Diet and Pregnancy

Your diet during your pregnancy

As we all know, a well balanced diet helps to keep you fit, feel better and full of energy. During your pregnancy it is even more important to ensure your stay in good condition for your pregnancy and for the birth. Energy levels will become more and more important As time goes on.

Below is a list of items you should include in your daily diet:

" Fruit, especially fresh fruit such as citrus
" Vegetables, especially vegetables that are dark green as they contain folic acid
" Carbohydrates (bread, pasta, potatoes, cereals etc)
" Milk
" Lean meat or fish, this food group has plenty of essential fatty acids

There are some research papers that indicate, pregnant mums who have eaten fish once a week are generally less likely to give birth prematurely. There is another paper showing that fish that are oily such mackerel, sardines and trout, if eaten while you are pregnant can help your little ones eyesight. Although, don't eat too much fish, avoid more than twice a week. You should avoid eating the more exotic fish such as shark, swordfish and marlin, and limit tuna to no more than two tuna steaks a week (weighing about 140g cooked or 170g raw) or four medium-size cans of tuna a week (with a drained weight of about 140g per can). This is because of the levels of mercury in these fish. High levels of mercury can harm a baby's developing nervous system.

Ensure you drink plenty of water or diluted fruit or vegetable juices. This will help keep you hydrated and help prevent you from becoming too tiredness and suffering headaches. Drinking plenty of water also helps keep your bladder and kidney health. You should avoid drinking alcohol.

I am a vegetarian / vegan...

As long as you eat a well-balanced vegetarian or vegan diet, you will get all the nutrients you need. Ensure though, you specifically get sufficient B12, Iron and vitamin D. As always, you should consult your GP to ensure you are getting the right supplements into your diet

People tell me 'I should eat this or that, but not other things' - How do I eat safely ?

- Make sure that you cook all meat thoroughly. I will repeat this, make sure you cook all meat thoroughly.

- Make sure you do wash all fruit and vegetables before eating them. This will help avoid any infection with toxoplasmosis.

- Quite a well know piece of advice is to avoid cheese that are soft and mould-ripened, brie or camembert being good examples of these cheeses.

- Do not eat blue-veined cheeses such as stilton. Soft and blue cheeses are all are associated with listeria.

- You should also avoid mould-ripened goat's and sheep's milk cheeses, chèvre is another good example of a type of cheese to avoid.

- Avoid any kind of pâté, for the same reason detailed above.

- Any ready-made foods MUST BE totally cooked through and hot all the way through.

- In terms of milk, drink only pasteurised or UHT milk.

- To avoid any risk of salmonella, only eat eggs if they're totally hard-boiled or well scrambled.

- Do not eat liver and liver products

- Its better to avoid eating peanuts

- When preparing food especially, avoid contact of any kind with cats and cat faeces.

Vitamin B (Folic acid)

Folic acid is a B vitamin found in a number of foods such as dark green vegetables, cereals, especially wholegrain, some types of breads and cereal products, fruits suchas Oranges, grapefruit and bananas. Beans and pulses are also a good source of vitamin B to boost your Folic acid intake.

Folic acid is widely reported to help the risk of issues during the growth and formation of the spine and brain.

You should discuss with your GP and midwife about dosage for yourself….everyone is different.
Iron

When you are pregnant it is quite possible to become low on iron in your body. Food groups with lots of iron in them includes, Dark green vegetables such as broccoli, watercress, spinach and kale, thoroughly cooked meat. Nuts (avoid peanuts though), pulses wholegrain bread, fruit and eggs.

So is a cup of tea or coffee ok ?

Generally try to avoid caffeine if you can, if not possible, at lease reduce it. Certainly no more than 4 cups a day. Don't forget there are other drinks that have caffeine in them that you may not realise. Check the labels.

What about Drinking, smoking and other substances

In short 'avoid'
Medical view is that drinking, smoking and drug taking harms baby.

Weight gain

You will be gaining weight anyway ! but do not try to lose weight while you're pregnant without seeking advise from your GP or Midwife.



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All content within 4little1s.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. 4little1s.com are not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based on the content of the 4little1s.com website. You should always consult your own GP if you're in any way concerned about your health.