Healthy and nutritious diet during pregnancy

Pregnancy is a time, when a woman is filled with mixed emotions like excitement and worry, joy and apprehension. This is a time, when eating healthy and vitamin rich diet is very important. Your pregnancy diet should be a balanced diet that contains all the essential nutrients like vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, calcium and iron. Eating healthily and safely is important at each and every stage of your pregnancy.

Photo: Schwangerschaft

With proper and intense planning, a vegetarian diet can also provide all the vital minerals, proteins, vitamins and other nutrients that are required by the body. A pregnant woman requires more protein during pregnancy and this is possible by following a healthy, varied vegetarian diet. If you are vegetarian then you should take extra care to include adequate amount of two nutrients that are very important during pregnancy, including iron and calcium. Food items that are good sources of iron are bread, cereals, green vegetables and pulses.

Foods items that should be and should not be eaten during pregnancy are as follows:

• Intake of Vitamin A should be controlled because it can cause damage to embryo.
• Brinjal, celery, onion, carom seeds, suran/yam, papaya, chilli, garlic, asfoetida, mustard, bajara, ginger, pepper and jaggery should be reduced from your diet.
• Those women who suffer from bloating, gas and constipation should try to avoid heavy to digest cereals, peas and potato. They should include green gram in their diet as it can be digested easily and gives protein to the pregnant women.
• Cauli flower, cabbage and long green vegetables like Govari, Louki, Parwal, Tondali, Turai, Spinach, etc should be included in your diet. You can keep a balance by eating different vegetable each day rather than eating same vegetable daily.
• Fruits like banana, grapes, ripe mango, apricot and dates & cashew nuts are beneficial for the mum and the baby.
• Fennel seeds, butter, milk, honey, clarified butter and sweets that are made from jaggery and not white sugar can be consumed in small quantity.
• The items that are made from rice and wheat like khichri, chapatti, murmure, gujarati thepla, pulao, bhakari, paratha are very beneficial for the pregnant woman.
• Fasts are strictly not advisable during pregnancy as these are not good for the health.
• Do not eat left over, frozen & deep-frozen food.
• You should avoid cold drinks, cocoa, eggs, alcohol,tobacco, mutton, pan-masala, smoking and betel nut. Coffee, tea, ice-creams can be consumed in small amounts.
• During pregnancy, mother must focus on supplemental nutrients while maintaining a balanced and nutritious diet.
• Food items like bakery, dhokla, pizza, khaman, bread, bun, steamed rice cake, sandwich, curd, tomato, handva, kadhi, pancake, tamarind should be avoided as these items cause acidity and swellings.

You should remember, the baby inside depends on the amount of nutrition you intake. So, it is advisable to take a healthy & balanced diet that will be beneficial for you and your child.