When you were younger and only had yourself to worry about, you may not have put a whole lot of thought into what kinds of food you ate. However, now that you are pregnant and eating for two, you really need to start paying careful attention to your food intake in order to ensure that your growing baby gets all of the nutrients that he or she needs. Knowing the foods to eat when pregnant is extremely important not only for your baby’s health but for your health as well.
One mistake many pregnant women make when considering foods to eat when pregnant is overeating during pregnancy. It’s easy to get carried away with the whole eating for two concepts, but please keep in mind that you really don’t need to eat much more than usual in order to properly nourish a tiny little baby that is growing in its mother’s womb. As a matter of fact, most women do not need any additional calories during the first six months of their pregnancy, and then for the remaining three months they only need around an extra 200 calories a day. Eating more calories than one needs will often lead to excessive weight gain, and this can lead to a whole host of health problems for both the mother and the baby. Therefore, watching your portion sizes and your overall calorific intake is a very important part of ensuring that you are following a healthy pregnancy diet.
In addition to keeping a close eye on your calorific intake, another important part of understanding foods to eat when pregnant is eating nutritiously. While it is definitely okay for pregnant moms to have a treat or two occasions, it really is best for both mom and baby’s health to focus on eating mainly foods that are very nutritious such as vegetables, whole grains, and fruits. Also, drinking plenty of water during your pregnancy is a key contributing factor to having a healthy pregnancy diet.
Do you love coffee? If so, you may want to consider limiting your consumption as part of your foods to eat when pregnant plan. The reason for this is that high amounts of caffeine during pregnancy can sometimes cause your baby to have a low birth weight. Furthermore, excessive amounts of caffeine have been linked to miscarriage.
Another important aspect of a good pregnancy diet is that you should never skip meals. This is true for a variety of reasons. Mainly though, you should refrain from skipping meals during pregnancy because although there may be times where you are not hungry, your baby most likely is hungry. Therefore, as part of a healthy pregnancy diet, you should try and eat a little something approximately every four hours or so in order to ensure that your baby will receive steady steam of nutrients. Also, if you were already overweight when you became pregnant, you may be tempted to go on a diet. However, I would strongly discourage you from doing so as severely restricting your calorific intake may prevent your baby from being able to develop properly.
There are certain foods and beverages that women should avoid during pregnancy. These include but are not necessarily limited to all alcoholic beverages, liver, raw seafood, undercooked meat, and eggs.
I wish you the best of luck, and I hope that following a healthy pregnancy diet and gaining an understanding of the proper foods to eat when pregnant will be just the beginning of you and your baby having many more years of great health together!
You owe it to your unborn child to understand the basics of foods to eat when pregnant.
