Pregnancy comes with a lot of rules, warnings, and fear based posts online. But how much of that advice is actually rooted in science, and how much is leftover noise that keeps parents stressed for no reason?

In today’s episode, I sit down with Dr. Jessica Knurick, a nutrition researcher and registered dietitian who has spent years breaking down food myths in the pregnancy and postpartum space. Together we walk through the biggest areas of confusion, why so much misinformation spreads so fast, and how to make calmer, more confident choices during pregnancy.

We talk about:

• The most common food rules that get blown out of proportion

• Why certain foods get labeled as “dangerous” without context

• What the real risk of listeria looks like, and how to lower it

• Sushi, soft cheese, runny eggs, deli meat, and why the blanket rules don’t tell the full story

• How to think about risk in pregnancy without spiraling

• The truth about the glucose test and why the alternatives online fall short

• What high mercury fish means and why fish is still an important part of pregnancy nutrition

• Where fear based content online pulls parents in and how to protect your headspace

To connect with Dr. Jessica Knurick follow her on Instagram @drjessicaknurick and check out all her resources at ⁠https://www.jessicaknurick.com/⁠

My Experience with Gestational Diabetes: ⁠https://youtu.be/QCtGft6p7c0⁠ 

00:00 Why fear around food and the glucose test is rising
01:25 Why Dr. Jessica Knurick’s work matters in pregnancy nutrition
03:44 How misinformation spreads during pregnancy
06:13 The gray area behind food rules and risk
08:36 Soft cheese, deli meat, and runny eggs: what’s actually risky
11:06 The truth about listeria and real foodborne illness risks
14:12 Sushi, fish, mercury, and what research actually shows
17:04 How to approach food safety without spiraling
20:29 Real life examples of weighing pros and cons in pregnancy
23:34 What the glucose test really measures
25:53 Why screening happens at 24–28 weeks
27:52 Common myths about the glucose drink
30:30 Alternatives like jelly beans, pancakes, and OJ: why they don’t work
33:54 When at home monitoring is appropriate
42:17 A helpful tip for managing symptoms after the test
43:24 Final message on protecting your mental space in pregnancy

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00;00;00;11 – 00;00;18;07

Dr. Jessica Knurick

I would just call it chemo phobia. That is very strong in, in social media spaces, which is this fear of chemicals, any kind of chemical, there’s a fear of sugar because there’s this like an anti sugar movement. And so it’s like, why would we be giving people 50g of sugar. That’s not like normal or 100g of sugar.

 

00;00;18;07 – 00;00;31;19

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And that’s not normal under like normal constraints. And so one of the things I try to educate on is why a challenge test is important. Right? Because it’s true. Like, and if you do kind of think about it, it’s like, okay, well I don’t really eat like that. So why do I have to go and do that?

 

00;00;31;19 – 00;00;59;01

Dr. Jessica Knurick

I’m just going to eat. Like if I’m not doing that, then my my sister won’t be stressed. But the whole idea is to really stress the system, to make sure we identify any underlying issues that maybe we couldn’t identify if we were just monitoring you with how you normally eat. And then we would miss gestational diabetes. And then, you know, a month down the road, it would present itself, in a worse way.

 

00;00;59;03 – 00;01;25;03

Dr. Mona

Welcome to the Pizza Doctor podcast. It’s Doctor Mona here. And today we’re talking about something I wish more pregnant people heard real explanations about instead of fear based content online. Lately, I’ve seen the same pattern play out in my messages and in my office. People are terrified of the blue collar test, terrified of ingredients, terrified of the sugar, and even more terrified of the idea that there isn’t some safer workaround that TikTok has promised them.

 

00;01;25;05 – 00;01;42;02

Dr. Mona

And I get it. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I had gestational diabetes that drink the blue collar test and that drink was the last thing I felt like taking, but it was the test that found my gestational diabetes, and it changed the course of my pregnancy care in the best way possible. And frankly, it’s not that bad.

 

00;01;42;02 – 00;02;04;29

Dr. Mona

It tastes like very high sugar content Fanta. But it was the test that found my GDM and I needed that information. And I see so many pregnant people now who deserve solid guidance instead of being scared out of helpful, evidence based testing. That’s why I adore today’s guests. Like, just simply adore her doctor Jessica Turek. You probably know her.

 

00;02;04;29 – 00;02;28;28

Dr. Mona

She has a PhD in nutrition science. She’s a registered dietitian and she specializes in pregnancy and postpartum nutrition. So she is like the expert in this area. If you follow her online, you already know. She explains things in a way that just clicks. And if you’re meeting her for the first time by listening to this episode, you’re going to understand right away why I think she’s such a gift to the space.

 

00;02;29;04 – 00;02;50;08

Dr. Mona

She brings evidence, calm, and compassion to a space that desperately needs all three. Today we get into the obsession with glucose. I’ll turn it is the fear based post spreading online, the actual science behind the test and how to think about food safety during pregnancy without losing your sanity. It’s the kind of conversation that leaves you more grounded and less tense.

 

00;02;50;10 – 00;03;16;27

Dr. Mona

And if you’re listening right now, hit download. So the episode counts towards the show’s growth. Subscribe so you never miss new ones and share your favorite moment on social media. Tag at PedsDocTalk at the PedsDocTalk podcast, and of course, at Doctor Jessica Kendrick for her last name so we can keep this chat going. Let’s get into today’s conversation.

 

00;03;16;29 – 00;03;20;05

Dr. Mona

So thank you so much for joining. Joining me today, Doctor Jessica.

 

00;03;20;07 – 00;03;22;11

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah, absolutely. I’m so excited to be here.

 

00;03;22;14 – 00;03;44;16

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And I’m excited to follow you on social I found you I would say within the last year. And like I said, whenever I find accounts that, you know, I love, I’m like, how did I not know about this person? How am I just following this person? So for anyone who’s not familiar with who you are, what you try to do online on your Instagram handle, tell us more about yourself and why you do what you do.

 

00;03;44;19 – 00;04;05;20

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah, sure. So, as you mentioned, I have a PhD in nutrition science, and I’m a registered dietitian. And, when I started on social media and I didn’t, I started maybe two and a half years ago, I started making content specifically for the pregnancy and postpartum space. Primarily because that was, what I had studied quite a bit, but also because that’s the stage of life I was in.

 

00;04;05;27 – 00;04;27;08

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And so I was finding, just a lot of, kind of not so great information out there. And I thought that maybe I could bring some more evidence based information to the space, because it’s a space that is really heavily targeted by misinformation online. Which we’ll kind of get into, I’m sure. But so, yeah. So I started making content on there.

 

00;04;27;10 – 00;04;48;29

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And it’s primarily I do pregnancy focused nutrition content and then also postpartum and breastfeeding content. It’s gotten a little bit into kind of like early childhood, nutrition as well. But that’s mostly what I do. And, it started off me just kind of educating in different areas that I thought were important, you know, particularly around like foods to avoid or foods to include and how to better your nutrition.

 

00;04;48;29 – 00;05;14;07

Dr. Jessica Knurick

But as I was doing that, I just really realized how much misinformation is out there and people would just send me videos and ask me things like, is this true? I’m sure you get those a lot as well. And, so what? I’ve kind of, evolved the content a bit into more correcting just the immense amount of misinformation that’s out there, like directly correcting it, which I think can be helpful to people because they’re used to seeing it.

 

00;05;14;07 – 00;05;18;27

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And then, yeah, they can identify and spot kind of what to look for when they see kind of those corrections.

 

00;05;18;27 – 00;05;39;06

Dr. Mona

Yeah. I, you know, we’ve connected over that because we do a lot of stitches or response videos, you know, of other people’s content. And it is an interesting evolution of being on social because I also never started doing that. Right. I obviously knew that there was misinformation around, you know, my niche of pediatrics for vaccines or, you know, all this other stuff with skincare products or food and all that.

 

00;05;39;08 – 00;05;58;02

Dr. Mona

But it definitely has evolved into now let’s correct this. And, you know, there’s a there’s a thought that, well, are we even be able to educate that way. And I do believe that. Right. You take something that’s misinformation and say, hey, here’s why it’s not correct. Here’s what you can do with this information. I think it does do a lot of justice in the space that does elevate a lot of misinformation.

 

00;05;58;02 – 00;05;59;24

Dr. Mona

Like we know that like, I mean.

 

00;05;59;24 – 00;06;13;20

Dr. Jessica Knurick

They’re actually derived from people that it’s that it’s more helpful sometimes because because again, they see the misinformation. And so they’re used to hearing these different things. And then if you can directly kind of counter that with evidence based information, it can be helpful for people I think.

 

00;06;13;24 – 00;06;32;10

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And also because it’s coming from all different directions, like right now at the time of this recording, people have DM me, can you talk about fluoride like, you know, can you talk about this in every given day, like you, it’s like I already have my content set up that I would want to do without debunking. And then I get a whole other, you know, 20, 30 content ideas from debunking all of this stuff.

 

00;06;32;10 – 00;07;00;26

Dr. Mona

And and I think you agree, it’s not even just about debunking. It’s about adding the middle ground nuance. Right? Like not everything is black or white. I mean, some of the things about fluoride, for example, for me is like, okay, it’s it’s understanding why this is a benefit. How much is too much, all of that. And I think that’s where we kind of lie in terms of making sure people understand that it’s not just like, don’t do this or do this, it’s here’s why and here’s what I need you to understand and why we give this recommendation, which the gray is not sexy on social media.

 

00;07;00;27 – 00;07;09;05

Dr. Mona

We know that like, people don’t always want to hear the gray, but when we combat misinformation and stitch, it does become, I think, more it reaches the algorithm a little better too, which I agree.

 

00;07;09;12 – 00;07;27;23

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah, that’s very true. And I do think that there’s something to be said for, you know, just I think I’ve become a more effective educator, honestly. Like with with doing it this way because I, it helps me to understand where people are, where they’re how do I say it, like where they’re held up, where their what their concerns are.

 

00;07;27;23 – 00;07;40;20

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Right? Where I might not know that because I just kind of know that evidence based information. And if I’m not working with people one on one, or if I’m not hearing where their concerns are, I don’t know specifically to educate in that particular area. And so it’s actually helped me.

 

00;07;40;25 – 00;07;59;08

Dr. Mona

I agree, I, I love there’s obviously a love hate, I would say more of a love relationship with social media. Because it does allow a lot of, you know, connection with more people. And my, my words can get out to more people. But, yes, there is definitely, a benefit, I would say in terms of becoming a better pediatrician for myself too.

 

00;07;59;08 – 00;08;18;25

Dr. Mona

And I resonate completely in that I get smarter and more educated on, well, what are they saying? Let me actually do a deeper dive into what the more recent guidelines. So I always joke that I should get CME credit for all the stuff that we do online. I’m like, why am I having to go to conferences when I spend literally my entire day, debunking and researching and looking at the balance here?

 

00;08;18;25 – 00;08;36;17

Dr. Mona

So, like I said, I know a lot of the stuff you talk about is obviously amazing education, but you are debunking a lot of the things and what we’re going to talk about today or, you know, things like misconceptions about food safety during pregnancy and an area of the UN area that you always talk about, which is the glucose test in pregnancy.

 

00;08;36;20 – 00;08;59;06

Dr. Mona

And then also if we have time, maybe prenatal vitamins, but I’d love to tackle first about the common foods pregnant women are told to avoid. That might be misunderstood or, you know, outdated advice. And again, what would you think is the more the biggest misconceptions you see about food safety or what you’re hearing online in regards to food safety during pregnancy?

 

00;08;59;09 – 00;09;05;09

Dr. Mona

Now let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show.

 

00;09;05;11 – 00;09;26;28

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Oh yeah. So I think when you come into pregnancy, there’s a really big emphasis on like, what foods should I eliminate out of my diet? And so for a very long time that was the focus. And it’s still very much is. But I do think that it’s kind of shifting, a bit, but, you know, a lot of times providers would just kind of like hand a list of foods to avoid.

 

00;09;26;28 – 00;09;44;06

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And, and I think pregnant women wouldn’t know that. Like, why, why do you need it to avoid those foods. And so I’ll give you a good example. One, one time I got, I got a message from a girl who, she was terrified because she had just. She forgot she was pregnant, which I know sounds ridiculous, but it can happen.

 

00;09;44;06 – 00;10;01;14

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Like, you know, you’re like, you’re out with your friends or whatever. And you. She ate a sandwich, and she just. I don’t know that she forgot she was pregnant. I think she forgot that that was a rule. Yeah. Quote unquote. Do not eat deli meat during pregnancy. And so she sent me this message. Think not understanding why that rule existed or why that she had ever heard to not eat deli meat.

 

00;10;01;21 – 00;10;20;12

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And she was so scared because she thought that she had done some sort of damage to her baby and by eating the sandwich. And I think that’s it’s a really good kind of example of how when we don’t kind of explain why these recommendations exist, and what the actual risk is of these recommendations, it can cause a lot more harm than good.

 

00;10;20;15 – 00;10;46;04

Dr. Jessica Knurick

In a lot of cases and kind of stress a lot of people out. And so in a sense of foods to avoid, there’s, there’s a lot of kind of misconceptions here. So I think the major misconception is why do we have foods to avoid. And it’s really a food safety reason. Right. And so the idea here was we were trying to identify what are the highest risk foods and and telling people not to eat those when they were pregnant because they were more high risk than other foods.

 

00;10;46;06 – 00;11;06;11

Dr. Jessica Knurick

The problem is, is that that’s not necessarily evidence based. When you actually look at the data of where foodborne illness comes from, and particularly like listeria, where listeria comes from, which a lot of it comes from fruits and vegetables, which, right, has never have never appeared on those lists. Right. It’s always been very disproportionately animal based products.

 

00;11;06;13 – 00;11;26;10

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And so something like, like cheese, soft cheese, we kind of just kind of blatantly say avoid soft cheese. That’s what a lot of people hear. Whereas, I mean, the vast majority of particularly for us in the United States, the vast majority of our soft cheese is pasteurized, right. Which which significantly reduces risk of Listeria and other foodborne illnesses.

 

00;11;26;13 – 00;11;43;24

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And so consuming, you know, pasteurized soft cheeses, which again, almost all of it is, is not really a high risk food. Another one is deli meats is a big one, which I just mentioned. Now deli meat does skew higher risk, right? It is more of a high risk food. And so that’s important to educate on.

 

00;11;43;26 – 00;12;03;21

Dr. Jessica Knurick

But if you hit deli meats particularly it’s 160 degrees. That eliminates that risk of listeria. Right. And so that that can kill those pathogens, for foodborne illness. And so kind of educating on that. And honestly, even it’s like a case by case basis because let’s say you have to weigh like pros and cons because every single food contains risk.

 

00;12;03;21 – 00;12;20;25

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And that’s what people don’t really understand. And so sometimes I’ll educate on this and I’ll be like, oh, you know, the risk is there. And so sometimes the pros outweigh the cons. And I’ll have people in my comment section like, oh, well, I wouldn’t even risk it for a 2% chance. And, and I don’t think I think the misunderstanding is that literally all food contains some sort of risks.

 

00;12;20;26 – 00;12;38;08

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Right. And so that’s important to remember because for example, well, let me stick on the deli meat example. So, if you heat it, it eliminates risk. But for some women in pregnancy and I’ve worked with these women, it’s, you know, there’s so many symptoms. You’ve been you’ve been pregnant. We have to deal with so much during pregnancy.

 

00;12;38;15 – 00;12;42;08

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And protein can often be a huge food aversion for people. And so it.

 

00;12;42;08 – 00;12;44;10

Dr. Mona

Was for me for my second. Yeah.

 

00;12;44;12 – 00;13;04;26

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And some of those people, if they can stomach deli meat, can still make the sandwich. And so if that’s the only place that they’re able to get their protein is the risk, the slight, the very small risk. To be honest, the absolute risk is quite small. Of listeria is it. Does it outweigh the risk of not getting protein and pregnancy.

 

00;13;04;26 – 00;13;24;17

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Right. And so you kind of have to weigh those things. And I think, another one is like runny eggs, you know, runny running. It’s obviously safer to cook your eggs, but some people cannot stomach cooked eggs. And the only way that they can get eggs is by having them a bit more runny. And eggs are an incredible, incredibly wonderful food during pregnancy.

 

00;13;24;17 – 00;13;43;28

Dr. Jessica Knurick

I mean, they’re really the sole source of choline. Yeah. You can choline from from other meat products, but I mean, the biggest sources is going to be from eggs. And so, if they if they can do it, I mean, eggs account for about 2% of all food poisoning cases in the United States. And so it’s not a huge disproportionate risk, if that’s the only way somebody can eat it.

 

00;13;43;28 – 00;14;00;11

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Now, if you want to, like, even lower your risk even more, avoid run the eggs. Right. If you want to get it as low as possible. But for some people, the pros might outweigh the cons. And I think I think that’s what that’s what gets lost in the conversation with kind of like foodborne illness risk in pregnancy and with.

 

00;14;00;11 – 00;14;12;13

Dr. Mona

So of course we know like listeria, for deli meat and also for cheeses. And then of course, the biggest one that I always hear is like sushi, for the, you know, mercury risk. And what are your thoughts about the sushi? Same concept.

 

00;14;12;20 – 00;14;32;00

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah. I mean, not just work. Yeah. So so let’s just talk about fish in general, right? Because this is another big one. So everything I’ve talked about so far, those recommendations come from kind of a foodborne illness risk. Right. Fish actually comes from a mercury risk. And so this is a this is a wonderful example of kind of misconceptions about pregnancy and nutrition.

 

00;14;32;00 – 00;15;00;18

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So a lot for a for a long time, it was recommended to just kind of avoid fish, because because of the risk of mercury. We have a ton of research has come out in the last couple of decades showing just the immense importance of things that fish contains, particularly omega three fatty acids like DHA for neurodevelopmental, for neurodevelopment, and so and so that is, fish can be a really, really helpful thing, particularly for DHEA.

 

00;15;00;18 – 00;15;23;22

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And there’s been some studies that have recently come out that have looked at fish and taken women during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes on, on offspring, both like in the immediate period, like infancy and then also a couple of years out. And they’ve shown I mean, there’s been there’s been good research too. So strong links between the intake, particularly fish intake, and neurodevelopmental outcomes.

 

00;15;23;24 – 00;15;42;11

Dr. Jessica Knurick

But some a couple of studies that have recently come out actually measured mercury content as well. And they showed higher mercury in the women who ate more fish, which would be expected, but also with the higher level of developmental outcomes. And so, you know, you could look at that and be like, oh, is mercury causing better developmental outcomes?

 

00;15;42;11 – 00;16;06;17

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Well, obviously no. Right. But it goes to show you that, that this is kind of like where the benefits of fish intake outweigh the potential risks of consuming mercury. And there’s also, you know, what gets lost is there’s a number of nutrients in fish that, that kind of help negate the negative effects of mercury. So, for example, fish is high in selenium, and selenium binds to mercury and doesn’t allow it to kind of like absorb into the body.

 

00;16;06;19 – 00;16;17;12

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So those types of things. And so, when we talk about fish, we still want you to avoid high mercury fish. I mean, I would suggest we all kind of avoid high mercury fish, right? Yeah.

 

00;16;17;13 – 00;16;19;03

Dr. Mona

Even without pregnancy. Right. Exactly.

 

00;16;19;03 – 00;16;41;20

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah. Even even outside of pregnancy. But but but the emphasis really should stop being, you know, avoid high mercury fish. And we should really start educating on, like, consume low mercury fish, low and moderate mercury fish. And, if you ever want to know, like which fish are low and which fish are high, the EPA puts out a really great document of like low, moderate and high mercury fish and which which options to choose from.

 

00;16;41;22 – 00;17;04;03

Dr. Mona

I love that. Yeah, I, I kind of attribute this to you know, you’re talking about that message that you got when someone was concerned about eating the deli meat and the panic that can ensue when you hear this messaging that don’t, don’t, don’t. And I use the example of like honey and infants under one, for pediatrics, like obviously we I’ve said this before, but we don’t recommend honey for infants under one because of the risk of botulism.

 

00;17;04;03 – 00;17;36;10

Dr. Mona

But it doesn’t mean that you accidentally gave the honey and they’re going to have botulism, right? Like it doesn’t mean that you eat the deli meat and that you’re going to have listeria or some foodborne illness besides listeria. And what you said was so perfect about that, it tends to be, you know, the media or the the list tend to focus on plant based products, because I know there’s been so many there’s been outbreaks of listeria and cantaloupe or other fruit that we’ve mentioned, and those things can happen, but you can’t not eat anything like you can’t just live a life of like in fear that everything that you put in your mouth is going

 

00;17;36;10 – 00;17;57;02

Dr. Mona

to lead to, you know, lead to a foodborne illness. So in your opinion, like you’ve been pregnant as well as me, how would you tell a peer to approach this? Right, knowing that there are these lists, knowing that we obviously want to reduce risk as much as possible? You know, what would be your advice to someone who’s listening, who may be pregnant at this time that has that sort of well, I don’t want to do it, and I don’t want this risk.

 

00;17;57;02 – 00;17;59;22

Dr. Mona

Like, how can they kind of evaluate what’s safer, what’s not.

 

00;17;59;27 – 00;18;23;13

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah. So it’s a great question. And this is definitely a thing that I hear all the time. You know people are like, well I just can’t eat anything because everything, you know, I see every ice cream had listeria and then, you know, broccoli had listeria and just all these different things. Right? I think it was just in like frozen waffles, waffles, marbles and and so what I would say is that, first, I think it’s really helpful to understand the risk.

 

00;18;23;21 – 00;18;42;20

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So, in terms of listeria, which is what we always tend to talk about because it is it is the most dangerous of the foodborne illnesses, particularly in pregnancy. And so that’s why there’s so much focus on it. But there’s the CDC, right. Estimates that there’s about 1600 total cases of listeria every single year in the United States.

 

00;18;42;22 – 00;18;45;11

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Now, how many people are in the US? Like 330 million.

 

00;18;45;11 – 00;18;46;17

Dr. Mona

Million. Exactly. Right.

 

00;18;46;22 – 00;19;13;20

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So, so it’s a very, very small absolute risk. Yeah. Right. And so when we’re talking about high risk foods, I’m putting that in quotes. If you’re not watching. I’m we’re talking about the relative risk right, relative to other things. But the absolute risk of these foods is quite low in terms of listeria risk. And, and so I think it’s really helpful to understand that because we, we sometimes because maybe we’re talking about it all the time, it seems like it’s a higher risk than it actually is.

 

00;19;13;20 – 00;19;33;26

Dr. Jessica Knurick

You know what I mean? Well, yeah. And then, and then after that, I would just say when we’re thinking about our food during pregnancy, I just look at it as kind of like, a food safe with a food safety lens on all of our food. Right? So all of our food, we should probably not leave sitting out because that, is kind of like a harboring ground for bacteria.

 

00;19;33;26 – 00;19;50;21

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And so, so kind of eating food right after it’s prepared. Don’t eat from like, hot food bars and, and like those types of restaurants where their food is just sitting out all the time. Restaurants have a disproportionately high risk of foodborne illness. So, you know, not eating at restaurants as much can be helpful. Do you have to do that?

 

00;19;50;21 – 00;20;17;09

Dr. Jessica Knurick

No. Did I do that? No. I still eat at restaurants. But if you are a little bit more risk averse, cooking your food at home is definitely going to increase or decrease risk. And then, you know, like refrigerating your meat products, buying things in the refrigerator instead of on the, on the counter, those types of things, avoiding precut fruits and vegetables, precut things, can have, can harbor more bacteria than if you cut it yourself.

 

00;20;17;11 – 00;20;29;16

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So just, cooking things to the temperatures, like I said, 160 degrees for meat, can kill listeria. So all of those things are going to mitigate the already kind of low risk that you’re facing with foodborne illness in pregnancy.

 

00;20;29;19 – 00;20;47;27

Dr. Mona

I love that advice. And, you know, talking about everyone who has different levels of being risk averse is totally true. It applies to so many things that I talk about as well. Like I like in my in my pregnancy, like you said perfectly already that I had protein aversions in both my pregnancies, but even worse, with my daughter and I had gestational diabetes with my daughter.

 

00;20;47;27 – 00;21;04;19

Dr. Mona

And so protein was really important in my diet because I really couldn’t eat a lot of other things. And so I did eat deli sandwiches because I crave them. And they I think I craved them because my body wanted the, the meat and like the, you know, with the nutrients of that meat product. And I didn’t need it every day.

 

00;21;04;23 – 00;21;20;04

Dr. Mona

But I went through, you know, I went to places, I made it myself, or I went to places that I know had good quality, you know, products that I trusted. Our local, you know, grocery store was always had good hygiene and all of that and how they, you know, stored everything. But I did make them myself sometimes.

 

00;21;20;04 – 00;21;37;17

Dr. Mona

And, I never really eat deli meat sandwiches without being pregnant, but it was something that I wanted. I think about that friends episode. If anyone watches friends, like, when, you know, Phoebe doesn’t eat meat and all of a sudden she’s craving, like, the the deli sandwiches. Like, it just happens sometimes. And like, you just you really want it.

 

00;21;37;17 – 00;22;05;23

Dr. Mona

And, you know, I mean, I think having this conversation and understanding with yourself and your, you know, your partner, if they’re involved of like, I really want this and I understand there’s a risk and how am I going to reduce my risk and am I comfortable with this. And the other thing I would say is that when you make these these decisions being okay, God forbid something were to happen and you did get listeria, which is so rare, like, I mean, I, I make the decisions of all these risk aversion things that I’m like, okay, if I do this, am I going to get it and am I going to reduce?

 

00;22;05;24 – 00;22;24;21

Dr. Mona

Am I going to remove the guilt if I if something were to happen? Yeah. Like because I know that these chances are low and we do the best that we can and use like you said, you balance what you need to balance so that you can get the nutrients you need to satisfy the cravings which I really struggled a lot with gestational diabetes and not being able to eat a lot of my cravings.

 

00;22;24;23 – 00;22;33;06

Dr. Mona

And that came in the form of getting to eat my deli sandwiches. So, I love that you brought up that example because I’m an example of, you know, doing doing what you said.

 

00;22;33;09 – 00;22;52;18

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah, yeah. And it’s just such an important point that, like, everybody has different circumstances. Right. And so what like, for example, I don’t eat deli meat. I, I haven’t eaten like 15 years. So it was really easy for me to be like, well, I’m not going to eat that because that’s kind of a riskier food, you know? But but for somebody else like yourself, and I love that you brought up the gestational diabetes example because that’s so true.

 

00;22;52;18 – 00;23;01;03

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Like, protein is so important if you have gestational diabetes. And, so it’s just such a perfect example of like when the, the pros might outweigh the cons.

 

00;23;01;03 – 00;23;18;12

Dr. Mona

Yeah. Like the eggs. Like the runny eggs, like any egg would make me gag, which never did. And we would always eat this chicken dish from this, like this restaurant. And the side of the chicken dish would make me gag like it was so prominent. The aversion to protein, like you said. And I needed protein. I mean, so I really like that.

 

00;23;18;15 – 00;23;34;26

Dr. Mona

So thank you so much. And I, I think that’s such a great way to kind of, you know, introduce this conversation about the misconceptions and the myths out there and how people may relay this information not only on social, but even from a medical perspective. Right. Like we’ll give those lists and it’s like very black and white without the nuance, which you just, describe.

 

00;23;34;26 – 00;23;53;12

Dr. Mona

So thank you. And another thing that I did want to talk about was the blue collar test or the glucose test in pregnancy. So for anyone who’s not familiar, which maybe people who may not have had the test yet, why is this test important and what is it testing for which we kind of just alluded to with my gestational diabetes, you know, conversation?

 

00;23;53;20 – 00;24;10;11

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah. I’ll, I’ll just kind of quickly describe what the test is. And I’m being specific to the United States because there’s a couple of different ways to test and there’s different ways around the world. But in the United States, we do a two step process. So we do a screening test. And this all happens generally between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy.

 

00;24;10;11 – 00;24;34;19

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So the bulk of testing happens during that time. And so the first test is a 50 gram, 50g of glucose. So it’s a drink. It’s it’s kind of a, it’s a very small drink. And, it’s it’s just flavored with 50g of glucose. And so it’s quite sugary. And the the idea is to kind of, strain your body’s glucose, regulation system.

 

00;24;34;22 – 00;24;55;02

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So, so what we’re looking at is how well your body responds to that 50g of glucose. So how much is your insulin producing insulin to respond to that huge glucose load that’s now in your blood? And and is it getting rid of the glucose? In an effective manner. So that’s what we’re looking at. So for the screening test it’s generally a non fasting test.

 

00;24;55;02 – 00;25;18;13

Dr. Jessica Knurick

The idea is it’s because these are pregnant individuals. We’re trying not to kind of stress them any more than we need to. And so kind of come in it’s 50g of glucose. So it’s a smaller glucose load. And it’s only an hour long. And so the idea of it is it’s a screening test to kind of screen people out who are low risk and whose bodies are, effectively managing that glucose load.

 

00;25;18;15 – 00;25;35;17

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And then have a cutoff for people who tend to be higher risk, who it looks like they may be at a bit of a higher risk of a diagnosis of our diagnostic criteria, or of being diagnosed with gestational diabetes or of actually having gestational diabetes. And if that’s the case, if they’re above that cutoff, they’ll go on to a three hour test.

 

00;25;35;20 – 00;25;53;09

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And that three hour test is a diagnostic test, so that sometimes there’s a little bit of confusion of why there’s two tests and what’s the difference, three a screening and a diagnostic. So that’s really the difference is the screening test is really just meant to be kind of low burden on on everybody. Yeah. Because the vast majority of people don’t have to go on to the three hour test.

 

00;25;53;09 – 00;26;20;23

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And so they just kind of need to do the one hour test. And then they go on to the three hour test, which is a diagnostic test that’s 100g of glucose. And so they go in, set a three hour test, and they sit there and and then we measure their blood at at certain time periods, and look for those diagnostic cutoff criteria, and the whole idea here is that again, we’re, we’re measuring and we’re looking at how well, your body, kind of metabolizes and utilizes glucose.

 

00;26;20;26 – 00;26;40;10

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Because what happens and why testing is done between 24 and 28 weeks is because that insulin resistance increases in all normal healthy pregnancies. It’s just a function of being pregnant. And it generally happens, it does happen because of the hormones in your placenta plus increased body fat that happens again in all normal healthy pregnancies and is really important.

 

00;26;40;13 – 00;27;01;11

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And so that insulin resistance increases. And so for some people though, because of a number of reasons, their body is not able to handle that increase in insulin resistance. And we’re able to see that between the 24 to 28 week mark generally. And so that’s why we wait until that long to test. And so that’s and that’s what we’re looking for.

 

00;27;01;11 – 00;27;23;12

Dr. Jessica Knurick

We’re looking for are you able to utilize that glucose because if you’re not that glucose is going to stay in your blood, and if it stays in your blood, it’s going to pass through the placenta and it’s going to go to your baby. And what happens then is as it goes through the placenta into your baby, your baby’s, pancreas is going to have to overproduce insulin, which is, which can cause a number of issues for the baby, including macros.

 

00;27;23;12 – 00;27;26;26

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So Mia, which is, which is a large for gestational age baby. A large baby.

 

00;27;27;00 – 00;27;51;29

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And I for anyone who’s not familiar, I, like I said, I had gestational diabetes with my second. I didn’t have it with my first. I got the screening test for my first. I got this, screening test for my second, needing needed to get the diagnostic test because I didn’t pass the screening tests, like, Doctor Jessica was chatting about, if you want more information about GDM in general, about how it impacts the baby, I have a YouTube video that will link, to show notes as well as on the YouTube caption.

 

00;27;52;02 – 00;28;11;04

Dr. Mona

Because it is a very useful video on why this is so important from the from the fetus side. From the baby side. And also for mom because we want to keep mom healthy. Now, my question for you is, Jessica, you spent so much time on your social combating a lot of misconceptions around this test. So I’m curious what those misconceptions are.

 

00;28;11;04 – 00;28;36;01

Dr. Mona

Or, you know, people talking about, let’s use alternatives like just eat jelly beans or that the glucose test is harmful. So I would love for you to like, explain what you’ve been hearing and sort of explain why that might not be true and what people should know as they go into these tests and the importance of them. Now, let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show.

 

00;28;36;04 – 00;28;57;26

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah, yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, this is also just before I answer that, I just want to say this is a good example of how being on social media has kind of made me a better educator, because I did my dissertation work in the area of diabetes. And so I was really in it, like I’ve run hundreds of OGs in the lab or glucose tolerance tests in the lab, and I just didn’t realize that there was so much pushback, interesting, and just kind of secluded from it.

 

00;28;57;28 – 00;29;22;05

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And so being on social media, I’ve realized like that there are these concerns from women. And, so, yeah, so a lot of them have to do with, the glucose test in general. So there are, some people don’t tolerate it well. And that that’s that is true. You’re drinking a large glucose load, and myself included, by the way, I was quite like I was fine drinking it.

 

00;29;22;05 – 00;29;27;03

Dr. Jessica Knurick

It kind of tasted like I didn’t mind the taste. It was kind of like a flat orange soda. Yeah.

 

00;29;27;05 – 00;29;29;20

Dr. Mona

Yeah, I felt same. Very sugary Fanta.

 

00;29;29;22 – 00;29;47;22

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah. Reminiscent of my childhood. I was like, okay, that’s pretty good. Yeah. But afterwards I was super lightheaded. And, you know, you don’t really want to feel those types of symptoms, particularly when you’re pregnant and right now feeling great. Right. Luckily, this is done in the second trimester when people are generally feeling better, but yeah. So I, I had those symptoms too.

 

00;29;47;22 – 00;30;04;26

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And so I know a lot of women experience even worse symptoms than that. They’ll, they’ll, they actually can’t even tolerate the drink. Now I said a lot, but that’s it’s a small minority of women. But you hear about it. And so I think that there’s a concern, first of all, and a rightful concern about, you know, symptoms of, of the test.

 

00;30;04;28 – 00;30;30;28

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And so just acknowledging that and, explaining that those symptoms or those things can happen as a result of taking the test and just kind of, trying to explain that the pros of identifying gestational diabetes outweigh kind of those, those issues that might happen, like feeling nauseous. And so that’s one, another big one is just, I, I would just call it chemo phobia.

 

00;30;30;28 – 00;30;50;08

Dr. Jessica Knurick

That is very strong in, in social media spaces, which is this fear of chemicals, any kind of chemical, people are a bit, you know, there’s a fear of sugar because there’s this, like, kind of anti sugar movement. And so it’s like, why would we be giving people 50g of sugar? That’s not like a norm or 100g of sugar.

 

00;30;50;08 – 00;31;06;11

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And that’s not normal under like normal constraints. And so one of the things I try to educate on is why we, why why a challenge test is important, right? Because it’s true. Like, and if you kind of think about it, it’s like, okay, well I don’t really eat like that, so why do I have to go and do that?

 

00;31;06;11 – 00;31;29;13

Dr. Jessica Knurick

I’m just going to eat. Like if I’m not doing that, then my my sister won’t be stressed. But the whole idea is to really stress the system, to make sure we identify any underlying issues that maybe we couldn’t identify if we were just monitoring you with how you normally eat. And then we would miss gestational diabetes. And then, you know, a month down the road, it would present itself, in a worse way for, for a person.

 

00;31;29;13 – 00;31;49;17

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So trying to educate on the, the underlying physiology there, some of the ingredients, are of a concern to, to some people. So, there, the, the government just, stopped utilizing bvo or they know, I don’t know what’s the word. It’s not outlawed. I’m, I’m blanking on the word.

 

00;31;49;20 – 00;31;54;20

Dr. Mona

Like restricted or I guess, yeah. Like, doesn’t allow it in products anymore.

 

00;31;54;20 – 00;31;55;10

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Took it out.

 

00;31;55;12 – 00;31;56;20

Dr. Mona

Took it out? Yes, exactly.

 

00;31;56;20 – 00;32;18;10

Dr. Jessica Knurick

It’s no longer allowed to be used based on some research. Not that showed harm in humans, but, that that, you know, it it just as a precautionary thing. And so, Bvo did used to be used in some cola drinks. Now, it hasn’t been used, at least in the last year since I’ve been looking at blue cola drinks are before they even stopped using, or they came out and said that they weren’t gonna use it anymore.

 

00;32;18;10 – 00;32;34;29

Dr. Jessica Knurick

It hasn’t been used, but people still perpetuate that because if you come out and say a toxic, quote unquote toxic ingredients is include cola and all the doctors are giving us cola, that makes for good social media. Yes. So that’s one of the things I try to combat. And just letting people know that is not even an ingredient in the cola test.

 

00;32;34;29 – 00;32;49;12

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And it’s also, you know, literally a one time drink. So even if it was an ingredient in a glucose test, I mean, cola is not something we’re having to drink every day. It’s a medical test. It’s one time drink for a medical test, just like oral contrast for. Yeah.

 

00;32;49;14 – 00;32;50;01

Dr. Mona

Exactly.

 

00;32;50;01 – 00;32;53;03

Dr. Jessica Knurick

You know, like nobody wants to drink oral contrast every day.

 

00;32;53;05 – 00;33;09;22

Dr. Mona

Exactly. And I love that because that’s exactly it is that I think when you hear that, you’re like, well, they’re poisoning us. It’s like, well, no, you’re literally taking this once in your pregnancy. And and like you said, even if it even though I agree that I’m not concerned about the safety risk of it, and even so they took it out.

 

00;33;09;22 – 00;33;32;03

Dr. Mona

So it’s like now here. Thank you. Thank you. And I think when Pete, when they took it out, what happens a lot of times when regulated regulatory bodies take out things or regulate things. And it’s like a I told you so and I, I love that you say it. It’s like it’s listening to what’s happening. And it’s also just doing precautionary things like taking out red dye, you know, like that’s that’s a similar movement in pediatrics right now that yes red dye.

 

00;33;32;03 – 00;33;51;06

Dr. Mona

There is some, some research showing that it may impact ADHD children a little bit differently. But taking it out of California’s foods in schools is just a precautionary thing. It doesn’t mean that not everyone can have red dye and that you’re going to be a horrible mom or dad if you give your kid red dye occasionally, right? It’s all about occasionally.

 

00;33;51;09 – 00;34;01;22

Dr. Mona

And what our, you know, people, are you hearing that there’s alternatives that are equally useful as the Coca-Cola drinks or for you, the Coca-Cola drink is the best from what you’ve researched and you know, your expertise.

 

00;34;01;24 – 00;34;19;17

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah. Let me go over some of the alternatives. First. Let me correct myself because I said oral contrast for a colonoscopy. And it’s really oral contrast for a CT scan. Yeah. Yes. Yes I like the solution for a colon. It’s not like there’s any medical professionals. So like that’s not what you use. Yeah. Okay. So anyway the, the alternatives that that’s also a big one that I, that I had to get a lot on.

 

00;34;19;18 – 00;34;46;26

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So here’s the thing about the, the OG, the oral glucose tolerance test, it’s the only validated way to diagnose gestational diabetes. Why does that matter? Why is validation so important? Well, validation is important because it ensures that we have criteria right. So we need to have these criteria in order to make a diagnosis. And so if you use an alternative that has not been well validated, has not been well studied, has not looked at, okay, well what are the cutoffs.

 

00;34;46;26 – 00;35;25;29

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And then how many people are actually experiencing symptoms and outcomes because of this. You know, because of this condition in those cutoffs that that’s what validation is looking at. Right. And so that’s what the OG DT has been wonderful for. And it’s why it’s the gold standard all around the world for gestational diabetes. Diagnosing now some of the alternatives that I have heard, I’ve heard like breakfast situation, where somebody has like a pancake breakfast and juice and, and so I kind of try to educate on how that is completely different than just glucose, because you have not only all of the different types of sugars in there, which are metabolized differently,

 

00;35;25;29 – 00;35;46;23

Dr. Jessica Knurick

but you also have proteins that fiber, all of which are going to very much affect, glucose exclusion or the glucose release into the blood from, from your meal. And so we don’t have diagnostic criteria for, for a meal. And so it’s, it’s to me it’s like, why even do the tests? Because it’s not telling you if you have gestational diabetes or not.

 

00;35;46;23 – 00;36;05;22

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So that’s one. The jelly bean test is a big one that I see. And that’s based on a single study in 1999 that looked at, jelly beans. I think it was 48 jelly beans, but don’t quote me on that. So it looked at a number of jelly beans and, compared it to the cola.

 

00;36;05;24 – 00;36;28;20

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And basically there were five total cases of gestational diabetes in that study. Four out of five were correctly diagnosed with blue collar and two out of five were correctly diagnosed with jelly beans. So what that tells me, obviously, is that the glucose test was twice as sensitive at detecting gestational diabetes than jelly beans, and it means that jelly beans are not an effective way to test for gestational diabetes.

 

00;36;28;20 – 00;36;36;15

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And that’s the only study that’s ever been, done looking at jelly beans. And so it’s just not a valid alternative. Jelly beans are also very variable. Right.

 

00;36;36;16 – 00;36;47;24

Dr. Mona

So the type of the flavor. Right. Like little black flavor. Like white rice. Yeah. Black licorice jelly beans, which is my favorite. I know it’s weird. It’s not going to give you the same as like a sugary lemon lime or something like that.

 

00;36;47;27 – 00;37;11;11

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And also doing and eating something is a very different way of consuming that sugar than than drinking it. And so it’s just again, it’s not a valid way. It’s I think it’s I think it’s because glucose reminds us versus something like oral contrast or the wax solution. It just reminds us more of food. And so people are like, well, maybe I can have alternative sources like orange juice instead of that.

 

00;37;11;14 – 00;37;30;20

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Where we wouldn’t do that for, for those other medical tests, right, where you’re also consuming something. So orange juice is another big one. The problem with orange juice is it’s over. Half fructose is a sugar. Fructose is metabolized very differently than glucose. Yeah. And so, the glycemic index is much lower than for fructose than glucose.

 

00;37;30;23 – 00;37;54;25

Dr. Jessica Knurick

It’s just to tell you fructose is 20 to 25, depending on the source, which is how quickly it spikes blood sugar, whereas glucose is 100. Yeah. So there’s a huge difference, huge variability there. And so again it’s not a valid test. And then the last one I would say is at home monitoring. And this one, this one again it’s not a valid way to diagnose gestational diabetes, but it’s the best alternative that we have.

 

00;37;54;27 – 00;38;16;00

Dr. Jessica Knurick

For people who are contraindicated for the gestational diabetes test. And there are people like that. Like for example, if you have gastric bypass surgery, right, those people are going to generally be people who are going to do at home monitoring, people who literally can’t tolerate the glucose test, which there are people who, you know, they just keep throwing it out because maybe they’re experiencing hyperemesis gravidarum.

 

00;38;16;01 – 00;38;33;11

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah, pregnancy. And they literally can’t keep things down. So at home monitoring is is kind of the the best approach for them. I think traditionally a lot of physicians have had them do two weeks of, of at home monitoring. I would.

 

00;38;33;14 – 00;38;51;00

Dr. Jessica Knurick

From someone from the research space. I just think that that’s not enough. I think that it would be far better to have them do two weeks and then have them monitor throughout the rest of their pregnancy a bit. Yeah, right. Because again, you’re not you’re not putting them under strong conditions. And those two weeks of monitoring, 2 to 3 weeks of monitoring.

 

00;38;51;02 – 00;39;04;27

Dr. Jessica Knurick

And so it’s very possible that insulin resistance will continue to increase. And you’ll miss cases of gestational diabetes. And so kind of monitoring like Perry frequently throughout the rest of throughout the rest of pregnancy can be helpful.

 

00;39;05;00 – 00;39;12;01

Dr. Mona

I love well, thank you so much for our listeners to understand the difference between glucose and fructose, because they are different and the fact that, I mean.

 

00;39;12;01 – 00;39;13;09

Dr. Jessica Knurick

All the information I.

 

00;39;13;11 – 00;39;26;16

Dr. Mona

Know, but it’s so important because, like you said, a perfectly like the people thing because it’s a food source like glucose and like, let me just eat pancakes. Those have sugar in it. Let me put some sirup on it. Yeah. So that there is there are other nutrients in that, which is why it’s not the same. Right. It’s glucose.

 

00;39;26;18 – 00;39;43;28

Dr. Mona

And there’s those glucose tests which like I said already, I agree, it tastes like very sugar flat orange soda. And I actually I didn’t mind it either. I actually enjoyed the taste of it because I was like, I love Fanta or whatever orange soda brand you like. But I also did have, for both my pregnancies, the same symptoms that you describe.

 

00;39;43;28 – 00;40;08;01

Dr. Mona

Like after those tests, I felt very lightheaded and jittery, like just trembling from the sugar. And for my son, I didn’t have gestational diabetes. And for my daughter, I did. And so someone as someone who’s had GDM gestational diabetes and it was hard. I’m not going to deny that I, I want to really stress the importance of these tests because from a pediatrician standpoint, I see what uncontrolled gestational diabetes can do to an infant, in a newborn, obviously.

 

00;40;08;01 – 00;40;28;15

Dr. Mona

And so these things are not just made up, as Jessica has said, like there’s reasoning behind why we choose these tests and why it’s recommended over a pancake or jelly beans or things like that. And so to listen to the experts and ask the questions, whether it is, you know, obviously to your clinician or on social media, but I would prefer that it would be to someone who knows your history and all that.

 

00;40;28;17 – 00;40;46;25

Dr. Mona

Because that is so important. I mean, this is not no one. We’re not trying to harm anyone like, I, I think one of the biggest frustrations both you and I share is that we both are mothers. We both have been pregnant. And, you know, I’m a pediatrician giving pediatrics advice. Everything that I would say to my listeners and my followers and my patients are stuff that I would want for my own self.

 

00;40;46;25 – 00;41;01;10

Dr. Mona

Right? And so when people don’t agree or don’t understand that, I’m so confused. I’m like, no, there’s no agenda behind this. Just I want people to stay healthy and not have sick kids or be hospitalized for issues that we can possibly control. Like it’s just boggles my mind.

 

00;41;01;12 – 00;41;05;01

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. They’ll call you like a shell.

 

00;41;05;03 – 00;41;11;04

Dr. Mona

Yeah. Big pharma. I’m like, how? She’ll like. I’m literally like. And it’s it’s just going to always be the case. But you’re doing the good work.

 

00;41;11;09 – 00;41;18;26

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Well, I just, I guess I think it’s hilarious what someone calls me a big pharma shill. I have a PhD in nutrition science. Like I don’t have anything to do it.

 

00;41;18;26 – 00;41;35;20

Dr. Mona

I mean, I mean, already with pharmacy, like, I mean, and I always all the pediatricians just joke because we are the lowest paid specialty. And I’ve said this before, like we are the lowest paid medical specialty in all the specialties. So if we were truly getting paid by big Pharma, we wouldn’t be the lowest paid specialty, would we?

 

00;41;35;20 – 00;41;39;03

Dr. Mona

Like, let’s use some common sense, like, and it’s not very good.

 

00;41;39;06 – 00;41;40;05

Dr. Jessica Knurick

It’s for everything.

 

00;41;40;05 – 00;41;55;14

Dr. Mona

No, it’s not like the surgeons get paid more because they’re doing procedures, because insurance companies like procedures, they don’t like admissions and give money to us. So it’s not anything more than just trying to keep people out of our offices. But of course, social media doesn’t always follow that. Jessica, this is wonderful. Can.

 

00;41;55;14 – 00;42;17;27

Dr. Jessica Knurick

I just say one thing? Just a related to, you had mentioned that you were really jittery after you took the glucose test. I just wanted to just mention a really good strategy for people when they’re going into their glucose test is to bring a high protein snack to eat immediately after. And that can be really helpful to kind of, assuage or lower, that risk of feeling super, like, jittery and like, lightheaded.

 

00;42;17;29 – 00;42;22;12

Dr. Jessica Knurick

It’s it won’t prevent it 100%, but it can help a lot. Just getting something high.

 

00;42;22;14 – 00;42;25;06

Dr. Mona

Can that be done? Can that be done before the blood draw.

 

00;42;25;06 – 00;42;28;07

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So not not with. No, not with the diagnostic test.

 

00;42;28;07 – 00;42;32;16

Dr. Mona

Yes. Correct. So that’s why I couldn’t. Right. So meaning it has to be done after the blood draws.

 

00;42;32;18 – 00;42;33;19

Dr. Jessica Knurick

After the blood draw.

 

00;42;33;19 – 00;42;34;20

Dr. Mona

Awesome. Great clarification.

 

00;42;34;21 – 00;42;36;18

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Good point of clarification. I was I was like.

 

00;42;36;18 – 00;42;50;20

Dr. Mona

Wait, they told me I couldn’t because I was going to take something that they told me. No, but that makes sense. Yeah. But right after you get the blood draw done so that you don’t feel that symptoms. Awesome. Well, now you have inspired me to have a whole episode about GDM in general because, of your experience.

 

00;42;50;20 – 00;42;54;06

Dr. Mona

But thank you so much for joining me today. Yeah.

 

00;42;54;08 – 00;42;54;18

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah, would.

 

00;42;54;18 – 00;43;04;17

Dr. Mona

Be your final uplifting message for everyone listening. I, you know, obviously we talk about some heavy things about like the cola and the and the and the foods to eat. But what would be your message to people tuning in today?

 

00;43;04;20 – 00;43;23;28

Dr. Jessica Knurick

I think that just in pregnancy, pregnancy can be, a really a difficult time because you’re going through a lot of obviously, like, symptoms and, and it’s, it’s this whole new world that you really don’t know anything about. And I think that we’re at this period, it’s just this time period when, we also have so much to learn.

 

00;43;24;04 – 00;43;44;14

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Right. And so we’re just consuming information all the time. And just being really, like, careful and, about where you’re consuming that information. Be really cognizant about protecting your mental space during this time, because as somebody who, I’m just finishing like, I’m still breastfeeding my, my almost two year old. I’m almost done, though. And and that that chapter’s closing in my life.

 

00;43;44;14 – 00;44;09;13

Dr. Jessica Knurick

So the pregnancy breastfeeding chapter will be done for me. And so I feel like I’m at like this unique period to, to realize like it was a difficult time, but it also kind of like, I don’t want to say magical and be all cheesy, but it’s also a really, really special time in life, you know? And so, to really just protect yourself during that time and, and if your algorithm is feeding you fear mongering, terrifying information, just keep walking those pages.

 

00;44;09;13 – 00;44;09;25

Dr. Mona

Because you.

 

00;44;09;25 – 00;44;24;24

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Don’t need that. You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life, you know, and just identifying the places and people that you trust and that that don’t bring you a ton of anxiety. If somebody if you are watching and consuming content that is constantly bringing you anxiety, that is not the place to be. So so that’s what I would say.

 

00;44;24;26 – 00;44;38;21

Dr. Mona

I love that message. I, I why I started my platform to and I love that you’re doing the same thing. Where can people go to stay connected. Where is your Instagram handle to, you know, obviously learn more about all the things that you’re sharing on your social.

 

00;44;38;23 – 00;44;47;25

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah. So I’m, pretty active on TikTok and Instagram and it’s the same handle. So doc Dr.. And then my name Jessica. Derek. Can you Eric.

 

00;44;47;27 – 00;44;54;19

Dr. Mona

Awesome. I will be attaching that to the caption here as well. Shownotes. Thanks again for joining me today. Jessica.

 

00;44;54;21 – 00;44;58;14

Dr. Jessica Knurick

Yeah, thank you so much. It’s been so great.

 

00;44;58;17 – 00;45;15;29

Dr. Mona

Oh, I told you it was going to be a good episode. Thank you for joining us today. And I want to leave you with the reminder that Doctor Jessica summed up so well. Every food has some level of risk, whether you’re pregnant or not. Yet, pregnancy raises the stakes a bit because your immune system shifts and we want to avoid preventable harm.

 

00;45;16;02 – 00;45;35;28

Dr. Mona

Yes, some foods are higher risk, like high mercury fish or raw items that carry a bigger chance of foodborne illness. But none of this means one bite of something is instant danger. It simply means we want to use common sense, prepare food safely, and focus on the big picture, and avoid things that may be higher risk instead of spiraling over every snack.

 

00;45;36;00 – 00;46;04;20

Dr. Mona

That same logic applies to the glucose test. This isn’t about fear. It’s about using the tools we have to keep you and your baby safe. And if this episode helped you feel more grounded, download it so counts towards our show’s growth. Subscribe to the show if you haven’t and share your favorite parts on your stories online. Tag at PedsDocTalk at the PedsDocTalk podcast and Doctor Jessica Nurkic K and you are IK so we can see what landed for you.

 

00;46;04;23 – 00;46;08;09

Dr. Mona

Thanks for being here. Thanks for learning and I’ll catch you all next time.