Disgusted

Saw the "nutritionist".

Well, it was an interesting exercise.

I don't think nutritionists here are well-trained at all.

She came up with a diet plan for gestational diabetes. Her computation for me is 1900 calories a day. Now I
know someone my weight and build should be eating about 2400 calories a day. So why should I be eating less during pregnancy? (I do understand about spreading foods throughout the day, 6 small meals, etc and this is very important).

I asked this girl 3 times about how to adjust food intake for exercise: explaining that I exercise at least 1 and up to 3 hours a day. I told her that a 1 hour of exercise is 400 - 600 calories at my normal intensity and a 3 hour bike ride could use 1500 - 1800 calories, and did she consider that I should add food under those circumstances? She said I could use one of the allowed snacks and then avoided the question. Then she told me I could always exercise
after the pregnancy. What!?!?

When I told her I didn't like to drink milk, she insisted that I should "for the baby". Obviously they don't understand that calcium can validly come from a wide variety of sources, not just dairy.

She also didn't focus on protein foods to slow down carb absorption - particularly the evening snack - which is just carbs.

I lost all respect for her after that and I guess I am going to have to modify my diet myself, placing emphasis on the frequent small meals, complex carbs, and high nutrition food.

I had heard bad things about these local dieticians already. My Filipina Mum was put on a 1200 calorie a day diet (by a dietician at another hospital), even though she was exercising at least an hour a day. Turns out the girl miscalculated the plan and my "Mum" was actually only getting about 800 calories a day. No woman should ever
eat less than 1200 calories a day, and that should be increased to allow for exercise! No wonder she was weak and sick and had to stop exercising.

Here is an interesting (and useful) website for pregnancy nutrition.
Brewer's Pregnancy Diet.

http://home.mindspring.com/~djsnjones/id96.html

I much more agree with this site about the importance of very good
nutrition over extreme calorie restriction.

Disgusted!