What is the Brewers Diet?
The Brewers Pregnancy Diet was created by Dr Brewer who was a obstetrician and studied nutrition for over 50 years. He helped his patients achieve low risk, healthy pregnancies, uncomplicated natural labors through a focus on diet.
The diet is not supper strict diet when it comes to what you cannot eat but more about getting the right amount of nutrition into your diet. Most diets fads we see are about cutting out foods. Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Fat Free, Low Carb, Vegetarian, Vegan… those are all about cutting foods out of our diet. The brewers diet is different in that it tell you how much of each food group you should eat to get the right nutrition each day for you and baby.
Brewers Food Groups
There are 12 different food groups that the brewers diet pulls from with there own serving sizes. The servings are not your limit but your minimum.
- Water (unlimited)
- Dairy/Milk Products (4 Servings)
- Calcium (2 Servings)
- Eggs (2)
- Protein (6 to 8 Servings)
- Fresh, dark green vegetables (2 Servings)
- Whole grains (5 Servings)
- Vitamin C foods (2 Servings)
- Fats and oils (3 Servings)
- Vitamin A foods (1 Serving)
- Weekly Liver (optional)
- Salt/Sodium (unlimited)
Here is an helpful Free PDF of the some different foods that fit in the Brewers diet food groups. You are not limited to only these foods for each category of nutrition.
Based off of the Brewers diet basic plan its not always easy to determine how much nutrition each size serving really needs. I’ve done my best to try and write out how much of nutrition I believe Dr Brewer was aiming for. The protein food group was the easiest to determine. Each serving size Dr Brewer suggests is about 7 grams of protein. The calcium and vitamins were unclear how many grams are needed but there I was able to find a range I could work with. Vitamin A needs about 450mcg per serving, Vitamin C was 100 mg, Calcium around 50-100 mg each serving. The hard food groups for me have been the wheat and the dairy.
The way wheat and dairy is processed these days is a bit different then it was in the 70’s when this research was done. I advice caution and discernment with these two categorizes. Be wise as to the quality of your foods. If the suggested amount of wheat or dairy is effecting you negatively with bloating, gas, fatigue or just feeling gross afterwards, try eating less but of the best quality you can get your hands on. Sometimes this means making bread and yogurt at home with organic, high quality ingredients. Avoid processed, pre-made items in these two categories.
How To Make Meals that Fit the Brewers Diet
Now that we have a foundation of what the Brewer diet is and our list of what size serving we should be eating each day of each food group we can put together meals that hit all of these requirements.
Using our handy-dandy little check list I will give you an example of a days worth of meals and how it checks off all the boxes.
Here’s how it works.
Breakfast
For breakfast I might eat 2 egg, 2 pieces of whole wheat toast with butter 1/2 a cup of cottage cheese with 1 cup fruit that is full of vitamin C.
I can now check of my 2 egg, 2 whole grains, 2 serving of dairy, and 2 serving of vitamin C and 1 fats/oils. It’s tempting to mark off 2 protein (the eggs) as well but they advise not to do that. If you do check off eggs as protein as well make sure you hit all 8 servings.
Lunch
For lunch I will then eat, 2 tacos with rice and beans, (⅓ cup meat ⅔ cup bean ½ cup rice, 2 corn tortillas, 2 oz of cheese). Other topping like salsa, limes, avocados are optional.
This meal checks off 3 proteins, 2 whole grains, and 1 dairy/milk and 2 fats/oils if you add 1/2 an avocado.
Snack
While I’m snacking throughout the day I may eat, 3 apricots and a handful or two of almonds or two high protein granola bars.
This covers 2 more protein and my vitamin A needs.
Dinner
Now for Dinner I will eat, Spaghetti and meat sauce with 1 tablespoon molasses in the sauce, Parmesan cheese, side of kale salad or broccoli.
Dinner checks off 1 Dairy, 2 Calcium, 2 Protein, 2 Greens, 2 Whole Grain.
Be sure to drink water throughout the day, and mark it. Add good, rich in mineral salt like Redmond’s Real salt or Pink Himalayan salt to you foods. Learn more about the benefits of good salt here.
Meal Planning Made Easy
Here I have a meal plan guide to help you out. Figuring out what to eat each meal to hit all the right requirements can be a daunting task, especially if you are in the first trimester.
This guide is broken into 4 groups. If in one day you eat 1 meal/snack from each group you will successfully meet all your requirements. For example, for breakfast you choose a meal from group 1, then for lunch you can choose a meal from 2, 3 or 4. Say you choose group 4. Dinner you pick from group 2 and your snack is from group 3. By the end of the day you will have covered all your nutritional needs.
Feel free to mix things up, I honestly love breakfast foods and could each just breakfast all day. And sometimes I do. I just make sure I choose an option from each group so I still get all my nutritional needs.
These meals not an exhaustive list. They are suggestions and can be adapted to meet your needs. I hope this is a tool that helps you understand how you can get your daily needs with as little stress as possible. I hope this guide helps you see how you can make your own favorite meals work for you while checking off all that Dr Brewer recommends.
Learn More About How to Have A Healthy Pregnancy and Natural Labor
Thank you for this resource! It’s made such a difference in keeping up with my nutrients and how I feel!
I’m so glad! Thank you Emily for letting me know. It is very encouraging to hear my work has helped someone. I hope and pray your pregnancy goes well! If you have any questions please reach out and ask. I love talking nutrition, pregnancy, natural birth and all that.