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Pregnant, eat twice as good!
While taking care not to gain too much weight, one should above all not restrict your diet, at risk of serious nutritional deficiencies, for both yourself and your baby.
As a rule, one adopts a varied diet, do not skip meals and insist on breakfast (well deserved, since we fasted all night!).
But above all, we choose foods according to their nutritional qualities : we forget the packet of industrial cakes that do nothing for our body (only bad fat and sugar) and we focus on real foods, minimally processed: raw fruits and vegetables, almonds, whole foods.
Kilos …
Namely: on average, ideal weight gain during pregnancy is between 9 and 12 kg. It is generally more consistent in thin women, and less important in rather strong women.
… And some extra calories!
As an indication and for a future mother in good health, it is recommended to add only 100 calories in her usual daily ration during the first trimester pregnancy, then 250 during the second trimester, and finally 400 during the last months.
It is therefore not a question of doubling the calorie intake, but rather increase the consumption of certain nutrients essential for the growth and development of the fetus.
Pregnant, diet may increase the risk of obesity in children
Pendant the pregnancy, we must watch our diet to avoid significant weight gain or the occurrence of gestational diabetes. Another important reason, according to researchers at the Scripps Research Institute (USA): the composition of the diet during this period can influence on the risk of obesity in children.
It is more precisely the “western” regime, high in fat, which is implicated. The researchers made this discovery by studying two separate lines of rats fed a diet rich or low-fat diet. Finding: female rats having received a unbalanced diet, too rich, too fat during the weeks preceding the pregnancy, during the pregnancy and during the breastfeeding period had little ones more prone to obesity at birth and this until adulthood.
Previous studies have already shown that overweight mothers are more likely to give birth to children. Overweight, but never that diet alone can make a difference. “Doctors often use weight gain as a hallmark of a pregnancy healthy. But we realized that there was something going on in utero that was not detectable in the mother’s weight.“, Explains Jen Frihauf, lead author of the study, whose findings underscore the importance healthy eating before and after pregnancy.
It is important that doctors discuss nutrition with all women who are or are planning to become pregnant, and not just those who are already overweight.