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Will the baby be affected by the way a woman eats during pregnancy?
There is a parable: a woman comes to a sage and asks for advice on how to raise her newborn child. The elder answers her: “You are 9 months late.” It is not for nothing that in a number of countries the age of a person begins to be counted from the moment of his conception. What the expectant mother eats has a huge impact on the development of the baby.
Many girls, upon learning that they are expecting a baby, begin to eat for two. “But how? After all, pregnant women are supposed to do this! ” Indeed, the need for energy in a pregnant woman increases, but not doubled. During the first trimester, the expectant mother needs to consume only 200 calories per day more than usual, and during the II-III trimesters – by 300. For clarity, this is 200 grams of low-fat cottage cheese.
Overeating will not only affect your figure, which will be quite difficult to correct after childbirth, but, most importantly, excess weight can provoke many diseases. This applies to both the health of the mother and the baby.
– development of varicose veins;
– pregnancy diabetes;
– hypertension;
– late toxicosis and the threat of late miscarriage;
– delay in fetal development;
– too big a child;
– difficulties during childbirth and, as a result, an emergency caesarean section;
– heart disease in a child;
– difficult recovery after childbirth;
And this is not the whole list of problems that may arise due to overweight in a pregnant woman.
Pregnancy is not the time for dieting!
The baby’s health depends on the diet of the expectant mother. Each type of nutrient has a different function. Proteins are the main material for building cells, carbohydrates are a source of energy for both a woman and her child, fats are necessary for energy and for building tissues. Minerals and vitamins regulate metabolism.
The listing of all types of vitamins that the expectant mother needs will take up a lot of space. After all, these biologically active substances are involved in all biochemical and physiological processes occurring in the body of both the woman herself and the little man developing inside her.
Let us dwell only on omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in more detail. It is they who have just a huge impact on the development of the baby’s brain. Numerous studies have shown that a deficiency of omega-3 in the diet of a pregnant, lactating mother and in the diet of a child during the first years of life significantly affects the development of his ability to learn.
And one more scientific discovery: if a pregnant woman was on a diet, her child in the future will be prone to obesity. Scientists have proved that if a mother-to-be lacked nutrition, then a special gene “turns on” in her baby, which is responsible for the maximum absorption of nutrients from a limited amount of food (you need to supply the child with nutrients, since the mother did not take care of this).
So, this gene will work not only during the intrauterine development of the baby, but also when the child becomes an adult. That is, if a person is in conditions of a sufficient amount of food, he may develop obesity. (The same, apparently, happens when girls who are on strict diets begin to get fat, even because of cucumbers.)
In general, the main thing is to remember: food should be moderate and balanced. Fewer empty calories, more vitamins. And eat to your health (yours and your baby’s)!