We have an incredibly special episode for you today with the one and only Lily Nichols! She is a registered dietitian nutritionist and the author of two books (soon to be three!)-- Real Food for Pregnancy and Real Food for Gestational Diabetes. Lily is truly a pregnancy nutrition expert providing women with access to the most current evidence-based information regarding food. Lily specializes in helping women with gestational diabetes feel empowered with options to help their blood sugar stay diet-controlled. This important work is helping women with gestational diabetes have healthier pregnancies and more birthing options when so much of the conversation around it becomes limiting and fear-based. Whether you have gestational diabetes in your pregnancy, are pregnant, preparing to be pregnant, or just want more nutrition education, this episode is for you!!Additional LinksLily’s WebsiteReal Food for Gestational DiabetesReal Food for PregnancyHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode Details Timestamp Topics09:28 What is gestational diabetes? 11:15 Are there preexisting signs and ways to prevent it?13:59 What can we do? 17:00 How much protein you should get in pregnancy19:11 Best sources of protein22:04 Getting enough protein on a meatless diet26:17 Fats & Gestational Diabetes31:14 Do we have to have a baby at 38 weeks with gestational diabetes?32:28 The problem with the standard gestational diabetes guidelines40:20 PCOS and gestational diabetesMeagan: Hello, hello everybody. This is The VBAC Link and we have a very special episode for you today. This is a topic that if I were to show you in the inbox, you would be like, “Whoa. I didn’t realize so many people have this question.” The question is– I mean, there are lots of questions– but the topic is gestational diabetes. So if you have any questions about gestational diabetes, this is your episode for sure. And then actually, right before we started recording, I learned there are even other things that make us at high risk or are a known risk for gestational diabetes. Even if you haven’t ever had gestational diabetes, you’re going to want to listen because there are things that we can do preventatively before pregnancy or during pregnancy to avoid it. But you guys, we have the one and only Lily Nichols on today with us talking about this extraordinarily common topic. Lily Nichols is a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified in diabetes education. She is a researcher and an author with a passion for evidence-based prenatal nutrition. Drawing from the current scientific literature with the wisdom of traditional cultures,  her work is known for being research-focused, thorough, and sensible. Her best-selling book is Real Food for Gestational Diabetes. I absolutely love that the start of this is “Real Food”. Real food is something that I don’t feel like we focus on enough in our every day– not even during pregnancy– lives. We live busy lives, so it’s hard to focus on real food. But Real Food for Gestational Diabetes and you guys, she has an online course with the same name so Real Food for Gestational Diabetes Online Course. She is absolutely amazing and has even written two books and now what I learned today is going on the third, so Real Food for Pregnancy and Lily, what is the title of your new book?Lily: The forthcoming book is Real Food for Fertility. Meagan: For fertility. Oh my gosh, you guys. She is evidence-based. It’s amazing and you know here how much we respect evidence-based information and getting this to you guys so you can know the true facts and go on and make decisions that are best for you. So Lily, thank you so much for being here with us today and talking about this topic because like I said, it is one of the most common questions we get in our inbox. Lily: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve spent a lot of work working on gestational diabetes so I’m happy to speak about it with you today. Meagan: Yes. Can you tell us a little bit