Welcome to another Real Food Quote Monday (RFQM). Each Monday, I quote from something I read, and ask you to add your thoughts.
The Miracle of Breast Milk
I was thumbing through Real Food: What to Eat and Why and came across one of my favorite passages, on the topic of breast milk. It is actually a bittersweet passage for me — I’ll tell you why after I share the quote.
Nina Planck writes:
“Breast milk is our first food, the best food, the ultimate traditional food in all cultures without exception.
Because it was designed as the baby’s only source of food, breast milk is a complete meal. If the mother is well nourished on real food, her breast milk will contain just the right amount of protein, fat carbohydrates, and all the other nutrients for the growing baby, including essential vitamins.. [excepting iron, as the author notes, and for good reason] …
Breast milk is not only a complete meal but also a rich one: about 50 percent of its calories come from fat. Indeed, fats may be the most important thing about breast milk. At the most basic level, fat is essential for the baby’s growth and development, and for assimilating protein and the fat-soluble vitamins A and D…
Many other factors in breast milk boost the baby’s immunity, an essential shield in its new, germ-filled world. …
Breast milk is the most important food a mother will ever feed her baby.“
Obviously, breast milk is miraculous! When I read passages like that, I marvel at the perfection of God’s design for our nourishment.
So what is bittersweet for me? Even though I nursed all three of my children for a good long while, I myself was not nourished well on real food. Consequently, the first few years of our babies’ lives were fraught with illness, infections, skin problems, and allergies. I’m sure what I offered was better than conventional formula, but still…. I cannot help looking back on that time and wish I knew then what I know now! My babies’ first food could have been so much more nourishing.
New Every Morning
But let me not forget — and don’t you, either — that each day is new. God’s word says,
“Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness. –Lamentations 3:22-23”
Can you hear the campfire song in your head, like I can, reading those words? So encouraging that each day I can begin anew being molded into the woman, wife and mother God would have me be. Each morning brings new opportunities to learn and grow in my slim grasp of God’s design for health and life. This gives me such hope!
God does not desire than any should despair over the past. He wants us to learn from our mistakes or misfortunes, and begin again. And again. 😉 Whatever it takes to press on toward Him and a life lived fully for Him.
God’s plan for our first food is miraculous. But even more so is God’s mercy. Though my “soul sinks within me” when I think on the past, I have hope. God’s compassions and mercies never fail. I am so grateful! How about you? What mercies has the Lord shown you recently? Let’s praise Him together!
The book link in this post is an affiliate link to Amazon.com. If you choose to buy the book via my link, I’ll earn a commission. But I don’t care about that too much. The point of this post is for us to share inspirational words. That’s my sincere disclaimer. Thanks for reading.
...without giving up the foods you love or spending all day in the kitchen!
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thanks for this! I needed to remember that this morning…because sometimes, it’s easy to forget that the Lord always provides mercy and forgiveness…
Great reminder as we start a busy busy week….that we don’t have to be perfect and our meals and homes don’t either. Let’s keep our focus on others. “His mercies are new every morning, great is His faithfulness. He is my portion, therefore I have hope in Him!”
I was at a Spin-In yesterday and an elder woman (70’s) was asking me the benefits of drinking raw milk and as I was explaining, she just said, “oh well, I guess it would be perfect, like breast milk!” She got it.
I hope you have a great and thankful time with your family this week.
Diane — Thank you for sharing that woman’s wisdom. I am grinning from ear to ear! Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
This post is a great reminder- I didn’t eat the greatest either when I was pregnant with our daughter… Between lack of knowledge and extreme morning sickness, sometimes junk food was all I could handle.
But like you said, while I believe wholeheartedly in the benefits of food as God intended, God is STILL bigger than our food choices and He untimately has control over our health.
Great post!
And by untimately, I mean *ultimately*. 😉 haha
Though a few aspects of breastmilk can be improved by diet (particularly increased vitamin D and an absence of trace pesticides), for the most part, the body is able to make the ideal milk even without a good diet. The reason a good diet is so crucial during breastfeeding is to replenish the mother’s stores, which are depleted through breastfeeding. The body focuses on feeding the baby first, so mothers may become nutrient deficient while breastfeeding.
Kind of amazing the way it works — so that poorly nourished mothers in poor countries are still able to feed their babies the ideal, nutrient-rich food!
Sheila — What wonderful information. Thank you!
Great quote and article. You are very encouraging!
Thank you so much for this uplifting and encouraging post. I was moved to tears. It is so hard living in a culture where something so natural as breastfeeding in uncommon and in some ways looked down upon, it’s inconvenient and sometimes really hard especially at first. I’m very passionate about mother’s nursing their babies… I love nursing mine, it is definitely more valuable than the sacrifice. 🙂
I love this! Breast milk is one of the best things in the world… not only as a food, but also as a healing agent. As an example, it’s perfect for reliving itchy eyes.
Wardee – loved this post. I am trying to type this as I hold my newborn baby boy (our fourth child), and I am so glad that at least for THIS baby we are eating right! You might also be amused that your eCourse videos have become my “nursing videos.” I get excited when it’s time to feed the baby ’cause that means I get to watch another lesson!
That sounds downright cozy!
Life often brings regrets. That is the price you (we) pay for being good people. We learn as we go, that is sure. I breastfed my children also, and as you said, for a good long while. I did the best I could with what I knew at the time and what our budget would allow. I think all of us can look back and say, “If I only knew THEN what I know NOW.” I think the lesson to learn is to use what we DO know now! You gave your babies a wonderful start. Even significantly malnourished mothers often have thriving babies. Keep in mind that what we do know now might now even have been readily available to learn “back then!” God bless you.
I too nursed babies while not eating great,,, then continued to raise them not really eating great… yes they have to deal with that now, but you know its okay. God is still God. We learn, itsn’t it great that God made us in away that we learn! Now my daughters teach me and I teach them about eating God’s way.
Yes God is good. I pray that all of our children will know His great love for them. One of my favorite verses in the Bible compares the love of a nursing Mother and God’s love toward us. God reminds His people through Isaiah that they are inscribed on His hands!
“Can a women forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands”(NASB) Isaiah 49:15-16
You are a blessing Wardee and I think your mother reads these too, I feel she too through you has been a blessing in my life in 2010!
I loved this book. I’m thinking about buying it to use as a reference book. When she was discussing breastmilk it was bittersweet for me, too. Not only was I not eating Real Food but I had trouble with my milk supply, I never seemed to have enough for my babies and all 3 of them ended up on formula. Now I know that formula isn’t that good for them but, at the moment, I don’t know what else to do.
Same story for my 3 children. I always feel bad about not being able to breastfeed because I know how good it is. I tried and tried and tried for all 3 and did what I knew to do, but I felt a little guilt lift when the lactation consultant said after many attempts and weight loss in the kids “you have to give them formula”. I could pump for 30 minutes and get only a few drops. Even though I didn’t like giving them formula I was sure glad there was something I could give them.
You are such an inspiration to us all. Thank You for the encouraging words of God’s grace. We all learn as we get older and there is so much that I did not know then. I appreciate mothers like yourself that teach the younger as the Bible instructs us to do. You truly have a wonderful ministry.