Eating for two, as previously often recommended to pregnant women, you, perhaps, to anything. But to improve the quality of food is necessary. This is necessary in the first place to ensure that the baby, while still in the mother's tummy, formed correctly and was born strong and healthy. After all, the only source of nutrition for growing crumbs is those substances that enter the body of the mother. A varied and balanced menu is necessary to strengthen one's own health, which is important for normal gestation, successful childbirth and the subsequent care of the child.
To eat properly, it is not necessary to make a complex diet for a healthy diet during pregnancy. All that's needed is to eat foods that contain essential nutrients.
You will have to re-examine the principles of nutrition and abandon bad habits, because you must think not only and not so much about yourself and your preferences, but about the baby and his needs.
While forming a diet during pregnancy, it is important to follow several simple rules: reduce the consumption of sweet, give up salt, spicy, canned food and enter into the menu more fresh vegetables and fruits.
In addition, you are in the habit to enter to calculate the approximate daily rates of use of the basic elements. Which ones? About this in more detail.
Calcium
If this element does not enter the body of a pregnant woman in sufficient quantities, problems may arise with the formation of bone tissue and teeth of the baby. Formation of bones and teeth begins with the 8th week of pregnancy.
Calcium during pregnancy needs twice as much as usual, because it is "taken away" from the mother by the baby.If the balance is met, your bone tissue will remain strong enough and strong, and the tooth enamel will not break down.
The main sources of calcium: cheese, milk, kefir, green vegetables, sardines, nuts. However, with dairy products you should be more careful. They contain a lot of milk fat, which in large quantities are harmful. Therefore, during pregnancy, it is advisable to drink low-fat milk and buy sour-milk products with a lower percentage of fat.
Approximate daily calcium intake:
- 85 g of cheese;
- 25 g of peanuts;
- 170 g of sardine;
- 2 cups of milk.
If calcium lays the bone foundation of the future baby's body, proteins are the necessary building material from which its tissues and organs develop. Therefore, the protein in your diet should be twice as much as before.
High content of proteins (proteins) in nuts, meat, legumes, dairy products. The largest number - in products of animal origin. However, they are also not interested in it, since it is also dangerous to overload the body with the products of the decomposition of animal proteins. The presence of a large number of fats in the meat is also a minus. Excess fat should be avoided, so as not to increase weight more than it should. Although everything is very individual. Ask your doctor which maximum weight gain is acceptable in your particular case.
Vegetable proteins are found in legumes, nuts, wholemeal bread.
Approximate daily protein norm:
- 125-150 g of meat;
- one egg;
- 500 ml of milk or dairy products (curdled milk, kefir, milk, cottage cheese, etc.).
Products of this group: bread, potatoes, cereals, sweets. During pregnancy, do not get involved in carbohydrates, they load the body with excess calories. Sugar, sweets, chocolate, wheat flour of the highest grade (which is used when baking confectionery products) is desirable to replace those carbohydrates that contain vitamins and mineral salts - they are in fruits, vegetables, dried fruits.
Approximate daily carbohydrate norm:
- 100 g of potatoes (pasta, rice);
- 100 g of dried fruits;
- 190 g of vegetables or fruits.
Cellulose
Animal proteins are the building material for the organism, the future baby, and the fiber is a substance that will help take the products of their decay, prevent constipation during pregnancy. The main suppliers of fiber are fruits and vegetables. It is also found in unpolished rice, pasta and bread from coarse flour, beans, dried fruits.
The approximate daily fiber norm:
- 50 g of pasta;
- 200 g of vegetables or fruits;
- 50 g of nut mixture;
- 3 pieces of whole-wheat bread.
Vitamins
Vital vitamins during pregnancy are: C, D, E, A, B vitamins.
Vitamin C strengthens the placenta and the walls of blood vessels, increases the body's resistance to infections, helps iron assimilation for healthy nutrition during pregnancy. If it is small in the body, the expectant mother quickly becomes tired, she is threatened with anemia, miscarriage or premature birth. Ascorbic acid does not accumulate in the body, so its intake (in the form of drugs or with food) should become daily. This will help fresh vegetables, fruits, berries, greens. Long-term storage and culinary processing destroy vitamin C, so vegetables, fruits and berries are better to eat fresh or steamed. To get the recommended vitamin C with food, 2/3 of your diet should be vegetables, fruits and berries. If this is not possible, an additional intake of vitamin C will help resolve the issue and make up the supplies of vital ascorbic acid necessary for you and your baby.
Vitamin D is needed for the normal metabolism of calcium in the body of a mother and a future child. Vitamin is found in fish oil, in a small amount is present in butter, liver, egg yolks. After the birth of the baby, he will need it for the prevention of rickets.
Vitamins of group B ensure the construction of protein in the tissues of the child and in the body of the mother, strengthen the nervous and endocrine systems. In large quantities are found in meat, cereals, cow's milk, cottage cheese. During pregnancy, there is an "increased consumption" of all vitamins, because they are needed not only for you, but for crumbs, so all of the above products should be included in your daily diet.
it is necessary both for the development of the blood cells of the child, and for maintaining, as a rule, twice the blood volume of the future mother. Therefore, iron during pregnancy will take a lot. Perhaps the doctor even prescribes it in the form of drugs.
Iron is found in the liver, legumes, dried fruits. But it is believed that the liver is too much vitamin A, an overabundance of which is unsafe for the development of the child. Therefore, it is better to lean on spinach, dried apricots, fish and, most likely, take iron in tablets (if prescribed by a doctor).
The second mineral that is vital during pregnancy is folic acid. Thanks to her, the child's central nervous system develops normally, especially in the first weeks of pregnancy. This substance does not accumulate in the body, and the need for it grows. Therefore, it is important that in the daily menu of the future mom there are products containing folic acid. It contains: broccoli, spinach, hazelnuts, peanuts, rye bread.
If you get enough vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats and useful carbohydrates, your food will not only be tasty, but also useful, and the baby will be born healthy and strong.
Therefore, timely revise your diet and adjust it, providing the crumbs with everything you need. And then he will grow up healthy.
A few words about the benefits of iron
One of the most important minerals for the body of a pregnant woman is iron. Of course, it is important not only for expectant mothers. This trace element in a certain amount is present in both men and women. In general, everything is interconnected in the human body, and if the content of one mineral or microelement decreases, then the rest of the spectrum of useful trace elements, calcium, magnesium, copper, selenium, folic acid, zinc and chromium, also decreases most often. And the deficit of these minerals, in turn, provokes iron deficiency anemia, chronic fatigue, headaches (migraines), foot and uterine cramps, gestational diabetes, tachycardia and high blood pressure, and many other troubles. If you do not want to face these problems, then during the entire pregnancy, and especially the last few months, you need to take vitamins and make up your menu in such a way as to get all the useful substances.
Immediately after discovering the first signs of pregnancy, you need to increase iron intake, because the baby needs it for the development of red blood cells. Do not ignore the directions for blood tests, which the doctor issues in the women's consultation. Even routine analysis, taken from the finger, can tell the doctor about the problems that start, if you have been prescribed iron preparations, do not forget to take them, this improves the blood supply of the placenta.