Nutrition in Pregnancy

What You Should Eat & What You Should Avoid During Pregnancy

From the minute you find out you are pregnant most moms-to-be have a number of questions relating to pregnancy nutrition.  What foods you should be eating and which foods should you be avoiding as the next nine months progress.  Some foods are even better completely avoided.  Then there is all those old wives’ tales to sort through and figure out truth from fiction.  Let’s try to simplify things at least a little for you in this article.

Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners

When you are pregnant, you should try to avoid, even better cut out, sugar and artificial sweetener from your diet.  Don’t make the mistake of replacing sugar with Sucralose, aspartame or other artificial sweeteners, which are potent chemicals with questionable health concerns.  In fact, there affect on the fetus is not yet established and there is a belief they could pose a health risk to your baby.

Sugar is responsible for a number of pregnancy concerns but the most worrisome is the fast release of insulin in your body.  This can result in your pancreas falling short of being able to do its job properly, which in turn leads to an increase in blood sugar levels in the body.  Even if you don’t suffer from high blood pressure or gestational diabetes, if you have a high blood sugar, it can lead to birth complications, a very large baby causing labor problems, and excessive weight gain.  If you must use sugar or you want to satisfy a sweet tooth look for raw honey, agave syrup, stevia, etc.

Caffeine

Since caffeine stimulates the nervous system, it is important to cut your caffeine intake.  It will also leach calcium, which is necessary during pregnancy.  When you are depleted of calcium your baby will also be depleted, and so the fetus will draw on your calcium reserves, which in turn will decrease your calcium more.  It becomes a vicious circle.  Caffeine is also a diuretic and so there is a danger of becoming dehydrated.  This is especially true if you are suffering from morning sickness.  Drinking too much coffee can actually result in it crossing the placenta and affecting your baby.

Processed Foods

Processed foods contain all kinds of preservatives and fillers, which are not healthy and can affect the health of your baby.  They are generally also high in sugar and sodium, which should be avoided.  Rather than processed why not opt for whole and organic foods, which are safer and healthier food choices.

Bottom line - healthy food choices lead to a healthier mother and baby.

First Trimester Pregnancy Nutrition

The first trimester can be one of great change in many aspects of your life and that includes pregnancy nutrition.  Many moms-to-be want to immediately change how they eat.  The trouble is making drastic changes too quickly can really backfire on you and land up causing too much stress.  It is much better to incorporate changes slowly.  We are going to look at the four basic areas of your first trimester nutrition to get you started on making dietary adjustments without the stress.

It would be wonderful if we knew in advance that we were to become pregnant.  Sure, some pregnancies are planned but others are not.  It would be great because then we could switch to a whole food diet that was organic before we became pregnant.  Since this isn’t going to happen too often the best we can do is make the switch as soon as we know we are pregnant.

Work towards the elimination of all processed foods and as many non-organic foods as possible.  That is because processed foods along with non-organic foods that contain pesticides and other toxins are directly linked to numerous health concerns that can affect your baby.  However, don’t look at this as an all or nothing situation.  Do your best and remember every little change is a positive change for your baby.  A good way to start is to remove processed foods from one meal a day and then take baby steps from there.

You should also eliminate sugar, artificial sweeteners, and caffeine from your diet.  Experts agree it is safe for a pregnant woman to have 150 mg of caffeine a day so that’s a good starting point to cut back to.  Once there you can try to cut it out completely.  For anyone with a sweet tooth there are a number of natural sweeteners that you can use such as agave syrup, stevia, or raw honey.

Morning sickness can be a real problem during the first trimester of your pregnancy.  As your body is trying to adjust to hormonal changes, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to deal with the nausea that is not always just in the mornings.  For nausea that is incapacitating you need to talk to your doctor.  However, there are some things that can calm nausea for many including ginger, eating protein, a handful of nuts, or crackers.

There you have it – a good start to nutrition for your first trimester to keep you and baby healthy.

Nutrition Guidelines for a Healthy Pregnancy

In order to ensure all pregnant women know what is needed to have a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby, in terms of nutrition, there have been some excellent pregnancy nutrition guidelines established.  When you are pregnant, you only need an additional 300 calories per day.  You should make sure that these are not empty calories, and that they are in fact nutritious calories.  Let’s have a look at some of those guidelines.

Protein

During the time you are pregnant, for your baby to grow healthy; you need to have approx. 60 grams of protein on a daily basis. Protein keeps your uterus, breasts, and placenta healthy, it produces adequate amniotic fluid and it increases the volume of blood.

Calcium

Doctors recommend a calcium intake during pregnancy to range between 1200 to 1500 mg a day.  Calcium is vital for your baby’s bones, teeth, heart, and muscles to develop.  If you aren’t taking in enough calcium, your baby will draw from your own calcium reserves, which means you are at an increased risk for osteoporosis.  Milk and milk-based products are good sources of calcium.  If you are lactose intolerant, there are lactose free milk products.

Iron

Iron is very important in hemoglobin production for both you and your fetus.  In the last trimester, your baby will take your body’s iron reserves to ensure it is not anemic during the first six months of life.  You also lose some blood during the delivery process.  These are all reasons why it is so important to increase your iron intake.

While your body only needs 27 mgs of iron per day, you actually have to take 60 mg to get that 27 mg because not all iron is absorbed. If you are anemic, you should take an iron supplement.  Vitamin C enriched foods will help you with your iron absorption.  Foods like oranges, grapefruits, and tomato juice work well.  Avoid taking your iron and calcium supplements and/or foods at the same time since calcium interferes with iron absorption.

Vitamins

The recommended increase in vitamins is 25 to 50 percent.  Your folic acid need doubles to 400 micrograms per day.  Eating a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, etc will help to ensure you get adequate vitamins.  Your physician will instruct you about any other nutritional needs he/she feels you may need in order to ensure a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby.

Additional Resources:

Healthy Living & Pregnancy - Guides

In our next article in the series we cover:

What Not to Eat When You are Pregnant

Best regards

Pete

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