It’s a known fact that pregnant women have to increase their daily nutrients intake to keep their body healthy and be able to handle the changes, and more importantly, to properly nourish the baby inside their womb. Here are two of the most important dos and don’ts diet tips for pregnant women:
Dos
Make Every Food and Fluid Count
For a woman to develop a healthy baby, she has to consume about 55,000 extra calories throughout her last two trimesters. That may sound a lot, but that’s only about 300 extra calories per day, which equals to an apple, a slice of bread, or a glass of non-fat milk. High vitamin and nutrients level is needed everyday, and this means eating real foods (fruits and vegetables, non-fat milk, legumes and whole grains), some sugar (a slice of cake), and a modest dose of multivitamin (should contain at least 400mcg folic acid).
To accommodate the increasing blood volume this carries oxygen-packed nutrients to both you and your baby, and to prevent constipation, you need to get adequate nourishing fluids, such as water. A glass of water in-between snacks and meals will help you with this. You can also take some healthy beverages such as orange juice, reduced-sodium V8, or non-fat milk.
Don’ts
Follow fad diets, like a low-carb diet
Pregnancy is no time to experiment for fancy and unbalanced diet. What you need is 40+ nutrients in right proportion to raise a healthy baby for 9 months. The baby inside your womb is very sensitive to your body’s nutritional status. Some health consequences of vitamin deficiencies may not show until much later in their life. Thus, it’s always good to stick to the tested and proven healthy eating.
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