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The cause of pre-eclampsia was discovered in the 1960's, by an obstetrician by the name of Dr. Tom Brewer. He discovered that the cause of pre-eclampsia was an abnormal blood volume, caused by malnutrition, or food deficiency.

Here is an excerpt from an article that I have written on the Brewer Pregnancy Diet

"One of the main functions of the pregnant body is to preserve the pregnancy and nourish the baby. The body's ability to do this well depends a great deal on its ability to increase the mother's blood volume. Normally, this blood volume is expected to increase by 50-60%, over the course of the pregnancy.[4] For a woman with a pre-pregnant weight of 130 pounds, this would be a increase of about 2.1 quarts of blood (from about 3.5 quarts at the beginning of the pregnancy to about 5.6 quarts at the end of the pregnancy).

The liver makes albumin to facilitate this blood volume expansion. Albumin is similar to egg white. When it is in the mother's bloodstream, it creates osmotic pressure, which pulls extra fluid out of her tissues and back into the blood circulating in her blood vessels. The only way that the liver can make this albumin is from protein which the mother eats.

However, if the mother is trying to restrict her weight gain to someone's "ideal" number, by going on a high protein, but low calorie diet, much of the protein that she eats will get burned up for calories. Brewer has found that when a woman eats 1/3 less calories than the 2600 calories that he suggests, or about 1700 calories, half of the protein that she eats will get burned for calories.[5] In that case, only 60 of her 120 grams of protein would get used to make albumin (and baby cells, and uterine muscle cells), and she will probably have trouble expanding her blood volume adequately.

Salt also has osmotic pressure which helps to pull extra fluid out of the tissues and into circulation. While salt restriction may be helpful for pregnant women who have unhealthy hearts or kidneys, it is dangerous in healthy women. A healthy woman's taste buds are usually the most accurate indicator of the amount of salt that she needs, and studies have shown that it is not possible for a healthy pregnant woman to eat too much salt. Her kidneys simply excrete whatever extra salt that she eats.[6] In fact, it has also been shown that after just 2 weeks of "salt in moderation", the mother's blood volume begins to drop.

When the blood volume stops increasing, or drops, the body has no way of knowing that the mother

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