Best pregnancy diet is the secret to the healthy development of your baby. Contrary to the popular belief of ‘eat’ for two during pregnancy period, you only need to add 300 calories to your daily diet in order to have a healthy pregnancy and diet.
It might be difficult to maintain a well balanced first trimester diet due to nasty pregnancy symptoms like nausea and vomiting. But this shouldn’t deter you from eating healthy. Discuss about pills with your doctor during pregnancy so that any deficiencies can be prevented.
Pregnancy Diet Plan
The key to the best diet is eating a variety of foods. Here is a recommended daily diet chart:
2-4 servings of fruits
4 servings of vegetables
3 servings of protein foods such as nuts and pulses
4 servings of diary products
6-11 servings of whole grains and breads
Less quantity of sweets and fatty foods
Choice Of Foods
Choose fibrous foods like cereals, pasta, whole grain breads, rice, vegetables, and fruits.
Consume foods rich in calcium such as diary products so that your body gets its daily requirement of 1000-1300 mg of calcium.
Don’t forget to have foods rich in iron. The recommended daily requirement of iron is 27mg and this can be fulfilled by taking a minimum of 3 servings of such foods.
Choose at least one food rich in vitamin C. You can select oranges, green peppers, strawberries, grapefruits, papaya, honeydew, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, or mustard greens. During pregnancy, you require 70 mg of vitamin C daily.
Choose at least one food rich in folic acid such as legumes like black beans, lima beans, and chickpeas. Green leafy vegetables are also a good source. You need a minimum of 0.4 mg of folic acid daily for best diet. Deficiency of folic acid may lead to neural tube defects in your baby.
Choose at least one food rich in vitamin A. However; be careful not to take an excess of this vitamin as it may lead to fetal malformations. Sweet potatoes, carrots, water squash, spinach, beet greens, turnip greens, cantaloupe, and apricots are good sources.
In addition to this, you need to take care of your mineral and vitamin requirements. The best pregnancy diet is one that contains prenatal vitamin supplements. Through these pills, you can be rest assured that your body is getting an adequate amount of minerals and vitamins daily. Always consult your doctor before starting on supplements.
Maintain the best pregnancy diet plan and enjoy your pregnancy!