During your pregnancy, it's more important than ever to eat a healthy, balanced diet. This is because you're providing nutrients not just to your own cells, but to those of your growing baby as well. Your baby needs nutrients to grow and develop organs and for those organs to begin to function properly.
Nutritional Needs
Your body cells and those of your unborn baby need two general classifications of nutrients. Macronutrients -- which include proteins, carbohydrates, and fats -- are molecules that you need in large quantities. They provide cells with energy and with the building blocks to make other molecules. You also need micronutrients, which include vitamins and minerals. These don't provide any energy, but they do assist in other aspects of cellular function.
Balanced Diet
A balanced diet during pregnancy looks, for the most part, like a balanced diet during any other time of life. You should eat plenty of whole foods that are high in vitamins and minerals and low in added fats and sugars, explains Dr. Miriam Stoppard in her book "Conception, Pregnancy and Birth." She suggests a diet of lots of fruits and vegetables, plus whole grains, lean sources of protein and plant-based oils.
Quantity of Food
One of the special considerations you'll need to take into account during pregnancy is that you need a little more energy from your food than you do when you're not pregnant. In their book "You: Having A Baby," Drs. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz explain that the average pregnant woman needs about 200 to 300 extra calories each day during pregnancy -- that's about the number of calories in a bowl of cereal with milk.
Vitamins and Minerals
While your caloric needs may be only a bit higher than usual, your vitamin and mineral needs are significantly higher than normal, particularly with regard to certain specific micronutrients. Drs. Roizen and Oz note that pregnant women need 27 mg iron each day, compared to only 18 mg needed by other women. Iron helps you build extra blood volume. You also need more folic acid than normal; during pregnancy, a healthy diet should include 800 to 1,000 mg folic acid per day.
Supplementation
Because pregnancy often leaves women feeling nauseated, particularly in the first trimester, it can be hard to eat a healthy, balanced diet from the very beginning. For this reason, Drs. Roizen and Oz recommend that you discuss taking a prenatal vitamin with your obstetrician. The prenatal vitamin contains the vitamins and minerals your baby needs to grow -- and that your own body needs to stay healthy -- and helps provide insurance against those times you can't take in all that you need from food.
References
- "Conception, Pregnancy and Birth"; Miriam Stoppard, M.D.; 2008
- "You: Having A Baby"; Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.; 2009
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