Nutrition in Pregnancy: Part Two

"We live in a world that glorifies youth, uncommitted sex, and bodies that require a ridiculous amount of self-serving time in the gym.
Let's turn that around.
Let's reaffirm the bodies of women who have generously and selflessly produced life for one, two three, or four babies. Let's appreciate those men who work hard to support their families and who don't have time to stop off at the gym and lift weights because they're eager to get home and play with their kids."

-Dr. Kevin Leman

All I have to say is Amen. No, seriously, Amen. I know I said in my last post that my next article would show you how to optimally nourish your unborn baby, but, I think we need to spend some more time celebrating what is happening inside a woman's body when she's pregnant before we can move on.

You know what's funny? Something my friend Charlotte posted on my facebook today got me thinking. She said, "I just saw a VS commercial and was honestly disgusted by these womens' bodies. Holy cow they're too skinny and it's not even sexy, just awkward seeing a prepubescent body in lingerie. I don't get why we idolize that."

So why do we idolize that, ladies? Have you ever stopped to question why we women think, "the skinnier the better?" I mean, really, deep down, that's what most of us think. Just admit it. I remember when I was still recovering from my stomach problems, and was in pain every day and continuing to drop weight. I was at a visit with my chiropractor, a wonderful woman I've known since I was a little girl, and she asked me how much I weighed. I think I weighed about 99 lbs at the time. She said, "You're really pushing it. You should be at least 110." I said, "Yeah, I know, but it's hard to gain weight when I'm always in so much pain from eating," but my most inner voice quietly shouted, "The skinnier, the better."

Wait a second. Where did I get that? Why did I believe that?

Do you think this might have something to do with the fact that we are taught that true beauty, as my friend termed, is found in model's "prepubescent" looking bodies? Women that are so skinny, they look sterile. You don't look at these women, lovely as they are, and think, "true femininity." You don't think of real women, women who produce babies, nurture families, and foster life. You think, "They're so hot." But who says so? I don't even think men are as attracted to these kinds of women as we think they are. But we women are. Why? Whose vision of beauty are we embracing? Some homosexual male designer's vision of beauty? Some woman designer's vision of beauty, who doesn't even look like that herself? I mean, seriously, where do we get this standard, these beliefs about what beauty is? We're all buying into beliefs about what we should and should not look like, but we're living believing a lie. It's like we're following the rules of a game that doesn't even exist. It's this fake universe created by a very small group of people, and it is not reality. And it's not what God says about beauty. Because it doesn't happen naturally. Shooting heroine, smoking and starving yourself to look a certain way is not just "beauty in the eye of the beholder." It's self hatred and vanity.

I know, I know, I am so unpolitically correct. But think about it. It's the truth. Our little girls grow up seeing the magazines and the commercials and start dieting at age 13. Or they go the other extreme and become obese. Either way, they're bombarded with these images, with these lies about true beauty and reality, and they know they can't measure up. So in the end they think, "the skinnier the better," just like I did, because then I can look like the models. They're hot, right?

No wonder we freak out when we get pregnant and gain weight every month.

But where did this all come from? I believe it is because we live in a culture that celebrates death, not life. You read that right. Every day we kill 4,000 babies in our nation and call it "choice."We teach our girls to hate their bodies, to murder the babies they make "inconveniently", and that children, husbands and family are a nuisance, an impediment to their greatest destiny. We teach our boys that girls are useful for no-strings-attached sex, that marriage is unnecessary, (or as Dr. Laura says, "Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?") and that strong men fulfilling their roles as husbands and fathers aren't needed.

So it's no wonder that we idolize sterile, skinny, fake model's bodies. We idolize them because we do not value life. I think it's high time to turn that around, as Dr. Leman said. Let's start by celebrating the bodies of women whose full, swollen tummies are holding the future of the world inside them, not getting fat.

I dare you. Go find a pregnant woman and tell her how extremely beautiful and attractive she is. And thank her for choosing, embracing, and loving life by giving her body selflessly to see it brought forth.