Having a balanced diet is essential to your health at any stage of your life, but it takes special importance during pregnancy. Diet during pregnancy not only influences the mother’s well-being, but also the baby´s.

Perhaps, that’s why there are so many myths about nutrition during these nine months. In this article, we will try to go over the most important keys to face this. Let’s get started!

 

Objectives of feeding during pregnancy

 

Your nutritional needs change during pregnancy, but also the objectives of your diet, which go beyond covering your nutritional needs for a period. We must add the following reasons:

 

• Satisfy the nutritional needs of your baby.
• Prepare the woman’s body for the delivery
• Generate a fat reserve for the nursing

 

How much weight should I gain during pregnancy?

 

Weight gain during pregnancy is natural and necessary, but a controlled gain is appropriate.

As for the concrete numbers, it is difficult to be specific since it depends on many things. One of them is the initial pregnant woman’s physical condition. However, as a general rule for a woman with a normal starting weight, we can speak about gaining between 9 and 12 kilograms.

 

Diet during pregnancy

 

The main guideline for nutrition during pregnancy is always the same: follow a balanced diet, consuming the right amount of food, and products from each food group. For example, the Mediterranean diet consists of 50% carbohydrates, 30% fat -mostly healthy- and 20% protein in its more canonical version.

Pregnancy can be divided into the following three stages:

 

• During the first trimester, it is usually not necessary to increase caloric intake, but it is necessary to follow up with our doctor to ensure reserves and avoid complications.
• In the second trimester, a slight increase in calories is usually applied. For example, 400 calories in foods like rice, pasta, and other carbohydrates.
• For the third trimester the caloric consumption is maintained, but increasing the consumption of proteins because they are especially necessary during the last stage of the pregnancy.

 

Foods to avoid during pregnancy

 

During pregnancy, there are very few restrictions on your diet. However, for different reasons, we have to be careful with some products since they can cause problems during pregnancy.

Some of these products are raw meat and fish, large bluefish, some cheeses, cold cuts or sausages, or coffee; but we will expand this list in a future article.

 

These are the guidelines for feeding during pregnancy. Usually, we recommend that you follow the indications of your family doctor to the letter and consult a dietician or nutritionist. They are the right people to advise you on the best diet for you and your baby.