Are you pregnant and struggling to get on a good balanced diet? Eat for two, eat a lot of seafood, drink lots of liquid...the advises must be flowing in! Most often they end up confusing you about the diet that you should be on. Here is some information about what to include in a diet for pregnant women:

It is essential that a pregnant woman follows a well balanced and healthy diet. The unborn baby survives on the mother's diet.  Diet for pregnant women has to be designed keeping in mind that the placenta, uterus, fluid and maternal blood volume also grows during pregnancy and that there is a high possibility that the mothers nutrient level might get depleted, given that she is contributing to the child and also has to  breast feed the children after giving birth! Yes, you said it...lots a work. But it gets easier to handle if you follow a healthy diet!

First we have to break the myth associated with the pregnancy diet. You really need to get the belief “When pregnant you need to eat for two” out of your head! You just have to make sure that your diet when you are pregnant is balanced and provides your body enough nutrients for yourself and your unborn baby. But this doesn’t mean a high calorie diet and eating more than you can handle!

In fact recent survey shows that too much weight gain due to a heavy pregnancy diet can be linked to complications at birth such as pre-eclampsia where a basic disorder with the placenta is the problem and also higher odds that obesity will be a problem for both mother and child in the future!

What to Include in a Diet For Pregnant Women

Here is what you can definitely include in a daily diet for pregnant women–

Fruits and Vegetables

The pregnancy diet should contain at least 5 to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables in a day. The offers essential fiber, vitamins, minerals, iron and folate! All of these are important for the baby’s growth and your nutrition. To make it interesting you can serve yourself various fruit salads and vegetable salads. It would be safer to avoid pappaya though!

Whole-grain products

Whole Grain products like bread, rice, pasta, and breakfast cereals contain iron, vitamins, minerals, fiber, folic acid and most importantly carbohydrates! Its enough if you have around five small servings of whole grains each day. Lack of carbohydrates can lead to the depletion of your protein resources which is not good for you!

Meat, Seafood, Nuts and Legumes

Talking about protein it is imperative that a diet for pregnant women includes heavy sources of protein like meat, seafood, nuts and legumes. Proteins help in building muscles, tissue, enzymes, hormones, and antibodies for both you and your baby.

A vegetarian diet for pregnant women will lean heavily on Milk and Legumes. Here are some interesting legume recipes that you can resort to.   Also, you have to avoid certain seafood and ensure that you include seafood in moderation for the diet for pregnant women. I will give you more details about what food not eat in the next blog.

Milk, Cheese and Yoghurt

Milk ! I hate it!! But there is no other go!! You just have to include it in the diet! But the good news is that you could use yogurt, cheese or other substitutes. Just try to have 4 servings of it everyday. Milk in the diet for pregnant women guarantees the supply of calcium, an array of essential vitamins and protein for you and your baby.

Salt and water

Salt simply does not lead to abnormal swelling so and you really need to add adequate amounts of salt to the diet as it will help retain the blood volume that expands during pregnancy. Also you should definitely drink loads and loads of water! It helps your body clear waste faster and easily and also helps your expanding blood volume!

You can include the above ingredients to design a well balanced diet for pregnant women In my next blog I will be listing the food items that you should avoid during pregnancy!