During pregnancy, you need to pay special attention to your diet. The foods you eat must be nutritious to give your baby the best fuel for proper development. They should also provide the nutrients your body needs to carry your baby to full term.
In order to provide an optimum diet for you and your baby over these nine months, you should understand the foods that will be best for you and also the ways to create a well balanced diet. In order to satisfy your dietary needs, it’s important to eat foods from every food group each day. These include dairy, eggs, fruits and vegetables, meat, foods containing carbohydrates and fats and at least a few servings of fish every week.
You should aim to include approximately 15 percent of your total calories from lean protein, 55 percent from carbohydrates and no more than 30 percent from (healthy) fats.
It’s important to realise that even though a large percentage of total calories is coming from carbohydrates, it is the complex carbohydrates that should be eaten, as they take longer to digest and help to regulate your blood sugar levels. Simple carbohydrates are easily digested and may give you a spike of energy, but they will also increase your blood sugar.
The best carbs to eat are complex carbs, such as whole grain cereals, breads, pastas, spinach, wild and brown rice, broccoli, celery, cucumber, cauliflower and soy milk to name a few. This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the delicious foods you can eat from this food group.
Lean protein is also important in your pregnancy diet. Examples of lean protein include lean meat, fish, soy products and legumes.
When choosing your food, it’s important to pay attention to the type of fat it contains. Healthy fats include olive oil (and other similar oils), nuts, fish (they contain omega 3s), avocados and tofu.
It’s easy to see a pattern among the healthy foods you should be consuming – they are the foods that are close to their natural state, the way nature intended them to be.
In addition to the foods mentioned above, you need to eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables every day. It’s also important to be sure that you include high-fibre foods in your diet and drink plenty of water. All of these factors will contribute not only to a healthy pregnancy but also to a healthy mother and baby.