthy fats.”
Wild salmon tops his list of super foods for moms-to-be. Blueberries, vegetables and nuts are also big on that list, he tells WTOP in an interview about his new book, “The Healthy Pregnancy Book“, he co-authored with his wife, Martha Sears.
“Not a low-fat diet, but a right-fat diet”, he says.
And when it comes to the causes of autism, Sears believes in an autistic gene and he says that gene can be controlled like a dial.
“Whether you turn that dial up and the child gets autism or whether you turn that dial down, can, in many cases, be changed by a mother’s care during pregnancy,” he tells WTOP in an interview.
And what crosses the child’s lips after birth matters too.
“What’s new about autism is that we’re finding that the brain of an autistic child is more vulnerable to junk foods.”
His advice: Keep it natural, choose the right fats, avoid food dyes and stay away fom additives.
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