“A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.” – Carl Sandburg
Pregnancy kick-starts the most amazing journey that you would ever embark upon in your life. Through these 9 months, you live a life that helps you understand that patience and happiness can actually go hand-in-hand. Though things may seem really tough on the surface, deep down your entire being keeps shining with the joy of bringing a new life into the world. From physical changes to emotional changes, you surely go through a lot during your pregnancy phase. Whether it’s about making alterations to your exercise regime or eating the best foods during pregnancy, it becomes all the more important to be conscious of everything you are doing. After all, you are now responsible for two lives!
When we talk about mandatory diet changes during pregnancy, we are not asking you to lose weight or impede your calorie intake. Your baby’s entire nutritional needs are dependent on you and for all the right reasons; we don’t want your strict diet regimen to get in the way of your baby’s health. The only thing you need to do is hone your diet routine in such a way that you and your baby get the essential nutrients!
During pregnancy, a woman needs a diet that’s rich in protein, calcium, iron, and folic acid. While folic acid prevents neural tube birth defects (defects of the brain and the spinal cord), calcium strengthens the bones & teeth. Moreover, if you do not consume the necessary amount of iron, your baby may develop anaemia besides other infections. Consuming millets is a great way to ensure optimum iron intake.
All the aforementioned nutrients can be easily sourced from natural foods. Our comprehensive food guide will introduce you to the food items you need to include in your diet regime in order to ensure a healthy pregnancy:
- Fruits and Vegetables
One can’t get enough of fruits and vegetables, no matter what! Filled with the natural goodness, these foods contain nutrients including Vitamin C and Folic acid that are essential for a healthy pregnancy. Eating fruits (2-4 servings daily) such as orange, apricot, mango, pear, pomegranate, avocado, guava, banana, apple, berries etc. besides vegetables (4 or more servings daily) including broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, bell pepper, green peas, dark leafy greens, parsley etc. will make sure that your baby gets all the right nutrients and develops an optimum birth weight.
- Lean protein
Proteins are extremely important when it comes to the growth of your baby. From making antibodies to building muscles, they ensure that your baby’s swiftly augmenting cells function in a proper manner besides lying a strong foundation for your baby’s future growth and development.
Include protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, beans, pulses, nuts and milk to your diet regime and give your baby the gift of health!
- Whole grains:
Whole grains such as wheat, oatmeal, barley, brown rice, corn etc. come packed with numerous essential nutrients like iron, magnesium and selenium besides being an extremely good source of energy. They are also a great source of folic acid and fibre.
For morning cereals, you can go for millet and oatmeal cereals. It is recommended to only eat cereal products that are 100% organic and come with no additives and preservatives. Slurrp Farm’s Organic Oat Cereals, Organic Brown Rice Cereal (which can be used as multi-purpose powders) can be a great choice here.
Moreover, you need to avoid certain foods and beverages such as raw or processed meat, raw eggs, unpasteurized milk and cheese, caffeine drinks and alcohol during pregnancy as they can seriously interfere with your baby’s health besides yours and pose challenges that will be really difficult to deal with later on.
So if you are pregnant and want to ensure health to you and your baby, you need to make healthy diet changes and stick to them religiously. Losing baby weight after the pregnancy will also become easy for you pay as much attention to your diet post-delivery as you do before it. However, make sure that you consult your doctor before making any big alterations to your diet routine. This is important in order to keep a tab on your weight.
