“3 essential facts you need to know during pregnancy” – by Delna Pooniwala
Pregnancy is the most crucial stage of life for a woman. She creates life and carries it for months & finally brings it into this world.
Here are these key rules that women should be aware of for a healthy baby and safe nutrition choices during this period. As we have heard over and over again, the diet has to be well balanced and fortified with a lot of healthy goodness.
Fact #1: ‘Fat’ is incredibly important for the baby as well as mother.
The Essential Fatty Acids help in the brain development of the baby. Maternal fat is vitally important and should ideally be stored in the first and second trimester. These stores would be used during the third trimester and during breastfeeding.
However, this does not mean your food should be fried, greasy and dripping with oil. You need to consume the right kind of fats. Pregnancy does not give you the licence to indulge on unhealthy food. So either use your sensibilities or speak to a professional nutritionist to guide you through a healthy happy term.
Fact #2: All Vitamins in right amounts.
Key ones being:
‘Vitamin A’ that you can source through carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, spinach, water squash, turnip greens, beet greens, apricots, and cantaloupe.
Choline- An important nutrient (part of Vitamin B complex) that should be included to the diet is choline which is found in egg yolks.
‘Vitamin-C’ such in oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, honeydew, papaya, broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts, green peppers, tomatoes and lemon.
Fact #3: There is no magic formula or a generic ‘one-size-fits-all diet’ for all women. Each woman is an unique individual and the appropriate nutrition planning needs to be done after individual assessment. It involves macro and micro nutrients planning in a holistic manner for safe nutrition choices. More importantly it needs to be constantly monitored and modified as per various stages of pregnancy period.
Feel free to ask me any queries or share your experiences in the comment section below. And Share this post for friends and family for whom it may be relevant.
