Healthy eating during pregnancy is as much about which foods to avoid as which foods to eat.
Eating well balanced meals is important at all times, but it is much more essential when you are pregnant. Because pregnancy affects your immune system, both you and your unborn baby are more susceptible to the bacteria, viruses, and parasites that cause food borne illness. Start using the basics in pregnancy nutrition. Understanding what foods to avoid during pregnancy can help you result in the healthiest choices for you and your baby.
This provides the pregnant woman the necessary nutrients and energy to accommodate your body’s changes throughout the pregnancy, as well as provides the baby using the essential elements required to grow.
Fish
Certain fish (such as shark, marlin, southern blue fin tuna, orange roughy and swordfish) contain high amounts of mercury that’s accumulated in their fatty tissue – pregnant women should avoid eating large amounts to avoid neurologic damage for your growing baby. Your growing baby has a sensitive developing nervous system even though it is not clear how much seafood one would have to eat to experience harmful effects, it might be best to avoid these fish. Also other raw seafood that women should avoid altogether are oysters and uncooked sushi.
Meat
Whether it’s a rare steak, or an uncooked meat dish, raw meat has got the capability to cause serious damage to your unborn baby. Raw meat should be avoided when pregnant as it can certainly cause a parasitic disease called toxoplasmosis or E. Coli infection. This could result in a potential intrauterine foetal infection. Other dangers that could result from eating raw meat are coliform bacteria and salmonella.
Vegetables/Fruits
Fruits and veggies commonly are not harmful in pregnancy although it is important to ensure that raw fruit and vegetables eaten or used in preparation of other dishes are properly and thoroughly washed. As mentioned before, mayonnaise created using raw or partially-cooked eggs ought to be avoided and thus, some salads like coleslaw or potato salads should be screened before ingestion.
Caffeine
Caffeine intake should be limited during pregnancy, as too much caffeine continues to be linked to low birth weight and even miscarriage. It doesn’t need to be cut out altogether, but intake should be limited to 200mg per day. Remember that certain fizzy drinks contain caffeine, and check the components so you know how much you’re consuming.
Foods to Avoid During Pregnancy
Vitamins
When pregnant a woman’s body may need different amounts of vitamins to support the growth from the foetus. Pregnancy causes a woman’s body to experience drastic hormonal changes, this adds a large amount of strain to the body and so a woman should check what types of vitamins she requires. Your physician can recommend safe, effective pre-natal supplements that may provide you with enough vitamins to ensure healthy foetal development. Of course getting these nutrients from food is definitely the best option.
Dairy Products
Cheeses are well-liked by many and most types can be eaten during pregnancy. The variety that should be avoided would be the soft and blue-veined cheeses such as camembert, brie, stilton, blue cheese and feta. They are made with mold and may harbor harmful bacteria like Listeria. However, it’s safe to take processed cheese (cheese spreads), cheddar, parmesan, cottage and cream cheese, mozzarella and ricotta.