A Little More Of That – Food For Two

Pregnant women have to eat for their babies, but that doesn’t automatically mean they have to eat twice as much. Excessive weight gain can even make pregnancy more difficult. Your body only needs about 300 calories more during the nine months – that’s not much: just one slice of wholemeal bread with turkey cold cuts.
But now you need all the more important vitamins, minerals, and trace elements. A balanced, varied, and wholesome diet is very important. However, you can hardly get the recommended amount of iron, iodine, and folic acid from your diet. For this, supplementary preparations are useful.

To optimally cover your baby’s needs, foods from all five food groups should be on their menu:

• Starchy foods such as whole grains, potatoes, legumes.
  Fruits and vegetables.
  Milk and dairy products.
  Protein donors such as lean poultry, meat, fish, eggs.
  monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids and sugar.

During your pregnancy, try to avoid fatty sausages and cheeses, mayonnaise, fried foods, breaded foods, and empty calories such as refined sugar or white flour as much as possible. These foods contain many calories but very few nutrients and are heavy on the stomach – an unnecessary burden during pregnancy.

Your Body Knows What It Wants

What you eat, your baby eats. Therefore, pay attention to your food choices. The higher the nutrient density of a food, the healthier it is. But a varied mixed diet is not everything. Of course, you are also allowed to sin from time to time, otherwise, you will become dissatisfied and this will rub off on your baby.

If you follow your appetite, your body will already ensure that your nutritional needs are met. This is also how the infamous strange cravings come about: Your body often uses them to alert you to certain deficiencies or the need for specific nutrients. To keep blood sugar levels at the necessary level, move from three main meals to six smaller meals, one of which should definitely be warm. This not only avoids excessive cravings but also relieves digestion and prevents circulatory problems.

In addition to healthy food, you should of course also drink enough fluids, two to three liters per day. Still, mineral water, fruit, and herbal teas, fruit and vegetable juices are best. Milk is an optimal calcium supplier, but please do not drink it as a thirst quencher.

Small Restrictions

Remember that everything you ingest reaches your baby in concentrated form. No matter whether it is nutrients or stimulants such as coffee, nicotine, alcohol, or medicines. Unborn babies cannot yet filter toxins through the kidneys and liver; the organs are still too immature. They experience every stimulant in double potency. An espresso does quite a bit for such a tiny baby.

That’s Why It’s Better To Avoid A Few Stimulants During Pregnancy And Breastfeeding:

1. Alcohol: It can cause underweight, organ and facial deformities, mental and growth disorders, complications during birth or premature birth, and miscarriage in the offspring. A glass of wine spritzer at celebrations or in a restaurant is not dangerous, but should not become the rule and should be combined with a meal if possible.
2. Cigarettes: smoking during pregnancy is life-threatening for the unborn baby, after all, nicotine prevents the supply of oxygen and nutrients. Low birth weight, withdrawal symptoms, severe colic, placental insufficiency, mental as well as physical growth and development disorders, and miscarriage may result.
3. Coffee/black tea: Caffeine travels directly through the placenta to the fetus, where it gets the heart and adrenaline pumping. However, one to two cups a day are allowed. However, you should drink double the amount of water, like coffee and black tea have a diuretic effect, i.e. they dehydrate the body.
4. Everything that is raw: Raw milk cheese, raw meat, raw fish, or raw eggs very often contain bacteria that can cause infections with salmonella, toxoplasmosis, or listeriosis. The bacteria are passed on to the baby via the placenta and can cause harm there.
5. Liver/intestines: Although vitamin A is healthy, the liver contains an enormous amount of it. This can lead to physical deformities in the child.