When I ask women when they first started gaining weight, the answer is almost always, “When I had my kids.”
Balancing healthy eating with hormonal upheaval and dramatic body changes can be very challenging. There are unexplained urges for late-night Haagen Daz or McDonald’s French fries.
People encouraging, “you are eating for two, you can get away with it!”
Many women believe that pregnancy is the time when they can eat whatever they want; however, it is actually the worst time to pig out on unhealthy foods. During pregnancy, women’s bodies make a lot of hormones that work against the action of insulin, the hormone needed to use sugar from food. This can result in gestational diabetes.
High blood sugars during pregnancy can cause excess growth in the baby (it responds by releasing lots of insulin, which can cause excess fat deposition and large birth weight of your baby). It can also increase risk of complications during pregnancy and birth. Furthermore, research suggests that both over- and under-nutrition in utero may increase the risk of insulin resistance, obesity and diabetes later in life for your child – not to mention the difficulty of losing excess weight gain once you have a baby and young children.
So what do pregnant women need?
Be sensitive to hunger cues. Pregnant women only need about 350-450 extra calories during the second and third trimesters. This is equivalent to a piece of toast with peanut butter and a glass of milk, not a DQ blizzard.
Stay as active as possible during your pregnancy – low-impact activities like walking and swimming are usually most comfortable.
Choose nutrient-rich foods, not snack foods. Of special concern are folate, calcium, iron and zinc. Examples are:
Folate: Beans, spinach, orange and green fruits and vegetables, enriched flour products, nuts. Women should also take a 400mcg supplement.
Iron: animal meats, lentils/legumes, tofu, enriched breakfast cereals, nuts and seeds – best absorbed when consumed with vitamin C source (fruits, vegetables)
Zinc: in most high-protein foods (meat, fish, poultry, beans, legumes, nuts).
Calcium: milk, milk products, enriched milk alternatives (like soy and almond milk) tofu, dark green leafy vegetables, canned salmon, almonds.
And finally… enjoy your sleep, if you can.
- Serena Caner is a registered dietician who works at Shuswap Lake General Hospital.