Hello and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's midweek segment called Ask a Nutritionist.

My name is Leah Klein-Trode. I'm a registered and licensed dietitian with nutritional weight and

wellness. And on today's show, I will be answering one particular question that we received from our

Dishing Up Nutrition listeners.

This listener asks, could you share knowledge and or your experience through pregnancy

about eating the right nutrients to restore mental focus and combat fatigue while also

keeping both the little one and mom healthy. So this is a great question. I'm actually excited to

answer this one. And just for a little bit of background, this particular person who asked this question,

she is currently pregnant and said that even after a good night's sleep, she still struggles

with that clarity and focus and just that mental acuity. So again, this is a great question

and hopefully still timely for this person.

I picked this question in particular because I know personally for me I can identify with

these struggles. I've had two pregnancies myself. I've worked with some pregnant mamas over the

years. And I'm sure there are many other mamas out there, maybe both currently pregnant or in those

early couple of years of postpartum, who can also relate to this. I distinctly remember

about halfway through my first pregnancy that it almost seemed like the light switch with

flipped or something happened where my brain just

did not function the way it had previously done. So for me, again, it was about that 20 week

mark or so. I started to notice, like, I would have to reread things several times for it to

really make sense or to sink in, I would quickly forget what I just

read or what I just heard and I would, again, have to go back and maybe re-listen or reread.

And the other thing I really noticed is that my brain just had trouble kind of tracking

...