Healthy Diets For Pregnant Women

Healthy Diets For Pregnant Women

Despite from happiness, having positive tested for pregnancy, a woman must be observant to watch food intakes. Dietary choices during pregnancy affect the health of the fetus until the birth and it grows to be an adult.

However, the diet before pregnancy is equally important. One or two months before planning a pregnancy, it is advisable to intake balanced meals for more consistent ovulation. Vegetables, beans and side dishes which are high protein and also contain of isoflavones and choline like soy and egg to help regulate the reproductive of hormones.

Here are some healthy guidelines for pregnant women or women who is planning a pregnancy, as quoted from ModernMom:

Nutrition

Folic acid is important for pregnant women. Folic acid helps to prevent neural tube defects, which can cause slow information transmission from the brain. Folic acid works before pregnancy and during the first trimester. You can get folic acid by eating fortified cereals, lentils, asparagus, spinach, black beans, peanuts, orange juice, broccoli, lettuce and whole wheat bread and pasta. Folic acid is also obtained from a multivitamin with 400 mcg folic acid or more. Other nutrients that help are vitamin C, vitamin E and zinc.

Foods To Avoid

When you know you are pregnant, immediately stop your habit of drinking alcohol, smoking and using drugs. Because some substances are left several times in the body, so you should stop it from you plan a pregnancy. If bad habits keep to be done until you pregnant, the fetus will have risk of fall or born prematurely. Too much caffeine is also bad for the fetus, because caffeine absorbs the iron that is needed baby and mother.

Choose Fish as The Main Menu

You can increase the intake of fish, especially salmon and tuna. But you must avoid every fish that contain of lots of mercury such as shark, swordfish and king mackerel because it will precipitate in the mother’s body and fetus.

Avoid Junk Food

Remove your junk foods from the dining table. Potato chips, cookies, soda and fast food contain no nutrients for mother and baby. Make sure that the body mass index is between 20 and 30.

The normal pregnancy’s weight gain is between 8 to 15 kg. Excess weight during pregnancy is vulnerable to get diabetes, high blood pressure and reduce the chance of a normal birth.