Pregnancy Diet

Pregnant women need to make sure they are eating a healthy, well balanced diet to properly nourish the growing child inside of them. They need to have enough energy for themselves, their baby, and their body to deal with the changes that take place during pregnancy.

Pregnant women should be getting tons of fruits and vegetables, lots of starchy foods, protein, fiber, and dairy products. In order to get a healthy dose fruits and veggies, drinking smoothies or eating dried fruit for a snack are great options, as well as making plenty of salads. For starch products, the best bet is whole grain pastas, rice, and bread. It is approximated that about 10% of calories should come from protein, 35% from fat, and 55% from carbohydrates. A pregnant woman needs to consume around 2500 calories a day in order to properly feed the child growing inside of her, and herself.

Foods to avoid during pregnancy are almost equally as important as foods that should be consumed. It is not recommended at any time for pregnant women to eat deli meat, certain types of fish, raw eggs (or food containing raw eggs), soft cheeses, unpasteurized milk, and pate. The reason for avoiding deli meat, unpasteurized milk, pate, and soft cheeses is because they all contain bacteria known as Listeria, which has been proven to cause miscarriages.  Pregnant women should also abstain from any kind of alcohol or nicotine.

As well as eating properly, pregnancy women should be taking a multivitamin supplement, as well as folic acid. Folic acid is extremely important as it has been proven to decrease the risk of birth deformities in babies-women should be consuming at least  400 micrograms or 0.4 mg per day. One vitamin intake which expectant mothers should really moniter is Vitamin A, as excess amounts can build up in body tissues and possibly cause birth defects in babies.