How to eat healthily during pregnancy

The food eaten daily after pregnancy, in addition to the nutrients needed to maintain the metabolism of the body, but also to replenish the body’s fetal growth and development needs.

Nutrition, as the most important environmental factor, will have a vital impact on the immediate and long-term health of both mothers and children.

Pregnancy malnutrition is not only related to abortion, premature birth, difficult birth, stillbirth, malformed fetus, low birth weight, huge fetus, pregnancy anemia, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, postpartum hemorrhage, etc., but also has a negative impact on the growth and metabolism of children after birth.

Since nutrition during pregnancy is so important, how can pregnant mothers eat nutritious and healthy during pregnancy? It is suggested to remember the following two elements: the first element is that there is no need to increase additional energy in the early pregnancy; the second factor is to increase energy by 200 kcal per day from the fourth month of pregnancy to delivery.

For different pregnancies, dietitians have developed different dietary principles, which are now introduced to pregnant mothers:

1. Basic dietary principles that need to be followed at all stages of pregnancy.
2. Food diversification, cereal-based, appropriate weight matching.
3. Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables (yellow red fruits and vegetables priority) and potatoes.
4. Daily intake of milk, beans and their products.
5. Daily intake of the appropriate amount of fish, poultry, eggs and lean meat.
6. Control the intake of cooking oil and keep a light and salt-less diet.
7. Keep exercising properly every day to control weight gain.
8. A reasonable distribution of meals, you can eat a variety of snacks appropriately.
9. Ensure that there is plenty of drinking water every day and drink less drinks with additives.

Physiological characteristics of early pregnancy.

1. The growth and development of the fetus in the early stages of pregnancy is relatively slow.
2. Most women in the early stages of pregnancy will appear nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and other pregnancy reaction symptoms.
3. The first 4 weeks of pregnancy is an important period of fetal neural tube differentiation.

In view of the above characteristics, early pregnancy dietary nutrition arrangements need to be based on the basic dietary principles during pregnancy, nutritionists in particular supplement the following 5 principles:

1. Light diet; light diet is easy to digest, conducive to increase appetite, can reduce early pregnancy reaction
2. Eat a proper diet, including all kinds of Cereals, fresh vegetables, fruits, soybean products, fish, eggs, etc;
3. Eat less and eat more; this can effectively help pregnant mothers with severe pregnancy reaction to eat as much food as possible, so as to obtain sufficient nutrition.
4. Nutritionists suggest to ensure the intake of carbohydrate food, which can avoid the adverse effect of ketone body produced by fat decomposition on fetal early brain development. It is recommended to take 150 g carbohydrate (about 200 g cereal) every day; eat more food rich in folic acid and supplement folic acid, with a daily dose of 0.4 mg, can prevent neural malformation; if pregnancy reaction seriously affects the pregnant women who eat, they should seek medical advice immediately.
5. Smoking cessation and alcohol prohibition; tobacco and alcohol have obvious side effects on all stages of embryonic development, which are easy to cause premature birth, abortion, fetal malformation, etc.

Middle- and late-pregnancy dietary nutrition programs.

From the second trimester of pregnancy, the fetus enters the rapid growth and development period until birth. The uterus, mammary gland and other organs of the pregnant mother gradually increase in line with the growth of the fetus. At the same time, the mother also needs to reserve energy and nutrients for postpartum lactation. Therefore, the food intake needs to be increased in the middle and late pregnancy to meet the significantly increased nutrient demand of pregnant mothers.

There are five things that pregnant mothers need to follow in this period:

1. Increase the intake of fish, poultry, eggs, lean meat and seafood, these foods can increase protein intake, fish are full of DHA which can promote the development of fetal brain, eggs can increase the intake of lecithin, vitamin A and vitamin B2, and increase the total intake of the above food by 50-100g per day. Fish can be the first choice of animal food source, 2-3 times a week is recommended; Also, make sure you take one egg a day. In addition to iodized salt, nutritionists recommend eating seafood at least once a week to meet the needs of iodine during pregnancy.
2. Nutritionists suggest to increase the intake of dairy products appropriately: milk or dairy products are rich in protein, which is of great significance for protein supplement during pregnancy, and also a good source of calcium. The traditional dietary calcium intake is about 400mg / D. It is suggested that pregnant mothers should supplement 250-500ml milk every day from the second trimester of pregnancy to meet the needs of calcium.
3. Often eat iron rich food, can reduce the risk of anemia during pregnancy; iron rich food includes animal blood, liver, lean meat, etc.; if pregnant mother has severe anemia, small dose of iron can be supplemented under the guidance of doctors when necessary. Eating vegetables and fruits with high vitamin C content, or supplementing vitamin C, can effectively promote the absorption of iron.
4. Proper exercise during pregnancy can keep the body weight increasing properly; the demand for micronutrients during pregnancy is greater than the increase of energy demand, and then increase the food intake to meet the growth needs of micronutrients, it is very likely to cause excessive weight gain, and thus increase the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus and fetal macrosomia. Proper exercise during pregnancy is beneficial to maintain proper weight growth and natural childbirth, and outdoor activities can also improve the nutritional status of vitamin D, so as to promote the development of fetal bone and maternal bone health. It is suggested to carry out not less than 30 minutes of low-intensity activities every day, preferably 1-2 hours of outdoor activities, such as walking, gymnastics, etc.
5. The pregnant mother should not smoke and drink and eat less stimulating food during pregnancy.

Have you all learned? Wish all mothers are safe and healthy, giving birth to healthy and lovely babies.

SEE YOU NEXT!