Does Your Plate Contain Foods To Avoid During Pregnancy?

Do you know which foods to avoid during pregnancy period? If not, then you had better read on. Even if you do know, read on to add to your knowledge regarding the best pregnancy diet.

Raw Meats And Liver

It’s time to avoid raw meats like seafood, sushi, beef, poultry, and others. They pose a risk of toxoplasmosis, salmonella, and E.coli bacteria. Deli meats, which include hot dogs, have resulted in a type of food poisoning, known as Listeriosis, on a large scale. This is specifically detrimental to fetuses. Although the risk is less in deli meats, which to-be-mom would want to risk the life of her unborn baby?

Animal livers are also avoided due to the high amount of vitamin A that they contain. Excess of this vitamin might cause birth defects in your baby. So, it’s advisable to remove liver from your pregnancy diet plan completely.

Fish

Fish containing high amounts of mercury or PCBs (Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls) is sold in many parts of America. Mercury in large amounts might lead to brain damage of your baby or cause delay in the learning processes in your child after birth. In addition to this, it might also lead to reduction in IQ, memory, and concentration in kids.

Soft Cheese

Blue cheese, cambert, feta, soft white cheese, and blue veined cheese are examples of soft cheese. They have higher chances of being contaminated with Listeria bacteria, which might lead to severe illness in either you or your baby.

Artificial Sweeteners

The two most commonly consumed artificial sweeteners are aspartame and saccharin. Although there is no proof of harmful effects of aspartame, saccharin is found to cause birth defects as well as cancer in rats. These sweeteners are generally present in diet sodas, cokes, and other soft drinks. Therefore, it’s best to avoid them. Instead, have milk, fruit juices, and water.

Certain studies have also shown raw sprouts to contain salmonella bacteria. If you want to be on the safer side, stay away from raw sprouts; even better, avoid cooked ones too.

Besides knowing about which food to avoid, you should also be aware of post-pregnancy diet, especially if you choose to breastfeed. This is because whatever you eat and drink passes into your milk, which in turn, passes to your baby.

Choice Of Foods During Pregnancy

# 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