Eating For Healthy Pregnant Women/ng Kai Totika M Te Wahine Hap
Eating well and doing moderate physical activity during pregnancy are important for you and your baby. Nutritional needs are higher when you are pregnant. Meeting these needs helps protect the long-term health of both you and your baby.
Seek antenatal care as soon as you think that you are pregnant.
Some pregnant women may need special advice from a dietitian about eating. This includes women who:
- are 18 years old or younger
- have a medical condition affecting their eating, such as diabetes
- are having more than one baby
- eat very little or have a history of eating problems
- are vegetarian or vegan
- are very overweight
- are underweight.
If you think you should see a dietitian, ask your lead maternity carer to arrange this for you.
Unwashed Fruits And Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are fiber-rich sources for pregnant women to consume, and they are helpful in reducing the risk of pregnancy-related constipation. If you dont wash raw fruits or vegetables before eating them, these superfoods will change to things not to eat when pregnant.
Therefore, it is important to wash the fruits and vegetables completely, not only during 9 months of pregnancy, but also all the time in your life. This will kill disease-causing bacteria, which may exist on the unwashed fruits and vegetables.
Which Cheeses Can You Eat When Pregnant
Avoid raw milk or dairy products made from raw milk. Avoid eating uncooked mould-ripened soft cheeses like Brie or uncooked soft blue cheeses as there is a risk of listeria being present which can result in miscarriage, stillbirth and illness in new-born babies. Hard cheeses are usually fine. For a full list visit the NHS website.
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Is Sour Candy A Common Pregnancy Craving
Researchers have come up with a reason for the problem being related to hormones. The phenomenon of pregnant women craving for sour, sweet, and salty foods is similar to that of women with decreased appetite at the onset of menopause, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
The study, led by researchers from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the University of California, San Francisco , found that women who are overweight or obese have lower levels of a hormone called ghrelin, which is released by the stomach and pancreas when food is digested and absorbed into the bloodstream.
This hormone is thought to play a role in appetite control, but it is not known whether it also plays a part in weight gain and weight loss in women during pregnancy and lactation, the researchers said. Women who were obese or overweight during the first trimester of pregnancy were more likely to crave sweet and sour foods, compared with women of normal weight or lean body mass , the study found.
What To Drink When Youre Pregnant
Aim for nine cups of fluid each day – water or reduced- or low-fat milk is best.
Its a good idea to limit your caffeine intake when youre pregnant, and be careful of herbal teas some are not recommended for pregnant women and should have a label saying that.
Drinks like soft drinks, flavoured waters, fruit drinks, cordial and diet drinks are low in nutrients and can be high in sugar, so its better to limit these.
Avoid drinking tea with meals. The tannins in tea mean you won’t absorb the iron in the meal as well as you could.
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What Foods Are Completely Off Limits During Pregnancy
Dont eat these foods during pregnancy. They can be really harmful to you and your baby.
Certain meats and fish
- Raw or undercooked meat, including beef, poultry and pork. This includes hotdogs and deli meat . If you eat hotdogs or deli meat, cook them until they are steaming hot or just avoid completely.
- Raw fish, especially shellfish. Dont eat sushi unless the fish is cooked. Also avoid ceviche, sashimi, and raw oysters.
- Fish that can be high in mercury, like shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. Always check with your local health department before you eat any fish you catch yourself.
- Refrigerated pates, meat spreads or smoked seafood. If it is cooked into a dish like casserole it is OK. Pates that are shelf-stable are also OK.
Certain dairy products
- Raw or lightly cooked eggs or foods made with them. This includes cake batter and raw cookie dough.
- Soft-scrambled eggs
- Products made with uncooked eggs like certain Caesar salad dressings, eggnog or certain sauces like hollandaise. Shelf-stable commercially made Caesar salad dressing is OK to eat because it doesnt contain uncooked eggs.
- Unpasteurized juice or milk or any foods made with them
- Unpasteurized soft cheeses, such as brie, feta, Camembert, Roquefort, queso blanco, queso fresco and Panela
Other
Do Take A Multivitamin
Eating a balanced diet thats rich in vitamins and minerals is the best way to provide your body with all of the healthy nutrients it needs to support a growing baby. A healthy diet alone, however, may not be enough for pregnancy.
Prenatal vitamins contain higher levels of certain nutrients that expectant mothers require at higher doses, such as:
These vitamins assist with proper development of the fetus and help prevent birth defects. Your doctor can help you find a multivitamin or a series of vitamins that are best for you.
A multivitamin will usually include DHA, EPA, or both. These are omega-3 fats that are important for your babys proper brain development.
Dont take more than one dose of multivitamins, though. Some vitamins in higher amounts can be harmful to the baby.
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Managing Some Common Problems
Constipation
The iron in prenatal vitamins and other things can cause constipation during pregnancy. So try to get more fiber than you did before you became pregnant. Try to eat about 20 to 30 grams of fiber a day. Your best sources are fresh fruits and vegetables and whole-grain breads, cereals, or muffins.
Some people use fiber tablets or drinks or other high-fiber products, but check with your doctor before trying them.
If constipation is a problem for you, your doctor may prescribe a stool softener. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids, especially water, when increasing fiber intake, or you can make your constipation worse.
One of the best ways to avoid constipation is to get more exercise. Drink plenty of water between meals each day to help soften your stools and move food through your digestive system. Sometimes hot tea, soups, or broth can help. Also, keep dried fruits handy for snacking.
Gas
Some pregnant women find that broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, and fried foods give them heartburn or gas. You can plan a balanced diet to avoid these foods. Carbonated drinks also cause gas or heartburn for some women, although others find they calm the digestive system.
Nausea
If you’re often nauseated, eat small amounts of bland foods, like toast or crackers, throughout the day. Some women find it helpful to eat foods made with ginger. To help combat nausea, you can also:
Raw Or Partially Cooked Eggs
Make sure that eggs are thoroughly cooked until the whites and yolks are solid. This prevents the risk of salmonella food poisoning. Dont eat foods that contain raw and undercooked eggs, such as homemade mayonnaise. If you wish to have dishes that contain raw or partially cooked eggs, consider using pasteurised liquid egg. Dont use cracked or dirty eggs.
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Botox Injections And Chemical Peels: High Risk
When you use Botox for cosmetic or medical reasons, youre essentially injecting a toxin into your bloodstream. And chemical peels literally involve applying chemical exfoliants directly to your skin.
Since you should avoid exposure to unnecessary chemicals and toxins during pregnancy, these procedures should wait until after birth.
Raw Or Underdone Seafood
Got a taste for some tuna sashimi? Obsessing over those oysters on the half shell? Before you visit your favorite raw bar or local sushi joint, keep in mind that uncooked or even seared seafood is off-limits during pregnancy the risk of ingesting bacteria and parasites along with your meal is too high.
So you’ll just have to say “no” to raw oysters, clams, ceviches, fish tartares and carpaccios, along with the smoked stuff that can also harbor illness-inducing parasites and bacteria.
While this doesn’t mean you should shun your favorite Japanese restaurant for the next nine months, it does mean that you’ll need to be careful about what you order. Most places, for example, offer rolls made with cooked seafood or vegetables right at the sushi bar! Just make sure that any seafood you order is well cooked: Fish should flake and shellfish should be firm.
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What If You Accidentally Eat One Of These Foods While Pregnant
Accidentally ate something you shouldnt have? It happens sometimes. Call your doctor right away if you start to notice possible signs of food poisoning. These include: stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea or flu-like symptoms such as fever, body aches or headache. Contaminated food usually makes you sick within one to three days after eating it.
And if youre feeling fine? You dont have to call the doctor, but theres also no harm in reaching out anyway. Some extra reassurance is never a bad thing!
From the What to Expect editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, author of What to Expect When You’re Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such as peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions and highly respected health organizations. Learn how we keep our content accurate and up-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy.
- What to Expect: Eating Well When Youre Expecting, 2nd edition, Heidi Murkoff.
- What to Expect When Youre Expecting, 5th edition, Heidi Murkoff.
Foods To Avoid When Pregnant
6-minute read
There are some foods you should not eat when you’re pregnant because they might make you ill or harm your baby. Make sure you know the important facts about which foods you should avoid or take extra care with when you’re pregnant. The best foods to eat are freshly cooked or freshly prepared food.
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Foods To Eat Or Avoid When Pregnant
Use this handy guide to help make decisions about what to eat and what to avoid during pregnancy.
It highlights some foods that are not recommended for pregnant women.
Foods to avoid are listed for a range of reasons, but in most cases there is a higher risk those foods may contain harmful bacteria such as listeria or salmonella.
Red = Don’t eat
scroll/swipe sideways if not all columns are displayed)
Meat, Poultry & Seafood
Lean Meat Chicken Seafood Eggs Legumes Nuts And Seeds
These foods give you protein, iron, zinc and other nutrients. Your body needs more iron and zinc when youre pregnant. Iron is especially important to avoid anaemia .
Iron-rich foods include red meat, chicken, fish, green leafy vegetables, beans, peas, pumpkin and kumara, and grains like oatmeal and whole grain breads. The iron in plant-based foods isnt as easily absorbed, so youll need to eat a larger amount of those foods in each meal.
Your body can only absorb a small amount of iron at one time, so its important to eat iron-rich foods every day. Vitamin C helps your body absorb iron, so serve iron-rich foods with foods rich in vitamin C like broccoli, cooked taro leaves, oranges, kiwifruit).
Drinking milk products and tea products can reduce absorption of iron from meals, so try to space these out from iron inclusive meals.
Be careful when buying, preparing, cooking and storing food to make sure its safe to eat.
Read more about food safety
New Zealand Food Safety
The Government’s principal advisor on health and disability: improving, promoting and protecting the health of New Zealanders.
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Food Safety When Eating Out
Risks are harder to manage at buffets, smorgasbords, salad bars, or street vendors, where foods may have been sitting uncovered, allowed to cool, or contaminated by other people, so avoid eating food from these places.
When you eat out or buy takeaways, avoid the same high-risk foods you would avoid at home. Don’t eat:
- unpasteurised milk and dairy products
- raw eggs or foods containing raw eggs
- unwashed fruits and vegetables or raw herbs
- raw seed sprouts
- pre-prepared cold foods such as salads, unrefrigerated sandwiches, or sushi
- undercooked or raw meat, poultry, or seafood
- cold meats, pâté, or cold, smoked fish
- soft and semi-soft cheeses unless cooked
- soft-serve ice cream.
To minimise risk during pregnancy, choose restaurant and takeaway food that is:
- prepared just before it’s served to you
- served piping hot .
Food For A Healthy Mother And Baby
Eat a variety of healthy foods every day from each of the four main food groups below:
- Limit your intake of foods and drinks that are high in fat , salt and/or sugar foods and drinks.
- If using salt, choose iodised salt.
- Take care when buying, preparing, cooking and storing food so that the food is as safe as possible to eat. Follow the food safety guidelines in the section Food Safety in Pregnancy.
- Drink plenty of fluids each day, especially water and reduced- or low-fat milk.
- Avoid alcohol during pregnancy.
- Aim for a healthy weight gain by eating well and being physically active each day .
Traditional Mori and Pacific foods can be healthy choices.
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Foods To Avoid During Pregnancy
You want to eat right when youre pregnant, but sometimes it can be hard to know just what that means.
In addition to getting extra calories, taking your prenatal vitamins to get nutrients like folic acid and iron and eating a well-balanced diet, theres also the subject of what not to eat when youre pregnant.
Milk And Milk Products
Milk and milk products are a great source of protein, vitamins and minerals especially calcium and iodine for pregnant women.
Aim for at least three servings of milk or milk products. Its a good idea to choose reduced- or low-fat products.
Talk to your midwife if you dont drink milk or milk products. If you choose to have nut or grain-based bread, for example, you could choose one thats fortified with calcium and other nutrients.
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Raw Or Undercooked Eggs
While it may seem like commonsense to refrain from raw or runny eggs, you’ll find them in more places than the yummy bits of batter that stick to the spatula. So unless something’s been made with pasteurized eggs, avoid consuming foods where rawness runs rampant: soft scrambled eggs, homemade ice cream or mousse, raw batter or cookie dough, homemade mayonnaise, tiramisu and homemade eggnog.
Skip the Caesar dressings and hollandaise sauce , and make sure those breakfast omelets and scrambles are cooked through and through. As with raw meats and poultry, you don’t want to take the chance of being exposed to Salmonella.
To be absolutely safe, make sure the eggs you buy have been kept refrigerated and the sell-by date hasn’t expired.
Is It Safe To Drink Herbal Tea
Because you want to keep your caffeine intake down, you may want to sip on a cup of herbal tea. However, there is little data on the effects certain herbs can have on a developing baby. This is why itâs best to play it safe and avoid herbal tea unless you get the OK from your healthcare provider. Check with your provider about those herbal teas marketed as safe for moms-to-be, too.
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Foods To Eat And Avoid During Pregnancy
Its well known that a mothers diet during pregnancy is very important to the health of her baby. Expecting mothers need to consume more vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that are helpful for a fetus growth and development. However, there are also some foods pregnant women should avoid.
UC Davis Health registered dietitian Katherine Stone shares foods to eat and avoid during pregnancy:
What Eating Well Means
- eating more healthy foods containing folic acid, iron and iodine
- limiting intake of high fat and high sugar foods
- taking vitamin supplements containing vitamin D
- drinking lots of fluids but only small amounts of caffeine
- not drinking alcohol at all
- taking care how you prepare and store food
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Be Flexible With Fish Choices
Fish is packed with nutrition and is an important addition to many peoples diets, especially if youre expecting. Its not only high in protein and essential vitamins and minerals, but supplies healthy omega-3 fatty acids that aid in your brain and heart health, and in your babys brain and retina development.
That doesnt make fish an all-you-can-eat food when youre pregnant, though. Most fish contain some level of mercury, a metal that can cause brain damage as well as vision and hearing problems for babies exposed in the womb. But certain types tend to contain more mercury than others. Large, long-living fish like bigeye tuna, swordfish, shark, king mackerel and orange roughy have the highest mercury levels and are best avoided.
Federal health agencies recommend that pregnant women eat two to three servings of fish per week, including a variety of low-mercury fish including cod, flounder, salmon, sardines, shrimp or canned light tuna or one serving per week of moderate-mercury fish like halibut, snapper or albacore tuna.
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