 A Raw Food Pregnancy:
Growing a Healthy Baby
Michael and Stephanie Keller from Bradenton, Florida
Our journey to a raw (living) food lifestyle began a few years ago, with a divinely inspired quest to eat as God intended us to eat. This started with an elimination of certain foods such as, Pork, shellfish, etc. Shortly after God revealed to us His strong desire for His people not to consume the blood of animals: 'The life is in the blood' (Lev 17:11). In this time period he exposed us to the ugly world of factory farming, slaughterhouses and the poor quality of fast food meats. Needless to say we cut out all meats. God continued to flood us with information, as we questioned why we experienced health issues, not life threating, yet the type that make life more stressful then is necessary such as chronic fatigue, emotional highs and lows, bad acne, high yeast, and for myself bad colon (elimination) issues (a miracle in itself).
We discovered we could have allergens to certain additives, and began to scrutinize the ingredient labels, eliminating processed foods, chemicals & dairy, not just for health reasons, but we discovered dairy was also contaminated with blood from the over-milking process, which I witnessed first hand working on a goat farm.
In the mist of all this information and gaining an awareness of the raw food lifestyle we met two Hallelujah Acres Health Ministers (Don and Jan Woodruff) who taught us much about living foods. This was about February 2007. We quickly noticed a drastic difference in our energy level, by including lots of veggie juices, and Kale salads. We witnessed huge changes within ourselves. I had miraculous improvements with elimination. We noticed as a family we were all challenged at including cooked food and keeping it to a minimum of 15%. This developed a strong desire to be 100% raw, and at times we would come close to this, but it has been a process to get where we are, even now we cant claim perfection, yet we are, I tend to say, 99% raw. Stephanie occasionally uses soy cream cheese, and we both use Grade B Maple syrup. It’s a strange paradox of not having the discipline to include 15% cooked, and yet having the discipline to be where we are.
 The first trimester of Stephanie’s pregnancy was very rough. Her body seemed to reject nearly all foods. It seemed like she lived off of fresh black cherries. Finally after desperation to hold some food down she ate some cooked food. Her body seemed to accept this, but looking back she was entering the 4th month and it was probably the timing that made it seem right. It didn’t take her long to snap out of it, with a new found inspiration for the maximum health of her child and herself she made the decision to strive for 100% raw. Things have been great ever since. She has had: NO strange cravings, NO constipation, NO extreme mood swings, NO heartburn, NO excessive weight gain, No eating for two (A MYTH), etc. The most she may have is some muscle and bone aches. Currently at 32 weeks, her energy level has decreased some, we think due to more rapid growth in this 3rd trimester, yet the baby is very healthy, blood pressure results are normal, along with iron count, Normal. Her midwife having never treated a raw foodist was a bit concerned with the lack of extra weight, so she had Stephanie chart her daily food intake after which she said 'Wow, I wish I could eat this well!' The types of food Stephanie has been consuming has been lots of fresh fruit and veggie juices (mostly green juices with a carrot juice here and there), Green smoothie, lots of salads/kale, mixed greens - Dandelion, Endive, spinach, etc... and a coconut (a must) every day. All other foods fall into place around that.
We have a strong desire to raise our baby 100% raw. This diet undoubtably leads to supreme health for those who have stressed their body for some years. How much better is it for a child to start right. We feel we will be giving a start most children have not had in many generations, by having a drug free, all natural home birth, he will enter this world in peace and harmony straight out of the womb into his mothers arms and directly to her chest to the comfort of the familiar heartbeat he has been hearing for 9 months and with the option of breast milk made just for him. We will also be making his own fresh organic food, pureed in a Champion or Vita Mix. We are confident our child will receive a physically healthy beginning to a spirit filled life. Praise the Lord! |
