How to Eat a Healthy Diet During Pregnancy

Keeping a healthy diet during your pregnancy can be difficult. Either you are so nauseous that you find it hard to eat anything at all, or you have cravings for everything in sight, and lots of it. Either way, making sure you eat a healthy and balanced diet during pregnancy isn’t easy.

If you suffer from morning sickness, (or, for some women, all-the-time-oh-please-make-it-stop sickness) it can be nearly impossible to keep a healthy diet during pregnancy. But while it may seem counter-intuitive when you want to throw up all the time, what you need to do to help your morning sickness is eat. Having an empty stomach can actually make your nausea worse.

That’s not to say that you should be pulling up a chair to the all-you-can-eat buffet, either. Rather, you should be eating several small meals a day to ensure that your stomach is never completely empty. Since you can’t bring yourself to eat a lot, you have to make sure that your diet during pregnancy has the most nutritional bang for your buck.

Make sure that you are still taking your prenatal vitamin; even if it makes you sick for a little while, the nutritional value it brings your diet during pregnancy is invaluable. Also, in all of your small meals, aim to get both carbohydrates and proteins at the same time. If you cant stomach a full meal, something like an apple and a handful of raw almonds is a great alternative. Other good snacks include an English muffin with cheese, half a turkey sandwich, or yogurt with fresh fruit and granola.

Of course, if you don’t have morning sickness, but instead want to eat everything in sight, that can also be challenging when you are trying to keep to a healthy diet during your pregnancy. You want to eat well, but those French fries or cookies keep calling your name. And no matter how much you eat, you seem to just want more.

To combat this and stick to a balanced diet during pregnancy, follow the 80/20 rule. As long as you eat a healthy and balanced diet with lots of fruits, veggies, whole grains, and lean proteins 80% of the time, then the other 20% you can indulge in those treats. This means you can have French fries at lunch, but you need to have a small portion of those along with a healthy grilled chicken sandwich on whole wheat.

And of course, no one is going to judge you if some of those days, your diet during pregnancy is a little more 70/30 or 60/40. Just try to limit the fried, fatty, and sugary foods and make sure you and your baby are getting the nutrients you need.

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Pregnancy Nutrition

Hello New Mom! It’s you and Baby now, so you’ll want to eat what’s best for both of you. Keep in mind that while you are eating for two, only one of you is a full grown adult so you will probably only need to take in an extra 200-300 calories per day while pregnant. The bottom line? Do eat for two, but don’t overeat.

In general, you should eat a healthy, well-balanced diet full of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, protein, foods rich in vitamin C, iron and calcium plus plenty of water. While you don’t need to eliminate salt and fat from your diet, you should take care to eat salty foods and high-fat foods only sparingly.

Also, as an expectant mom, you’ll want to make sure to take the prenatal vitamins prescribed by your physician and pay attention to your intake of folic acid in particular. Folic acid is a member of the B vitamin family and occurs naturally in orange juice, green leafy vegetables, beans and lentils. The synthetic form of folic acid, which is more easily absorbed by your body, can be found in fortified breakfast cereals, enriched grain products and vitamins. Folic acid helps prevent and decrease the risk of several common birth defects and supports rapid growth of the placenta and fetus.

There are several things you should avoid during your pregnancy due to the possibilities of bacterial contamination, birth defects, decreased attention and decreased memory. While pregnant, you should steer clear of:

1. alcohol

2. caffeine and artificial coloring

3. cigarette smoke

4. over-the-counter meds and herbal remedies ( unless otherwise directed by your physician)

5. raw meat

6. raw eggs and food containing raw eggs

7. soft cheese

8. fish with accumulated mercury levels or high levels of an industrial pollutant called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

As you avoid what’s bad and consume adequate amounts of what’s good, you will increase your baby’s chances of being born at a normal birth weight and having good fetal brain development. You will also decrease your risk of having pregnancy complications and severe mood swings and you will help ensure a good post-pregnancy recovery. So eat up!

Jacqueline Courtiol, M.A. Ed. is a teacher, mother and business owner. Jacqueline has authored numerous articles on topics of childcare, natural health, parenting and pregnancy. She is also the co-developer of Colic Calm, a natural homeopathic treatment for baby stomach ache and colic. More information can be found at http://www.coliccalm.com or contact us if you have questions.