Eating Right While Pregnant
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009You are about to go through the best nine months of your life! Truly wonderful, these nine months will be filled with happiness, joy, excitement, changes in your body and diet and other mixed emotions. No matter, this period of your life is definitely something you will not forget and you will retell to your child over and over. As exciting as this may be, there are a lot of precautions that you have to take because you are pregnant, especially with what you eat.
Many women think that once they get pregnant, they are free to eat whatever they want. This is a common mistake. In fact, when you are pregnant, you should be more careful with what you take in as this goes to your baby as well. Your babys development is affected by your food intake so eating right while pregnant is something you should observe.
Because of your pregnancy, you can be at risk of aquiring gestational diabetes. Be mindful to not eat a lot of sugar. Caffeine shouldn’t be eaten as well. Artificial sweeteners are not good either as there are studies showing that it could impair your babys development.
Even some fruits like mangoes should not be eaten. These have a lot of natural sugar content that is not good for your child. Choose things like bananas because of their potassium. You also should have fiber to help stay regular.
Make sure that you consume a couple glasses of milk daily. Your doctor might recommend milk designed for pregnant mothers. This milk has many nutrients that you should have and calcium which is imperative for your babys brain and bone development.
Oily food should be avoided. Similarly, intake of salty foods should be minimized as salt retains water. You can get edema, or swelling of ankles and feet, because of the water retained in your tissue due to the salt that you take in.
Finally, it is good to know that eating right while you are pregnant includes drinking correctly. Take at least 8 glasses of water daily. A baby floats in water and if you are dehydrated, they may not have enough of the fluid they need everyday. Just remember, that the better you eat, the better your baby will be.