I can't say for sure whether it's too late or not, if you have full blown toxemia, it may be. However, if you just have early symptoms, then by all means get on the Brewer Diet and maybe you can do it. The thing to remember is that "close" to the Brewer Diet is NOT the Brewer Diet. It is very specific, and very complete. If you are leaving off some things, you aren't really doing it, and it's not going to help you.

On another note, your "symptoms" that you've reported here have little or nothing to do with toxemia. You should see your doctor if you are concerned about these symptoms. Craving ice cream might just be your body telling you that you need more protein. Supplements may help with anemia, but will not reverse or prevent toxemia -- only the Brewer Diet, in it's entirety, has any hope of accomplishing that. Read and devour everything on this website, so that you know how to have a healthy pregnancy.

I wish you a very healthy home birth!

Yes, it is effective, no matter how many previous pregnancies you've had preeclampsia in. That is, presuming your "preeclampsia" is not really the sypmtoms of some other medical condition, which your doctor has failed to diagnose! There have been many cases of women who have some other condition that mimics preeclampsia, and the doctor treats them with low sodium diet and medications, only to CREATE the preeclampsia the woman did NOT have in the first place. Be sure your doctor is considering ALL possibilities, and not just assuming you have preeclampsia because you have some swelling or high blood pressure. Read this website thoroughly, and educate yourself.

And to your question about diet and exercise: exercise has NOT been proven to prevent preeclampsia. It helps in a myriad of ways to remain active and exercise while you are pregnant -- but preventing preeclampsia is not one of them. Only diet can protect you and your baby from preeclampsia.

It is not uncommon for women raised with the "salt is bad for you" mentality to dislike salt. Rarely does this dislike indicate an overabundance of salt, because our bodies regulate salt quite efficiently. It's important that women who dislike salt realize that salt is beneficial, in fact it is VITAL for life, and for a healthy pregnancy. She can try adding some salt to her diet carefully and slowly. Maybe just a tad bit on her vegetables, or on her eggs. She needs to get used to it, if she's not accustomed to the taste. Often women find they LOVE salt once they give themselves permission to have some! Another thought....she may be getting plenty of salt in high-sodium, processed foods, and not even realize it! If she eats a lot of deli meats, canned soups, and such like that, she may be getting plenty of sodium from all the wrong sources.

It is vital that your friend NOT cut out salt!!! In fact, salt restriction will probably make her blood pressure increase, not decrease. This is an alarming prescription for disaster...please read on.

Your friend's doctor has prescribed the most common medical treatment for high blood pressure in pregnancy, also known as "pregnancy induced hypertension", or PIH. It can be an early symptom of toxemia, but in the well-nourished woman, it seldom is.

Your friend needs to be sure that her diet is indeed adequate for pregnancy. If not, she may be on the road to the very problems her doctor suspects. You should email your friend our article on pregnancy hypertension and salt restriction.

Yes, it's true -- there are a lot of false positives in gestational diabetes testing. There are also a variety of different tests, and the numbers that mean you "pass" can be different from test to test. So you need to know what standard the test results are based on in order to properly interpret the results.

The two-hour postprandial "screen" will have fewer false positives than the three-hour glucose tolerance test (GTT) which is most commonly used in medical practices today. capillary whole blood concentration of glucose. This test consists of eating a high-carbohydrate breakfast, then having your blood drawn two hours later.

According to The Brewer Pregnancy Hotline: "In pregnancy, the values considered the upper limit of "normal" by the Diabetes Data Group for fasting glucose level and the GTT are far lower than this: a fasting level of 105 milligrams per milliliters, at one hour-190; two hours-165; three hours-145. These levels tend to be too low for women following the Brewer Pregnancy Diet and the reason is the following: On the Brewer Pregnancy Diet, expectant mothers are able to meet their babies' glucose needs without lowering their own. It is clear that most pregnant women exhibit lower plasma glucose levels than the rest of the adult population because they are not being advised to eat as well as they need to. If you are following the Brewer Pregnancy Diet and your doctor insists on a GTT, he or she should use the new diagnostic criteria established for non-pregnant individuals to avoid making an incorrect diagnosis of diabetes in your case."

The following can affect your GTT, causing a false postive result:

1. stress or anxiety (yes, even over the procedure itself!)
2. having a cold or flu when you take the test
3. lack of physical exercise (e.g., sitting in the waiting room waiting to have your blood drawn)
4. inadequate diet (see the rest of this site for information on conquering that!)

If you are going to take the GTT you'll want to load up on carbohydrates (starchy foods such as breads, potatoes, rice, pasta, sugars) for three days prior to the test. These help your liver store up glycogen in preparation for the all-night fast imposed by the GTT protocol. This glycogen reserve can then be called upon to stabilize your blood sugar during the period when you are without food. According to The Brewer Pregnancy Hotline: "Without carbohydrate loading you exhaust your liver's storage of glycogen overnight and possibly test out with a diabetic curve when, in fact, you are not diabetic at all -- just temporarily glycogen-depleted."

Yes, I certainly have! However, keep in mind that the diagnosis of gestational diabetes is a complex issue. There are many who doubt it even exists as a valid diagnosis in the first place, particularly in well-nourished women -- but that has never stopped the medical community from testing for it, and treating for it.

Please get educated about this problem, and decide whether you want to be tested for gestational diabetes. If you get a positive test result, your care provider will hold you responsible to take actions which may or may not be in your best interest. If you refuse to be tested, you may have to find another care provider. As I said, this is a very sticky problem, even if you don't really have gestational diabetes!

Here are some articles on BRB that might help you:

www.blueribbonbaby.org/faq/gestational-diabetes/

www.blueribbonbaby.org/childbirth-and-pregnancy-health-and-safety/gestational-diabetes/

www.blueribbonbaby.org/brewer-diet-faq/

Yes, turkey meat is a great source of protein. Nitrates and nitrites are the problem. Fresh ground turkey and fresh whole turkey usually don't have nitrates or nitrites. Read labels carefully -- deli meats can be found without harmful additives if you look for them. However, also consider that deli meats are processed, which makes them less desireable than whole meats. Hope that helps! Enjoy!

Over the years, Dr. Brewer's diet has proven very successful at eliminating preterm labor and premature birth in otherwise healthy women. With a history of these problems, you would be wise to complete the Pregnancy Nutrition Profile and review the results with your care provider. If you have underlying health issues that may cause you to be unable to assimilate your good nutrition, it's important to deal with those issues appropriately so that all the nutrients you ingest can be properly transmitted to your growing baby. Contact the Pregnancy Hotline if you need further assistance with the nutrition profile.

The Brewer Diet is the minimum requirement for any woman to grow a healthy baby -- regardless of height, weight, or any other factors. There are certain factors (such as activity level, stress, nursing, etc.) which might cause you to need MORE nutrients and calories, but not fewer. So, in a nutshell, you need to eat the same nutrients as any other woman to form a healthy baby. You might need only the minimum, but certainly not less. For more details, please see the article on prenatal nutrition for petite women.

The short answer to your question is, YES we do! The Brewer Diet is the food plan for an overweight pregnant woman. It's the minimum amount of food needed for any woman, regardless of weight, to have a healthy baby and not gain more than is necessary to achieve that goal. That's the simple fact, but the long answer is much more interesting!

There are two formats of the diet --- same information, just different ways of going at it. If you like "exchanges" such as are used in Weight Watchers, then you get 6 servings of meat that are about 7 grams each. You can see the diet exchange checklist here. If you prefer to think in terms of servings that you put on your plate, then think of two servings per day, each about the size of the palm of your hand. It's much less precise, but it's a little easier to measure if you are not into diet exchanges. Each of these two servings would be 25 grams, for a total of 50. See Dr. Brewer's diet checklist for a printable version of this format. In both cases, if you're expecting multiples, or can't tolerate dairy, or prefer a vegan or lacto-ovo variation, please see the special needs diets.

Stevia is a safe, natural sweetener which is far and away the best option during pregnancy, or any other time! I have never heard of any risks at all with stevia, but then again, no major long term studies on stevia have been done. It has been used as a sweetener in other countries for ages, and so far there is no known risk in pregnancy or otherwise. If anyone learns otherwise, please inform me! Whey and egg white protein shakes are acceptable, however if you are eating the minimum amount of meat, eggs and dairy products, they should be unnecessary. The idea is to eat the "real" food first, and only add packaged, processed or otherwise man-made foods as a supplement if for some reason you are unable to get enough of what you need in your normal diet. One more comment about stevia -- not all brands are created equal. Read the ingredients. Some are stevia mixed with various forms of carbohydrates or sugars. Locally, I find KAL brand to be the purest and therefore also the sweetest. I learned my lesson when I tried something called NuStevia, which was rather pricey -- only to discover (after opening it and finding it to be much less sweet than KAL) that it was mixed with fillers, and basically worthless.