FoundMyFitness - #057 Aliquot #1: Q&A Mashup - Pregnancy and child development

Episode Date: August 25, 2020

Get a sample of our new premium member's content, known as Aliquots, by listening to this in-depth Q&A mashup on pregnancy and child development. What's an aliquot, you may ask? Aliquots are special, curated segments prepared and distributed to premium members via the premium members podcast feed. This particular collection of segments covers every single major discussion of pregnancy and child development spanning years of members-only Q&As. In this episode, you'll hear: (00:00) Introducing "The Aliquot" (02:43) Omega-3s for babies and toddlers to maximize brain development (07:02) Common nutrient deficiencies in children and how to prevent them (11:42) Evidence to support omega-3 supplementation in children (20:58) Fasting considerations and restrictions for women Learn more about our premium podcast feed The Aliquot by clicking here. Become a FoundMyFitness premium member to get access to exclusive episodes, emails, live Q+A's with Rhonda and more: https://www.foundmyfitness.com/crowdsponsor

Hello friends. Today we're excited to launch a new members-only podcast, the Aliquot. An Aliquot is a sample taken from a larger hole that captures the essence of the entirety. Borrowing a term from the lab bench, that sample, or Aliquot, is most often going to be a personal allotment of a reagent that's being used potentially across multiple experiments, and for that reason, kept near at hand. Our aliquots, however, are members, only podcast, focused on single topics curated and remixed from the best of Found My Fitness. Some episodes are edited excerpts, highlights and informative moments taken from full interviews in the Found My Fitness podcast, usually with just a little more context for me.

Other episodes are mashups of highlights from my regular members-only Q&As, curated around themes and popular topics like pregnancy, sauna, fasting, and more. This first Aliquot episode is a very special mashup highlight edition. It features a compilation of pregnancy and child development related topics taken from several Q&A episodes over the last couple of years. This episode covers a lot of topics including my pre-pregnancy regimen including diet, exercise, vitamins, and sleep. Omega 3 during pregnancy, fish consumption and mercury concerns.

Which fish to avoid during pregnancy? Algae-derived versus marine-derived omega-3 fatty acids. Extra precautions that I took during pregnancy. Colleen and the developing brain. My perspectives on nutrition for a baby and toddler that may maximize brain development and growth. The diet and supplements I took or in some cases avoided during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Duration of breastfeeding and the impacts on mothers and child's health.

The introduction of solid food. common toddler nutritional deficiencies and toddler foods. How exposure to soil in the first year of life may prevent food allergies and asthma, and much more. This is a special preview of the Alawquot members-only podcast. For a full timeline with time codes for each topic and access to the entire episode, head over to foundmyfitness.com forward slash Aalquat. That's A-L-I-Q-U-O-T, A-A-Q-O-T. If you are a premium member, you can also find this entire episode with a timeline on your

private podcast feed. Now, let's dive in. Hope you enjoy. Can you tell us some of the things that you did to optimize your son's health or development since he was born? I'm a new mom, and I would love to know how you've approached diet, supplements, routines, etc. Thank you.

And there are also some tag-along questions here that have to do with what the common deficiencies are in toddlers. So I think Andrew asked that question. So I'm going to talk about that right now. I would say one of the main, main things that I have done is omega-3, high-DHA supplementation, both during breastfeeding. during pregnancy, well, starting and during pregnancy, but pregnancy, breastfeeding, and then getting preformed DHA to my son. And the way I do that is I take one of my high DHA capsules and I cut it open and I put it in his oatmeal with lots of butter and he just eats it up. So whereas during fetal growth, calories can have.

help promote fetal and, you know, growth. They're not sufficient for brain development. Brain development, appropriate neurodevelopment, requires a sufficient intake of protein, zinc, iron, chlorine, folate, iodine, and the omega-3 fatty acids, as well as vitamins A, D, B6, and B-12. And if you, failure to provide those key nutrients during that critical period can actually result in long-term, you know, brain deficits. So the common toddler deficiencies, omega-3, so consumption of DHA and EPA from foods contributes, you know, so mostly those are found in marine sources. It's a very small amount, you know, and children are only getting about 40 milligrams of the preformed DHA and EPA. In 2015, there was a really big study that, that, you know, showed eating fish, actually, even fish, you know, the fish that has, particularly fish that was high in omega-3 and low in mercury.

It's still even protected against toxic effects of mercury in a developing fetus, which is the most sensitive to mercury. And there was another study. it was published, huge, huge meta study, looked at not only prospective studies, which are associative, can't really establish causation, but they also looked at randomized controlled trials in children. So the studies looked at pregnant women and also young children, and that were either given fish or, you know, eating, having a high intake of fish or not. And it was found that the mothers and children, even in randomized control trials that were given fish, had improved intelligence scores, like significantly improved, even up to like nine points. And these children also had

higher levels of mercury as well, but they had higher levels of DHA, which superseded whatever, you know, minor effects the, the mercury had. Again, we talked about early in the conversation. There were fish that are high in omega-3 and lower mercury that you can eat, you know, things like salmon, wild Alaskan salmon, or like I mentioned, the farmed Atlantic, at least, that's the only one I know of that's farmed salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, those fish that are fatty, also are high in omega-3, and those ones are lower in mercury. Smaller fish are lower in mercury. So I try to get my son to eat salmon in some form or another, and he'll eat little amounts of it. And at Like I said, I also supplement him with fish oil.

I was also taking, during breastfeeding, I was taking, you know, three grams a day of DHA. And that, you know, was being delivered to him in breast milk. I'll get to that in just a minute, though. Iron is another, another one, particularly infants, between six, six and 11 months. They have a low, about 10% of those infants have a low intake of iron. Of course, iron's high in meats. You know, fish is another one that you can find iron in. I was actually giving my son when he was doing solid foods, like when I was, when I introduced solid foods at around six months, I would blend up some salmon.

I would cook the salmon and blend it up with either cooked cherries or blueberries. And I would blend it all together. So it kind of gave the salmon a sweet taste. And he really liked that when he was young. vitamin D is a really important one. Only 21% of infants and 74% of toddlers, um, sorry,

21% of infants actually met the, the adequate intake for vitamin D and 74% of toddlers were below the estimated, um, average requirement. So vitamin D drops are what I do. Um, I, I use Carlson brand.

I have no affiliation with them, but I, I, I usually give him, So the Carlson brand is about 400 IUs per drop, and I usually put like three drops on my finger and stick it in his mouth. And I do that daily. Vitamin E is another one. 82% of toddlers are below the estimated average requirement for vitamin E.

A really great source of vitamin E are nuts, particularly almonds. Almond butter is a great way to get it. You know, toddlers obviously, my son eats nuts. I chop them up. I cut them. but my son has a very, he's had a very good, you know, mastication where he can chew things very well. So I think, you know, it depends on what stage of development your toddler's in. But nuts are obviously a choking hazard, so they need to be cut up.

Again, almond butter is really high. If your child has a nut allergy, another great source of vitamin is olive oil. Also fatty fish. Magnesium, only about 36% of children have, Sorry, 36% of children have intakes below the average, estimated average requirement for magnesium. Dark leafy greens like spinach. Again, almonds are high, so almond butter is a great source. Limer beans, oats, avocado.

Those are also great sources. Those are things that I also give my son. Potassium is a big one. So less than 1% of toddlers met or exceeded the average. intake of potassium. So good sources of potassium that at least my son seems to like are baked potato with skin on it. That's a really good source of potassium. Yogurt. He likes yogurt. That's also a good source of iodine fat, protein calcium. Avocado is a great source. Bananas, pistachios, and lima beans. Again, pistachios, you know, depending on what stage of development your toddler is in, you may have to cut them up really small.

Or maybe they're still unable to even chew small pieces. So you would have to either do a pistachio nut butter or choose an alternative food, like an alacado or lime beans. The thing about the lima beans that are great is fiber is another big one that toddlers are really deficient in, less than 1% toddlers met or exceeded the AI for fiber, AI being adequate intake. So lima beans, lentils, navy beans. So lima beans have the other micronutrients I mentioned, like magnesium and potassium. They're also a great source of fiber. Butternut squash is a great source of fiber. It's also high in one of the forms of vitamin A.

Pears, raspberries, those are great sources of fiber and almonds. So in general, fruits and veggies are pretty good. And then fat, about one and four toddlers has lower than recommended fat. intake. And so, you know, most, most toddlers are reaching their fat intake. But again, nuts and nut butter, butter, avocado, fatty fish, olives, those things are great sources of fat. Eggs, which are also a great source of coline, which is really important for brain development. So these are things that I try to give my son. My son does a lot of eating of nuts and nut butters and almond butter and he eats a lot of butter and eggs.

Lewis asks any evidence that there's supplementation for children that's been shown to be beneficial. And I will say that basically if you were to ask, you know, is there one supplement that's been shown, like, if you could only, you know, if I could only get. give my son one supplement, what would it be? And I would say hands down, it would be, it would be fish oil. It would be the marine omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA, particularly DHA. So there has been studies showing that, you know, omega-3 fatty acids may have long-term neurodevelopmental effects in children that ultimately can reduce antisocial and aggressive

of behavior. So omega-3 fatty acids influence cell membrane integrity. They influence the receptors that are bound to cells. They were, you know, which, you know, in neurons, this is, this is basically affecting how neurotransmitters, neurotransmitters are, you know, communicating and binding to those receptors. It affects blood clotting. It affects, you know, biosynthesis of hormones, all sorts of things. And so there have been randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled trials, one that involved 200 school-aged children, eight to 16 years old. They were randomized either into a placebo or a treatment group.

And the children that were given, they were given one gram of mixed omega-3 fatty acids every day for six months. And the placebo group had a drink that was sort of similar tasting to that, the drink that was, you know, had the omega-3 fatty acids. And at the end of the six-month period, both parents and children completed, you know, a variety of personality assessments and reports about behavior, externalizing behavior, such as fighting or lying, internalizing behaviors such as depression or anxiety or withdrawal. Those were all assessed. The children who took the omega-3 fatty acid beverage had significant reductions.

in negative behaviors that that actually persisted 12 months after or it persisted to the 12 month point the externalizing behaviors were reduced by 42 percent and the internalizing behaviors were reduced by almost 70 percent and so that's really kind of very significant and it was it's thought that this may be a consequence of the effects on dHA and EPA on neuronal health the neurotransmitter production, neurotransmitter function, inflammation in the brain as well. Another study has showed that basically blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids can affect children's behavior and their ability to learn. So higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly DHA, have been associated with better reading, memory, fewer behavior problems, particularly

when DHA supplementation was done in these children, there was improved reading and behavior, particularly in the children that were underperforming. So children that were not reading very well, that baseline, they had seen the biggest improvement. More double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trials finding that omega-3 supplementation reduces disruptive behavior. just, you know, in this study, vitamin D was also given along with omega-3. This was 300 milligrams of DHA, 200 milligrams of EPA, and 400 milligrams of alpha-linolac acid. And again, the children in the omega-3 and vitamin D group had improved their behavior,

their less aggressive behavior, less disruptive. of just a really recurring theme with many different randomized control trials showing that omega-3 seems to really affect behavior in a positive way in children. Another small clinical trial showed that eating fatty fish, such as salmon twice a week for six months, reduced asthma symptoms and reduced bronchial inflammation by 14 units in children. So children in the omega-3 group that were eating fish twice a week also had a significant reduction in their medication use compared to children in the control group. It's known that EPA and DHA can inhibit the cyclooxygenases, and the lipooxygenase enzyme activity,

which basically can affect inflammation, and particularly pro-inflammatory mediators in that play a role in asthma. So it's thought that that may be how omega-3 is helping with asthma. And another study that's really interesting was this study was done a few years ago basically showed that omega-3 can prevent the, may prevent the onset of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders long after being consumed, actually up to seven years later. So there was a study that was done in young people that were at a high risk for schizophrenia, for genetic reasons, or there was, you know, a family member that had, you know, psychosis or schizophrenia. And so these young, young people were given the omega-3 supplements for 12 weeks.

And throughout that time, they basically, you know, had, you know, less, you know, psychotic episodes. But a follow-up study was done almost seven years later. And it found that basically, while only 10% of the young people that were in the omega-3 group developed psychosis seven years later, 40% of people in the placebo group developed psychosis seven years later. So, you know, schizophrenia is something that really emerges in young adulthood, particularly during adolescence, and it can kind of happen quickly or sort of gradually. So I just think that's a really important study, particularly for, you know, families that do have, you know, that there is a relative that has psychosis or schizophrenia, there's a genetic risk.

You know, just the fact that, you know, supplementing with omega-3 supplements for 12 weeks had such a profound effect on reducing the risk of psychosis years and years later is very compelling. Another study recently found that basically it was an observational study looking at omega-3 fatty acid levels, EPA and DHA in the blood of children and adolescents. And those children and adolescents that had higher levels of omega-3 EPA and DHA had lower levels of DNA damage. So, you know, DNA damage is something that accumulates with age. It's, you know, involved with cancer and aging in general. And, you know, if you can, if you're having high levels of DNA damage early on in childhood, you know, what does that say for the way you're

going to age? You know, it's really not a good indicator that you're going to age well if that DNA damage is already happening early in childhood. And so, and that was also shown that people the children in adolescence with low levels of omega-3 fatty acids had higher levels of DNA damage. You know, so I think that hands down omega-3, particularly DHA and EPA, are extremely beneficial for children and adolescents and generally for young people on many levels. particularly, I focused a lot on the brain, you know, behavior, reading, and then also, you know, for other reasons, you know, reducing inflammation, you know, particularly with respect to asthma. But, you know, inflammation in general can have consequences that, that, you know, affect many different processes, including cognitive function. vitamin D is another one that I think is important. You know,

not all children are going outside and, you know, spending a lot of time outside. And there's certainly not out, you know, in regions that UVB radiation is, you know, being generated in the atmosphere. You know, so like northern latitude places, you know, Washington State, you know, the entire like east coast of the United States. for example. So I think that's another beneficial one, but definitely omega-3 asks if there are restrictions for women and fasting. I've heard a lot of podcasts benefits for fasting, but I haven't heard many directed for women, i.e.

is the frequency? Is it different? Does it affect women's hormones? Their cycle? Should it be done at a certain part of the cycle or anything else to be aware of? So just as a sort of opener and background, fasting is not recommended for women that have a history of an eating disorder. It's not recommended for women that are pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant or breastfeeding. It's also not recommended for women that are extremely lean or underweight.

So any of those criteria would definitely disqualify a woman from, or she's. disqualify a woman from fasting. It's a question from, let's see, Annelia. And she's asking about things I did to help with the development of the baby while I was pregnant and before I got pregnant. And what are my thoughts on being pregnant while on a shift schedule, at least in the first trimester? So getting up multiple times during the night. So things I did before pregnancy, Thanks for listening to this preview of the first episode of the Aliquot. To listen to the full episode, you'll need to sign up to become a Found My Fitness premium member at Found My Fitness.com forward slash aliquot. That's A-L-I-Q-U-O-T, Aliquot. We launched our

premium membership to help support our scholarly work and reinvest in producing more quality, well-researched podcast, videos, and articles. Not only do Found-My Fitness premium members support our particular flavor of HealthSpan-focused podcast scholarship, but members also receive exclusive content and access, including access to live monthly Q&As with me and an archive of prior Q&As. An exclusive private podcast feed delivering new episodes of the Aliquot, our recordings of our monthly Q&As, and early access to Found My Fitness podcast interviews. Science Digest, a twice-monthly member-only email curating the latest studies with notes, comments, and related links, access to all updates to our genetic report, an exclusive Found My Fitness t-shirt,

access to our members' library of research summaries, background notes, presentation slides, and more exclusive content. To learn more and subscribe to our private podcast feed to hear the rest of this very episode, head over to foundmyfitness.com forward slash aliquot and sign up today. Hey, one last thing, guys. I just want to make it clear these members' Q&As that this content originated from are really meant to be a discussion of the science. It's definitely not meant to be diagnostic or as a treatment for any health condition. This podcast does not establish a client-patient relationship. So just keep that in mind. Talk to you guys soon.