Gestational Diabetes Video

Try these eating tips for dealing with gestational diabetes. Learn how to adjust your diet to fit your specific health and nutrition needs in this video on grocery shopping.

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Eat 5 small meals a day
Avoid fried, fatty food
Count carbohydrates
Include protein in every meal

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Mary Hondros graduated from University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics. She currently works as a nutritionist for New Hanover County Schools in North Carolina. Her main focus is to teach children to improve nutritional habits.

MARY HONDROS: Okay, let us talk a little bit about gestational diabetes. This is a condition where when you are pregnant, your blood sugar is above of what it should be now. To have a high blood sugar is normal for most pregnant women, but sometimes, what happens is in the third trimester, it raises up too high, so your blood glucose is entirely too high. And this turns into gestational diabetes, which just means that during that pregnancy, you have a form of diabetes, but it disappears as soon as you gave birth. So, just like with regular diabetes, if you have a condition like gestational diabetes, you need to balance your carb intake at every meal and throughout the day, because you want to keep regular blood glucose levels. And you should work with your dietician to figure out what kinds of foods have carbs in them. In general, carbs are found in breads, starches, pastas, rice, cereals, and any grain products like that. Those are the things that raise your blood glucose the quickest. Also, it is important to eat regularly throughout the day, three large meals, or five small meals, to maintain your blood sugar levels throughout the day. And if you have any morning sickness, make sure that you are eating something in the morning that is high carbohydrate with a little bit of protein to keep those blood levels under control. So, four tips, if you have gestational diabetes and you need to keep your glucose under control, first of all remember to eat three meals a day with two snacks, or five small meals a day. This keeps your blood glucose kind of, running level, so that you don't have any spikes or any low drops. Second, remember that if you have morning sickness, don't go without food. You need to avoid fried, fatty food and you need to have some whole grain, like crackers, or a little bit of dry cereal in the morning to keep your glucose maintained. Thirdly, remember that you need to be able to count your carbohydrates throughout the day. So you need to know which foods, or serving of carbohydrate, for example, two slices of bread would equal one carbohydrate food, and you'd want to include some protein also. And the last tip of course, is to include a source of protein with your carbohydrates at every meal, to keep those blood sugar levels balanced. And those are four tips on maintaining gestational diabetes.

Healthy Food Choices for Gestational Diabetes Video

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