Healthy Pregnancy Diet

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Eating healthy is not only good for you, but also good for your baby. You need to have a healthy pregnancy diet in your life for the health and growth of your baby. Healthy food for pregnant women must be well balanced. A healthy diet for pregnant women must be low-fat and high in fiber. This type of foods reduces constipation and hemorrhoids. You want to eat foods that are helping your baby grow and develop and also for your own health.

During pregnancy your body will need approximately 300 extra calories a day. To carry out the functions, your body will be needing protein also. If your diet is healthy and is balanced there is no need to change the way you eat.

What are some healthy pregnancy diet foods?

There are many foods that you can eat that are healthy pregnancy diet foods. These foods are very important for you to eat as it will help your baby to develop and grow and at the same time keep you fit. You want to make sure that daily you will eat different range of foods to get the right balance of the required nutrients for your developing baby in the womb. Eating healthily means you have to make choices about the right kind of food group which will provide the required amount of vitamins and minerals to you and your growing baby.

The USDA Food Guide Pyramid is your excellent source on general guidelines for proportions of servings you should eat in each group when you are pregnant. The USDA Food Guide Pyramid includes the following food groups:

Vegetable Group (choose fresh, frozen, canned, or dried)

1. Carrots
2. Sweet potatoes
3. Pumpkin
4. Spinach
5. Cooked greens (such as kale, collards, turnip greens, and beet greens)
6. Winter squash
7. Tomatoes and tomato sauces
8. Red sweet peppers

These vegetables all have both vitamin A and potassium. When choosing canned vegetables, look for “low-sodium” or “no-salt-added” on the label.

Fruit Group (choose fresh, frozen, canned, or dried)

1. Cantaloupe
2. Honeydew melon
3. Mangoes
4. Prunes
5. Bananas
6. Apricots
7. Oranges
8. Red or pink grapefruit
9. 100% prune juice or orange juice

These fruits all provide potassium, and many also provide vitamin A. When choosing canned fruit, look for those canned in 100% fruit juice or water instead of syrup.

Dairy Group

• Fat-free or low-fat yogurt
• Fat-free milk (skim milk)
• Low-fat milk (1% milk)
• Calcium-fortified soymilk (soy beverage)
• These all provide the calcium and potassium you need. Make sure that your choices are fortified with vitamins A and D.

Grain Group

• Fortified ready-to-eat cereals
• Fortified cooked cereals

When buying ready-to-eat and cooked cereals, choose those made from whole grains most often. Look for cereals that are fortified with iron and folic acid.

Protein Foods Group

1. Beans and peas (such as pinto beans, soybeans, white beans, lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas) Nuts and seeds (such as sunflower seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, peanuts, and peanut butter)
2. Lean beef, lamb, and pork
3. Oysters, mussels, crab
4. Salmon, trout, herring, sardines, and Pollock

You also need to eat foods that have folic acid. Folic acid will help prevent birth defects. Folic acid will also help your baby to have a good weight when the baby is born. Some of the foods that have folic acid in it are Spinach, asparagus and oranges and are good healthy pregnancy diet foods.

You also need to get plenty of calcium in your healthy pregnancy diet. Calcium is good for you and your baby. Your baby needs the calcium for the growth of their bones. You can find calcium in many foods. Some of these foods are milk, yogurt, juice and cheese. These are foods that you should eat every day. You will need more iron during your pregnancy as both you and the baby are making new red blood cells every day. The foods which are very rich in iron are chicken, red meat, fish and green leafy vegetables.

Why is it important to have a healthy pregnancy diet?

Most women think that when they are pregnant they can just eat anything they want. This isn’t true. You need to actually add more food to your day, but you want to add foods that are going to be healthy for you and your baby. Taking a healthy diet when pregnant is possibly the most important thing you can do for yourself and for your growing baby as the food you eat is your baby’s main source of nutrition.

This doesn’t mean that you can indulge sometimes. You can have a piece of candy or a bowl of ice cream. This is natural, but you also want to make sure that you are eating all the foods that are in a healthy pregnancy diet. These foods will help your baby grow the way your baby should grow. It also helps to prevent birth defects.

How soon should I start a healthy pregnancy diet?

You should start a healthy pregnancy diet as soon as you know that you are pregnant. The earlier you start eating healthy for pregnancy, the better it is for the growth of your baby. Make healthy food choices. Choose foods that have the vitamins and minerals you need for a healthy pregnancy. Remember you are eating for you and your baby and you want to make sure that you are taking in all the foods that have all the vitamins and nutrients that you and your baby needs.

For more information on a healthy pregnancy diet be sure to take your time and read our interesting article on pregnancy diet plan. If you are diagnosed for gestational diabetes read our article Pregnancy Diabetes Diet – Your Guide to Diabetic Diet for Gestational Diabetes.