By Erica Kain

This week it was my privilege to take Frances Largeman-Roth’s brand new book, Feed the Belly, for a test drive. And as the senior food and nutrition editor at Health magazine, Largeman-Roth certainly knows her stuff.

I knew this book was written by and for a pregnant woman when I saw the chocolate recipes were featured FIRST. I found this helpful, as waiting for dessert is often not an option for me.

Though I haven’t followed very much of her advice—I have overeaten since the day my nausea abated and consider my kids’ ”Music Together” class enough exercise for the week—her research is fascinating. Did you know women who ate chocolate while pregnant may have reduced risk of preeclampsia? But reading this book did alter some of my eating habits. She inspired me to fire up my blender, and I’ve been making smoothies and milkshakes loaded with potassium and calcium, curing my pesky leg cramps.

But I also had to remember that the book isn’t necessarily written for women in the suburbs, on a budget, and raising two small kids. So, I had to skim past her advice for my own sanity.

With its sometimes obscure ingredients (dark chocolate syrup with extra calcium), expensive alternatives (bison meat), and detailed nutritional guidelines for pregnant women, I had to let some of the more idealistic ingredients and suggested daily menus roll past me unheeded.

She includes a very helpful chapter, called “Germ Patrol,” offering tips on avoiding contact with harmful bacteria during pregnancy. It includes good advice, but there aren’t enough disinfecting surface wipes in the world to handle one day of the Kain family’s encounters with slimy harmonicas, questionable bathrooms, and E. coli-infested high chairs. And that’s before we even leave our house.

And her chapter about dealing with morning sickness is very helpful for normal women experiencing typical morning sickness, not women like me who have debilitating hyperemesis that renders them dependent on Zofran.

If I were giving this book as a gift to a woman who is as sick as I’ve been during my pregnancies, I’d staple the section regarding nutritional ideals (e.g., 450 mg of choline/day, 200 mg of omega-3/day) shut, so that she doesn’t freak out about potentially stunting the growth of her embryo while she lives on three tater tots and a cup of cold tea a day.

The best part of the book are the recipes—which my fetus and I enjoyed immensely. However, some of the recipes were only appealing to me—the non-pregnant members of my family weren’t always as taken with them as I was.

Next: Feeding my belly

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