Diet In Pregnancy

 

What should I eat during pregnancy?

You should eat a healthy balanced diet during pregnancy. This includes:

  • 6 – 11 servings of bread and grain, 2 – 4 servings of fruits, 4 or more servings of vegetables, 4 servings of dairy products and 3 servings of protein i.e meat, nuts, fish, eggs and poultry. You should minimize intake of fat and sweets.
  • Increase your intake of fibre e.g whole grain breads, cereals, pasta, rice as this will reduce your risk of getting constipated during pregnancy.
  • Start eating prenatal vitamin. This could cover for all the dietary deficiency that you may have especially folic acid. You need at least 0.4mg of folic acid/day at least 3 months prior to getting pregnant to reduce the risk of spina bifida in your baby.
  • Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables to get all the vitamins and nutrients for e.g Vitamin A, C and folic acid.
  • Increase your iron intake as the requirement for iron during pregnancy increases as your baby grows.
  • Avoid certain foods during pregnancy. Please refer to the section on Foods to avoid during pregnancy.
  • Keep up your intake of water. Drink at least 8 glasses/day.

What if I am lactose intolerant?

Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest the sugar contained in dairy products. When you take dairy products, you tend to have crampy abdominal pain, gas, or diarrhoea. If you are lactose intolerant, most likely you are not taking the dairy products that’s required for your calcium requirement. Don’t worry, other alternative includes:
  • Try taking small amount of milk during meals. Milk probably is better tolerated
  • Try taking cheese, yoghurt
  • Other good sources of calcium include green leafy vegetables, broccoli and tofu.
  • Ask your doctor regarding supplementing your diet with Calcium tablets.
  • Ask your dietician regarding lactose reduced products that is enriched with Calcium   .

What if I am a vegetarian?

This could probably result in less nutrition especially iron. Ways of increasing iron in your diet include:
  • Eating foods that are rich in iron e.g black-eye peas, broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach, soybean, dry peas, lentil and beans
  • Fortified cereals and bread
  • Peanut, pine nuts
  • All berries, apricots, dried fruits including prunes, raisins, apricots
  • Drinking orange juice with the food rich in iron increases the absorption of iron from your blood stream
  • Ask your doctor to supplement your diet with Iron supplements.

Could I diet during pregnancy?

It is not recommended to diet or try to loose weight during pregnancy. However, your doctor may ask you to see a dietician whom would advice you on proper nutrition during pregnancy if you have pre-existing diabetes or just diagnosed with diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes)

What should I do with my food cravings?

It is normal to have food cravings during pregnancy. Provided you are eating a healthy balanced diet, it is probably alright to eat the occasional sweets. However, some women developed strange food cravings such as dirt, clay, chalk, paint chips or laundry starch. This is called pica and could be associated with iron deficiency anaemia. Do not give in to this type of cravings as it could be harmful.

What artificial sweeteners that I should avoid?

You should avoid Saccharin. However, food sweeteners such as aspartame (Nutrasweet or Equal), acesulfame-K (Sunett) and sucralose (Splenda) is approved by the USA FDA.

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