Q&A with food writer Annabel Karmel about nutrition during pregnancy- ANSWERS BACK

[RachelMumsnet]

Annabel Karmel is a food journalist and author of the bestselling New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner, which has become the baby food 'bible' since it was first published in 1991.

Her latest book, Eating For Two, covers nutrition during pregnancy. It looks at the best foods to eat to promote conception, suggests ideas for avoiding morning sickness and the best foods to combat sleeplessness and heartburn later on in pregnancy.

Eating for Two guides expectant mothers throughout each stage of pregnancy with recipes and offers tips and advice and what to avoid.

Post your questions to Annabel before the end of Monday 18 June and we'll be linking to her answers, along with some of the recipes from her book on 28 June.

The Q&A is now closed. We'll be sending up to 20 questions over to Annabel and link to her answers from this thread by 28 July.

Will one of those 20 be 'what are your qualifications' (seeing as that was quite a popular one)?

July??

hmm her new book has arrived where i work and lets say its not very impressive and no one has helped write it - so yes what are your qualifications? FWIW from a quick glance through any book on healthy/family eating would substitute just as well for the recipes. There are bits in there about being pregnant but nothing that's not freely available on NHS website or via Mumsnet.
I read another interview in a book mag about how this was an attempt for the Annabel Karmel brand to reach women even earlier- i.e before they'd had their babies so they would immediately turn to her first i.e to get more money from customers. Oh well publishers have to make money.

Hi all, Annabel's answers are now back and you can read the full Q&A here:

Annabel karmel Q&A

Do not like her answer about the 6 month guidelines.

Nor do I, plus she misquotes it anyway. Nothing other than I would expect though.

manages to get the "third world countries" myth in too... :(

Bloody hell. Full on Mumsnet treatment for Ak here. Don't see what's wrong with a book that might help ALL pregnant mothers eat more healthily. Not everyone has access to/can use the internet. Ak will doubtless appear on tons of radio and Tv etc and some will hear the healthy messages and feel inspired. Or feel it's easier than they thought to eat more healthily.

Not sure what's wrong with a businesswoman growing her business either. And in a sensible direction that can't but help contribute to the public health debate.

I didn't live out of the finger foods or puree books but they were beautiful and inspiring. They made me feel it would be fun to do as well as worthwhile. I've always worked on making food look nice/enticing for DS ever since and that has helped in lots of ways too.

And as for hidden veg comment above. FWIW You only have to glance through Mumsnet to see how many mums are battling faddy kids, kids with problems, kids that catch food ideas from other kids/siblings. What's wrong with helping mums ensure their kids get the vits/minerals they need - without suggesting they pop vitamin pills. My DS likes the idea that he doesn't have to say he doesn't like onions and tomatoes because he "actually mum", eats them in spag bol etc. All of that contributes to him thinking that he likes some veg raw, some cooked and some mixed in. And there are some he just doesn't like. I'd say that contributes to the concept of healthy eating for life because he understands that just because you don't like a partic food cooked one way, you might like it cooked differently.

Is it me or are some of her answers repeating themselves ie tge same paragraphs twice in a row?

No surprises my question ( which several people asked) wasnt asked/answered.
Means I'll carry on thinking she's a sham

Fanjo - yes, the formatting is shit weird.

She dodged a few questions (most notably the special diet questions) by quoting standard NHS advice and then "ask your GP" which is a bit of a cop-out, and she clearly doesn't know what BLW actually entails. But why would she?

Meh. If people find the book useful, great. The marketing will be complicated, given that she is known to parents, and at a guess the book will be most useful to first-time bumps.

Losing my dog was nearly as bad as losing my daughter.

"The store of iron a baby is born with runs out at about six months"

This is not true. It starts to decrease at 6 months, it does not suddenly just stop. Lots of references here. Please, MNHQ, can you correct this? I love the Q&A sessions but people shouldn't be giving out inaccurate info like this.

I particularly hate her answer in regards to vegetarianism - the one that basically says, mmmmmm, interesting, i've not done a veggie book now theres some more easy coin i'd better get onto that (by the way, i do have a really great babies and kids vegetarian book and its completely free of condescension and packed with great ideas, all it's lacking is the shameless self marketing).

as has been said already even after a brief skim of the Q&A, her answers do contradict themselves a lot (esp re how many vits you need in first trimester of pregnancy and how you shouldnt worry as baby will get all it needs etc).

annabel karmel is just the next step for all those dreadful women who having thrown common sense and instinct to the wind, find it necessary to use a manual to look after their baby, discuss all things baby in excrutiating detail with their equally dull baby mummy friends, and generally live a cliqued irritating little existence, doing exactly whats expected of them at all times (monday: baby signing; tuesday: baby music class; wednesday: have coffee with large group of mummies taking up all of starbucks drinking only one [decaffinated] drink).

i was given a copy of a couple of her books and really dont understand how these come as such a revelation/revolution even!!! yes i can see that for people who dont/cant cook they would provide useful basic ideas, but to then herald this woman as some kind of nutrional guru is a bit much.

She answered my question about BLW making purees outdated. She doesn't seem to understand that BLW goes beyond 'finger foods'.

Just wrote a big rant about what it actually is and deleted it - realised you all know already, dear MNers, and that so does AK - but no money to be made in 'just give them some of what you eat, with a dollop of common sense'

Can't really understand what the hoohar is all about. As LoveleeJubilee said, give your kids what you eat with a dollop of common sense. When I bought her book (and I have a love of recipe books), I bought it for some recipe inspiration and read it, and used some of her recipes which we all ate (not pureed). They were tasty; I certainly didn't use it as prescription for weaning my baby, mainly coz I wondered what the point of cooking twice was so she ate what we did.
She's a recipe writer, and writes recipes in a book she wants to sell. Not sure why she has been acclaimed as anything else, and therefore what the fuss is about. I would expect her to have a reasonable working knowledge, of healthy foods, but has she herself claimed to be anything else? Have I missed something somewhere along the line? (

WOW - was not expecting her to answer my question - if she reads this or asks for feedback, please can someone pass on my thanks for taking the time and for some good advice (Will hopefully be putting it into practice later this year :) )

Thank you for your responses. We are looking into the concerns and questions that have been raised and we will be responding to them shortly.

@SeventhEverything

Blimey, she answered my question. This is incorrect though "starchy carbohydrates, which are slow-burning" Starchy carbs are notoriously high GI.

Annabel Says: Carbs or carbohydrates are tricky foods to categorise, and the concept of GI has made them seem even more complicated. GI or glycemic index refers to the rate at which the carbohydrate in a food is digested and absorbed. Low GI foods produce only small increases in people's glucose levels because they contain carbs that are more slowly absorbed. Some starchy carbs are high GI, but others are medium and even low GI. Some examples of low to medium GI starchy foods include brown basmati rice, oatcakes, pita breads, fettuccine and porridge.

@EauRouge

"The store of iron a baby is born with runs out at about six months"

This is not true. It starts to decrease at 6 months, it does not suddenly just stop. Lots of references here. Please, MNHQ, can you correct this? I love the Q&A sessions but people shouldn't be giving out inaccurate info like this.

Annabel says: The time when a baby's iron stores might run low will vary depending on a number of factors including whether they are breast or formula fed or given a cows milk as a drink, their mother's nutritional status, and whether they were premature, but these iron stores are decreasing from birth. At the age of 4 months the iron stores babies are born with will have decreased by half, and they will have fallen further by 6 months of age (Ref:Manual of Dietetic Practice, Thomas (ed), Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2007). It's also important to note that a baby's daily iron requirement skyrockets during their first year of life.

While few babies are at risk of anaemia due to low stores at 6 months, this is the point when it's important to start introducing solid foods since these will provide the baby's principal iron source in the future. Of course very little will be provided in the few teaspoons of solids a baby may consume in the early days of weaning, but as amounts increase and iron-rich foods are introduced these foods will provide increasing amounts of iron from the diet and reduce the dependence on the baby's dwindling stores they've had since birth.

While iron stores may last well into the second 6 months, depending on the baby, the consequences of iron deficiency to a baby's development are too awful to depend on this. In any case, babies need to have solids introduced at this age for other reasons. Keeping iron-rich foods in mind as they become suitable is just one of the ways the weaning process begins the transition towards an healthy solid-based diet that meets a baby's changing needs.