There is an amazing amount of information floating around about female nutrition.  And since we go through different stages, some of the advice is general, and some is experience-specific.  Personally, I can never remember how much of the strange alternative stuff that you're supposed to take.  This section contains a lot of general nutritional information, but with a distinctly female slant.

General Nutritional Notes

I hate to scare everybody out there, but we all should be aware of the Environmental Working Group and their work. They are the people who are publicizing the "Body Burden" study, which measured toxic chemicals in a bunch of normal people with healthy lifestyles.  If you go to the EWG website, you can look at  their data with regard to arsenic, fish, toxicity, and other stuff you should know.

Nutritional Analysis Tools and System is emphatically not just for women, but I only have a female nutrition section!  So use it for whomever, and enjoy.

Nutrition Source from the Harvard School of Public Health is a wonderful, comprehensive source of genuine info about nutrition.  They're not peddling any pills, books, and so forth, and the info is current.

In the alternative category, but hitting every aspect of womanhood, here is Susan Weed's link page on women's health and well-being.  Did you know that there is a yeast infection home page?  Hooo boy.  I love the internet!  Some of these links are to adult content. 

Calcium

I have had a piece of paper floating around my office for YEARS. It contains the calcium content of foods and I have a very hard time throwing it away. What better place to put it?  So here it is:

100 mg per serving:

10 Brazil nuts

1 med stalk brocolli

1 C instant farina

3 oz canned herring

1 C cooked kale

1 Tbsp blackstrap molasses

3 tbsp light molasses

1 C. cooked navy beans

1 C. cooked soy beans

3.5 oz tofu

3.5 oz sunflower seeds

5 Tbsp maple syrup

150 mg per serving

1 C. ice cream

1 C. oysters

1 C. canned rhubarb

3 oz canned salmon with bones

1 C. cooked spinach

200 mg per serving

1 C. beet greens

1 oz cheddar cheese

1 C. cottage cheese

250 mg per serving

1 C. almonds

1 oz cheese (swiss or parmesan)

1 C. cooked collards

1 C cooked dandelion greens

4 oz self-rising flour

1 C. milk

3 oz sardines

1 C. cooked turnip greens

Female wellness newsletters

I'm sure that there are a ton of these, but I like both of these.

The Mayo Clinic has a newsletter called Women's HealthSource. You can search old stuff or subscribe.  Very nice.  I gave this to some female relatives for Christmas a few times.

The University of Michigan Health System has a good newsletter called Women's Health Advisor.

Trying to Conceive

I have heard of strict wheat-free diets, chinese warming diets, lots of flax oil, ... all sorts of stuff helping to conceive.  Many people have gone on wheat-free diets because they feel that they have a minor allergy, and a lot of them have gone on high flax oil, etc.  I have heard of many cases where people lowered their fsh levels with this type of diet.

Chinese Nutrition and Medicine

In China, if you're trying to conceive, they tell you to keep your belly warm by eating "warm" foods.  Essentially this means absolutely avoiding all raw foods and foods that are uncooked.  The two warmest foods that I can recommend are lamb and cherries.  At one point during my long and scintillating infertility waltz, I went on a "lamb diet."  (shudder)

More on traditional Chinese medicine

More on traditional Chinese dietotherapy

This is an actual list of warm/cold foods

And this is a link to Chinese diagnoses of female problems.

Here is another.

Check it out!

Hey, I was just reviewing the chinese drugs stuff and saw this product.  Get this: herbal tincture:  just add vodka!  (hoo boy).  Sounds great though, doesn't it?

The Fish Oil thing

Fish Oil is recommended.  Well, sort of.

Pregnant (and Diabetic) AKA Gestational Diabetes

General info on gestational diabetes from Lifeclinic.com.

From about.com

From medicinenet.com

Perimenopausal and menopausal

Alternative treatments

With regard to the perimenopausal and menopausal stuff, you miiiight (said haltingly) want to check out a website created by a woman with an incredibly irritating name:  Susun Weed. Hmmn.  I wonder if this is her real name?  At any rate, I got her connect info from the Ontario Herbalist website, which is excellent.

Susun Weed talks a bit much about fairies and such for me, but she has a page of questions and answers that I liked.  In particular, check out her advice called "oatstraw infusion increases sexual desire."  I laughed out loud.  It's not exactly about herbs (that particular email), but I have certainly never heard this type of advice before, and, by golly, it sounded fairly intriguing!  Susun seems to have umpteen books out there.  Has anyone read them?  The menopausal book is called New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way: Alternative Approaches for Women 30-90

Losing Weight

Believe it or not, I'd forgotten all about this category!  What a great feeling.  Here's Cyberdiet.

The Anachronistic Mom's notes on

Female Nutrition