Would you like a list of foods to favor for postpartum mamas?  Here you are, just read on.  Learn about some delicious good-mood foods that will nourish happy mama and baby tummies, maternal hormones, rejuvenation and more!

Do you cook best with recipes but don’t know much about Ayurveda?  Click this link to order both the cookbook and the care handbook PDFs, Touching Heaven, Tonic Postpartum Care & Recipes with Ayurveda for $30…a wealth of practical information.  You’ll need both if you are new to Ayurveda.

Are you already a good Ayurvedic cook?  Even just these foods described here will help you create menu plans, recipes and cook creatively.  May I suggest your clients will still enjoy the recipes in the Touching Heaven cookbook?  There are many little known tips and many yummy recipes shared therein.  Click here to order just the Recipe book for $15!

Sample pages from our Touching Heaven Cookbook:

These tips are designed to help with shopping, stocking the kitchen before the birth, ingredients for recipes in the cookbook.  Inside the cookbook you will also find a 4-page tool on menu planning by weeks postpartum — really handy!

Preferred Postpartum Foods

We favor sweet, sour and salty tastes to promote rejuvenation, lactation, good mood, digestion, and happy tummies!  Ayurveda explains we still need some of all six tastes (sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, astringent) in our main meals for balanced nutrition. Because the postpartum period for all mothers brings “vata excess*” – space and air element qualities, mothers are generally advised to emphasize the sweet, adding after 2-3 three days, salty, and after 7-10 days, also sour tastes according to some very specific dos and don’ts.

Use ample oiliness, moisture, warmth, and of course, love. Unusually generous use of good fats, especially clarified butter (ghee) and sesame oil cannot be over-emphasized for hormones, emotions, lubrication, long burning energy and actually, cleansing – unless there are gall bladder/liver medical issues. Please ask your Ayurvedic postpartum care person about this.  Some cultures use other animal fats or mustard oil, or in hot climes only, coconut oil is also favored.  Other oils – put in the backseat.

Choose warm, soupy and nourishing foods that are gentle on the digestion. In addition focus on fresh ingredients as well as pure filtered water. Please avoid making enough for the next day. Leftovers unfortunately are pretty guaranteed gas for both mother and baby.  You will test us on this probably, and see…repeating this means poor rejuvenation, unhappy tummies, and can build into colic.

Choose seasonings that support digestion, and milk production. These include ginger, black (generally not chili) pepper, roasted/sautéed garlic (avoid raw garlic), fenugreek, dill, cumin, saffron, and cardamom.  (more below).

Proteins. Favor boiled warm milk (see our article about milk) or milk puddings without egg.  Lassi, a yogurt or buttermilk drink thinned half with water and seasoned, sweet or savory, can be taken after 10 days; ricotta, cottage and other un-fermented cheeses properly prepared and not cold temperature, after 2-3 weeks. Rarely do tofu or fermented cheeses work without gas. Most women and their babies have trouble digesting soy as well as hard cheeses.

A great and easily digestible source of protein is split hulled mung beans in thin soup or perhaps other lentils that are soaked overnight and well-cooked. Legumes combined with grains or (smaller amount of) nuts or seeds gives a complete amino acid complement.

Also recommended are small amounts of almond or other nut milks or well soaked (24 – 48 hours) nuts and seeds as a snack. Soaked nuts can also be used in soups and sauces, as well as with vegetables or grains.  These are all best taken after a week-10 days if other sources of nourishment are satisfactory.  Vegans may need to include these earlier, understanding it is not a complete essential amino acid profile.

Chicken and fish can be added after about 4 weeks for non-vegetarians.  Prepare fresh chicken if needed into a long cooked (overnight is great) broth, for first few days giving someone else the chicken.  Gradually include tender cooked poultry in very well seasoned soup with well cooked garlic, pepper, coriander, ginger, cumin, like that if mom cannot eat a rice gruel, the Ayurvedically prepared milk, or  well seasoned very thin mung broth.

Carbohydrates. New mothers need extra carbohydrates, even if unable to breastfeed, for rebuilding. At first, make a long cooked gruel and gradually thicken over the days, favoring Basmati or white rice (cook with an extra ½-1 cup water per cup of rice), oats, quinoa and amaranth, unleavened wheats such as couscous, pastas, chapattis or tortillas, yams, occasional barley, sprouted grain “Essene” breads, tapioca without the egg, and sweet/oiled winter squashes. Women who prior to delivery have been eating brown rice daily may be fine with it, but is rougher on tender bowels for most; fine in a long cooked gruel. Diabetics can favor millets and quinoa, cooked as advised very moist, and oily.  Favor less refined, iron-rich sugars such as date sugar, Rapadura, dark Indian jaggary, molasses and perhaps Mexican unrefined sugar. If using honey as a sweetener, please do not heat or cook with it.

Fruits. Choose iron-rich dried fruits such as dates, prunes, apricots and figs and remember to always eat them either soaked or stewed. Sweet, fresh fruits (not chilled) and freshly squeezed fruit juices are wonderful for their life force and gentle cleansing. Remember to eat fruits away from meals since most fruit ferments if not taken alone. Papaya is excellent, also aids digestion. Some do well after two weeks with juice of just one fresh orange although generally, citrus and pineapple are best avoided for 6 weeks.  A little fresh lime or mango powder can be delicious and digestive, after 2 weeks.  Fresh coconut milk is soothing and delicious in puddings, cream sauces and soups; canned is heavier to digest.

Vegetables. Asparagus, beet, carrot, fresh dill, fresh fennel, fresh fenugreek leaves, pumpkin, okra, avocado, artichoke, summer squashes, chayote are all good postpartum vegetables, cooked until tender and with generous seasoning and oiliness to minimize gas. Some well-seasoned green beans or broccoli may be ok if the mother is not of a thin body type. Peeled eggplant and kale, spinach, or chard are best reserved until after 5-6 weeks. Be sure to use oiliness, seasonings, salt, and lime or lemon juice with all the latter.  Seaweeds though not used in classical Ayurveda, can be used if well seasoned, oiled and cooked; they tend to create cold, but also nourish, soothe, mineralize, alkalize and may support with high iodine content.  We often add to soups and stews.

Fats. Use healthy fats and oils more abundantly than normal. This is important for postnatal hormonal and rejuvenation needs. It also assists lubrication and cleansing. Emphasize clarified butter (ghee), sesame and toasted sesame as well as some butter, olive oil and coconut oil which may be used more in warm weather if spiced appropriately.

Seasonings. During the first week postpartum, use extra ginger, garlic (roasted, not raw), black pepper, pippali, cardamom and clove. Fennel, fenugreek, basil, cumin, caraway as well as roasted garlic help lactation. Other useful spices include cardamom, cinnamon, ginger (fresh), turmeric, pinches of hing (asafetida), hingvastika, lime, orange or lemon juice and peel, nutmeg (if the mother is not prone to constipation), paprika, and some mustard seed, cayenne, tamarind, marjoram, thyme, oregano, tarragon, licorice powder and ajwan.

Minimize the Following

Foods that have dry, cold, rough, heavy qualities, as well as fermented foods, and sharp pungent taste, as well as foods that are harder to digest. They may for various reasons aggravate mother or infant digestion. Food-sourced ama or toxins take about 3 weeks to accumulate. They accumulate into colic, or slow mother’s rejuvenation. Rushed or irritated atmosphere in cooking, serving, and eating notably also weakens digestion; hence mother and baby comfort is vital.

Cold Foods and Drinks. Ice cream, salads, chilled foods and drinks in general. We can help to cool hot-blooded or hot-flashing mothers if needed with fennel, coriander, cumin, a little mint, chamomile, or other food choices. We can also use essential oils, including hormonal balancers, especially those with good adrenaline and cortisol reducing properties.

Dried foods . They pull moisture from system to digest, like dried fruits, crackers, toast, even sweet and white potatoes, as well as grains such as millet, brown rice and corn. They are rough and drying and can be unsatisfying to fragile innards. Reduce drying, bitter, and astringent herbs, which may include chamomile, red zinger and raspberry leaf teas, as well as turmeric and sage (2 – 3 cups of strong sage or turmeric tea is used by midwives to dry up lactation so we minimize these). Legumes often cause gas and bloating anyway, more so after birth. They are dried, rough, astringent and hard to digest, If you use protein powders, be sure to add additional oil, sweetener, spices, and warm liquid, and hydrate well. Do not mix in fruit or soy, and avoid buying powders that contain a fruit-vegetable mix. Always remember to balance dryness with oil and moisture, and drawing on sweet, sour, and salty tastes.

Heavy food. This includes red meats, fermented cheeses, homogenized, pasteurized non-organic milk, sour cream, yogurt, eggs, fried foods, cold foods, and a lot of nuts. Minimize chicken or fish for 2-4 weeks.

Milk or Half & half with sour, salty or astringent tastes. Milk digests best boiled, as boiling simplifies protein molecules making it easier to break down. Milk or half & half can be used with unsalted grains, in puddings, with sweet taste, sometimes dates (acting different from other fruits), or warm with honey and ginger, cardamom, clove, and/or saffron-type baking spices. They should never be mixed with sour, salty and astringent tastes, so avoid milk with lunch or dinner.

Tomatoes, peas, peppers, sprouts and salads. All but tomatoes are hard to digest creating much gas for both mother and baby. Tomatoes tend to create rashes for babies as they are acidic, so – avoid them if possible. Be easy also on dark leafy greens the first two weeks unless the mother is craving them. Since the greens are so high in iron, magnesium and bone building minerals (especially the stems), you can use them but favor additions for balance: cook well with oiliness, salt, a generous amount of ginger (or roasted garlic or hing), fennel (or cumin or caraway or dill), and perhaps a squeeze of lime, which increases mineral absorption. Try adding some sweeter vegetable such as carrots or yams, or a pinch of raw sugar as well.

Hydrogenated or cooked vegetable oils (trans-fatty acids). These are a big no. Also, while mothers are nursing, don’t follow a low-fat diet, for health, emotional, hormonal, mental and physical reasons, unless medically advised otherwise (e.g. liver damage, alcohol or gall bladder problems).

Fermented Foods. Minimize soy sauce, vinegar, pickles, tempeh, miso, most cheeses, and mushrooms. This also includes leftovers (cooked food left for longer than 6 hours).  Even miso tends to make mamas feel “heavy” with it, but may be used for anti-radiation supportive food.  All give of their degenerative energy even those easy to digest. So all slow rejuvenation and often, clog digestion, and body channels. Make enough food for just lunch and dinner for the family.

Cooking with Honey. Heating honey is proven to create toxic accumulations over time in the body’s channels, and around nerves. This also considered one of the most difficult toxins to remove. Raw honey is considered nectar, or honey used in warm (not hot) beverages is fine.

Leavenings.  Yeast, baking powder and baking soda all are a strain on mother’s and baby’s digestion, and are best avoided. Leavened breads also provide ready food for disease organisms.

Also, as most of us know, please avoid coffee, sodas, chocolate, alcohol, garlic (dry, raw, or undercooked), onion, radish, chilies, and the cabbage family.

* Space and Air elements combine into the metabolic principle Ayurveda terms “Vata”.  The qualities of Vata are dry, light, cold, empty, mobile/changeable, subtle, rough and clear, with dominant tastes astringent and bitter.  These qualities are generally addressed with their opposites.

Click here to purchase an instant downloadable set of Ysha’s two books for parents, practitioners and students

Touching Heaven, Tonic Postpartum Care and Recipes with Ayurveda. Get both downloadable PDF books together now for $30.00.