How to Achieve a Healthy Pregnancy Diet for You and Your Baby Easily

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Is healthy pregnancy diet a difficult goal for moms to achieve? It may seem practically difficult and give you a cause for concern, but I think healthy pregnancy nutrition during pregnancy is within your grasp. And you will discover why?

Eating well has never been easier during pregnancy than it is now.  Eating healthy while pregnant is the best gift you can give your growing baby. Follow me closely, you’ll find out how to eat right, eat well, and get optimum nutrition for you and your baby, now that you’re pregnant. 

A Healthy Pregnancy Diet – What’s in it for you – the Mom?

Normally, your body requires a well-balanced nutritional diet to function properly. It’s not different, even now you’re pregnant. In fact, proper nutrition is a vital prerequisite for having a healthy pregnancy.

Your nutritional diet plays a critical role to ensure your baby develops and grows properly, as healthy as possible, without suffering malnutrition, fetal gestation or birth defects. However, a healthy pregnancy diet benefits you – the pregnant mom, as much as your baby.

A Healthy Pregnancy Diet Is In the Best Interest of You and Your Baby

What you eat has a direct consequence on how well your body copes and recovers from all the physical changes it undergoes during pregnancy.  It also provides you with the energy and stamina to overcome both the physical and emotional challenges of childbirth.

Research studies have shown that pregnant moms who eat healthy throughout their pregnancies usually have a safe and uncomplicated pregnancy.  Other studies have also evinced that some pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia or high blood pressure can be directly linked to nutritional deficiencies or gaps in pregnancy diet.

Why do you have to eat right for your baby?

Eating right is a lifeline for your baby. Your baby has only a short time to develop all its vital organs such as the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys and so on, including all its body systems.  Good pregnancy nutrition therefore plays a key role in the welfare of this growth.

Since your diet is the only source of all nutrients; the vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, fat and fluids that your baby needs to grow and develop, not eating well during your pregnancy definitely presents dangerous risks.

Whatever you eat, your growing baby eats as well. So, you have to make sure you eat balanced, nutritious meals for the benefits of you both.

Now to the question often asked by most Moms; how do I achieve a healthy pregnancy diet?

Everybody seems to have an opinion about what a pregnant woman should or should not eat. But the rule for a healthy, pregnancy balanced diet is simple:

Eat a variety of healthy nutritional foods to make sure you and you baby get the sufficient amounts of nutrients across all classes of food every day.

The above suggestion hinges on the fact that no single food can satisfy all your nutritional requirements.  A healthy diet should therefore contain a variety of fruits, vegetables, carbohydrates, protein and fat to make sure that you and your baby don't get too much of one nutrient, and not enough of another.

The USDA Dietary Guideline for Americans, purposely for Americans from ages 2 years and above, including those at increased risk of chronic disease buttresses this fact. The guideline recommends that Americans should focus on eating a healthful diet — one that consist foods and beverages that help achieve and maintain a healthy weight, promote health, and prevent disease.

Let us also look at the USDA Food Guide Pyramid consisting of about 5 classified food groups which you need to eat from every day. Below are the food groups and recommended servings you are expected to take from each group;

• Milk, Yogurt and Cheese Group ( 2-3 servings )
• Vegetable Group (3-5 servings)
• Carbohydrate/Starch Group - Bread, cereal, rice and pasta Group (6-11 servings)
• Fruit Group (2-4 servings)
• Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts Group (2-3 servings)
• Fats, oils and sweets (Cut back on these)

The food pyramid essentially guides you to take enough of different nutrients that you and your baby require from the foods you eat daily. 

2-3 servings of dairy a day make for a healthy pregnancy diet according to the food pyramid. Dairy foods provide your baby with calcium – required to develop healthy growing bones and muscular system. Milk is the best source for your fill of calcium, but you can also get calcium from cheeses, yogurt or even ice cream.

Also, 3 servings of protein are required daily.  Protein contains amino acid which is one of the most important building blocks for your baby's cells, tissues and muscles. This nutrient also helps in its brain development.  Protein is very easy to come by and your options to source protein are endless.

Fruits and Vegetable Groups are important sources of vitamins and minerals including fibre. You need to eat about three-five servings from vegetable group every day.

Vegetables provide you with vitamin A, C and folic acid (vitamin B), including iron. While two to four servings from Fruit Group provide you with a healthy amount of vitamin A and C, as well as potassium.

Another important food group comprises carbohydrates and starches.  Eating eight or more servings of foods in this group provides complex carbohydrates, vitamins E and B, minerals, and fibre.

Are you overwhelmed by the foods you’ll have to include in your healthy pregnancy diet every day? 

Don’t be!

 Let me break it down for you. Here are some examples of what counts as a serving;

1 Serving:  Milk, Yogurt and Cheese Group

• 1 cup milk or yogurt
• ½  ounces natural cheese
• 2 ½  ounces process cheese

1 Serving:  Vegetable Group

• 1 cup raw leafy vegetables like spinach, romaine, lettuce and broccoli)
• ½  cup other vegetables, cooked or chopped raw
• ¾ cup vegetable juice

1 Service: Bread, cereal, rice and pasta Group

• 1 slice of bread
• 1 ounce ready-to-eat cereal
• ½ cup cooked cereal, rice or pasta

1 Serving:  Fruit Group

• 1 medium apple, banana or orange
• ½ cup chopped, cooked or canned fruit
• ¾ cup of fruit juice.

1 Serving:  Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts Group

•  2-3 ounces cooked lean meat, poultry or fish
• ½ cup cooked dry beans or 1 egg counts as 1 ounce lean meat)
•  2 table spoons peanut butter ( 1/3 cup nuts count as 1 ounce meat)

1 Serving:  Fats, oils and sweets ( Cut back on these )

• Some examples are salad dressings, cream, butter, margarine, sugars, soft drinks, candies and sweet desserts. These foods provide calories but few nutrients. Cut back on their consumption if you desire to have a healthy pregnancy diet.

Essential Vitamins and Minerals in Your Healthy Pregnancy Diet

Let’s examine a few pregnancy vitamins and minerals that should be included in your diet for optimum health during pregnancy.

Folate ( folic acid) in your Healthy Pregnancy Diet and its benefits

Folate, a nutrient in the  vitamin B family, helps to lower the risk of certain birth defects such as spina bifida (neural tube defect)  and what is called anencephaly ( a defect in brain and skull formation).

So, it’s generally recommended every woman trying to conceive or pregnant should start taking folate as early as possible to have adequate amount of folic acid in her system at the time it would be required during fetal gestation.

Food sources of folate include leafy green vegetables, dry beans, citrus fruits, whole-grain breads and cereals, liver, and so on. Your healthcare provider should prescribe this supplement by default to compensate for the insufficient amount you get from the foods you eat. Check with them if they don’t.

Calcium Health Benefits in Your Pregnancy Diet

Calcium helps in building strong bones and teeth; including healthy muscular development. Food sources of calcium include milk, yogurt, cheese, dark-green leafy vegetables, such as broccoli, blackstrap molasses, among others.

 You need about 1200 milligrams of calcium every day of your pregnancy. Unfortunately, most women get much less from their foods. I will show you how to effectively supplement calcium deficiency in your diet.

Iron Health Benefits in your Pregnancy Diet

Iron helps your body make new blood, and also assists your baby grow. Your body's demand for iron will be greater during pregnancy and you have to boost its supply.  

Food sources of iron include red meat, dry beans, chicken, leafy green vegetables, dried fruits, iron-fortified cereals or whole-grain breads, among others.

Inadequate iron supply in your body could lead to anemia. If you’re not getting enough iron, talk to your doctor to get a good supplement prescription such as Trévo.

Basically, nutrient needs should be supplied primarily through foods consumption.  But I have realized that even though one’s diet is healthy and balanced, it’s practically difficult to get all your nutrients, in sufficient amount, from the foods you eat only.

Of course the reasons are obvious!

Eating healthy foods is one side of the coin, another thing is the ability of your body to effectively absorb the required amount of nutrients from the foods you eat. The problem of poor nutrient absorption, among other influencing factors, creates nutritional gaps that you must fill or supplement.

Useful tips for achieving a healthy pregnancy diet

• Never miss a meal while you are pregnant, especially breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for your baby.
• Drink at least 6-8 glasses of fluids (water, juice or milk) every day. It helps transport nutrients to your baby, prevent dehydration, and also alleviate constipation.
• Make the foods that are good for you and your baby part of your personal healthy pregnancy diet! Include as many healthy foods as possible in your diet, for variety will make your diet plan enjoyable.
• Food craving during pregnancy is normal, you should make provision for it in your pregnancy diet, and endeavor to control the cravings within your healthy pregnancy nutritional plan!
• Importantly, you must understand that a nutritional pregnancy diet or even a pre-pregnancy diet may have to be tailor-made to fit your health status. So you may have to speak to a dietician or doctor for advice if you’re managing any major health issues while pregnant.
• I want you to have fun with your foods.  Eating should be fun.  So you have to enjoy yourself while you enjoy the healthy foods!
• On a final note, eating healthy throughout your pregnancy helps you cultivate the habit of a healthy lifestyle even beyond pregnancy.

You Can Talk to a Trevo Life and Health Coach Here for Any Trevo Enquiries

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