If you are getting a chance to take care of your nutrition and diet prior to pregnancy, nothing can be as amazing and great as that! You have an opportunity as well as the time to mentally and physically feel great and energetic.
You can straight away get on to following the right stuff in terms of your diet and lifestyle by eliminating what’s not right for you and staying fit for a healthy and great pregnancy. Ask oneself, Whether you are ready to know what’s healthy and good for your body?
This article intends to be by every woman to help her understand all about the nutritious food and a good diet before pregnancy. Learn the types or ways of being healthy not just with food but through changes in the lifestyle as well as the different exercises before pregnancy. Study it all and be prepared!
Significance Of Pre-Pregnancy Nutrition And Diet – What’s In It?
If you are taking time to build on your health and then planning a kid, that’s a practical and great idea because you are making sure if it is the right time to plan your baby, you are as well taking prior care by making sure everything is right for your baby and your health in terms of nutrition and diet.
Why is it important to go for this step? Learn why!
- Your body should be filled with necessary nutrients
- So that you are confident about your health
- To avoid unnecessary health complications
- To be aware of what food is good for you and not
- To give your body the necessary strength before it experiences a change in the hormones
- To make up for your weight if you are underweight and to lose on some weight if you are overweight
- To make your body ready for the fetus to be healthy
- To learn to be more disciplined in your diet schedule
Thus, understand the significance of nutrition and diet in pre-pregnancy, think if you can religiously follow it all, see to it if you have the time and patience to go that extra mile and take care of yourself. Be sure and then step ahead. Get an understanding about the pre-pregnancy nutrition and diet plan
Pre Pregnancy Nutrition And Diet Plan
1. Know Your Purpose
Your motto is to have a healthy pregnancy as well as have a healthy baby. This is pretty much what every mother wants, is it not? Having said, you would have to eat everything that is a must before you get pregnant. This simply means that you have to know the purpose that you need to fill your body with every nutrient. Do not take it too easy, work on it with all dedication
2. Find Out If Your Weight Is Right
Before you get pregnant, you have to see if you are maintaining a diet filled with nutrients, you must find out if you have the right weight. You need to look into this because you would further need to put on after the first trimester. Therefore, before you get there, you cannot be underweight or too weak.
Read: How to Conceive A Boy With Foods Intake
3. Learn About The Nutrients You Need
I. Consume foods that have folate
As per The Centers Of Disease Control And Prevention, women are supposed to take 400 mcg of folic acid a month before getting pregnant.
Folic acid is a water-soluble Vitamin-B. It is recommended that a woman should have folic acid in her diet every day during the pre-pregnancy period and even during pregnancy.
The emphasis is given folic acid as one of the key nutrients for women who are going to be pregnant is because it can have a bad affect on the baby’s brain and spine. This defect is known as neural tube defects, it is not safe for the baby in the womb. Elevit is one of the important multivitamins that fills the body with folic acid and iron during pregnancy.
Benefits of folic acid
- It protects your DNA by saving it from cancer
- Folic acid is a guard to the new cells that are produced in the body
- Folic acid has the power to save a pregnant woman from having a miscarriage
- It is one of the best sources that helps in forming red blood cells
- Folic acid is known to even correct any issues with the RNA or DNA
Foods Rich In Folate
In your pre-pregnancy stage if you are looking for food rich in folate. Here are foods that will increase folate in your body.
- Broccoli – Broccoli has 57 mcg folate
- Spinach – Spinach has 116mcg folate
- Lentils – Lentils has 358 mcg of folate
- Orange Juice – Orange Juice has 55 mcg of folate
- Beans – Beans has 256 mcg of folate
- Bananas – Banana has 23.6 mcg of folate
- Brown Bread – Brown bread has between 14-26 mcg of folate
- Watermelon – Watermelon has
- Cereals – Cereals have
- Peas – Peas has 75-94 mcg of folate
- Lemons – Lemons have 55 mcg of folate
- Tofu – Tofu has 27 mcg of folate
- Spaghetti – Spaghetti has 127 mcg of folate
Eat all these foods and improve the amount of folate in your body so that you ensure to have had a healthy pre-pregnancy diet.
II. Refrain From Eating Saturated Fat Food
- Say a big no to saturated fats
If you eat unhealthy food it can affect your baby’s health later in life. There are chances that your baby could have blood pressure problems and might put on excessive weight. If you stop it right here during pre-pregnancy, you would have an easier pregnancy and it would be good for your baby in the long run. That said, it is tough to completely stop having saturated fats, you just need to get your consumption in control. You are allowed to have 100 calories from unsaturated fats, if you exceed this limit, it could have an impact on your health.
Some of the foods that have a high amount of saturated fats are pies, cakes, pastries, fried food, biscuits, beef fat, cheese, caffeine, lamb and pork.
- Stop eating white processed foods
If you want a healthy diet during pre-pregnancy always look for an alternative to white-processed foods, reason being, they can make you obese and that will further lead to other heart issues.
Some of the white processed foods that you should avoid are alcohol, ice-creams, too much sugar and salt, sugary drinks and candy bars.
III. Add Unsaturated Fat Foods To Your Diet
Unlike saturated fats, unsaturated fats are healthier. In reality the body needs certain fats that can fill it with essential vitamins and minerals.
Those vitamins and minerals are there in unsaturated fats and they are good to keep the body healthy. Your body should not have fats beyond 77 grams. It should be within it.
The reason unsaturated fats are preferred over saturated is because it does not give your body the risk of having heart diseases. That said, you need some amount of fats in your body so that you do not feel hungry quite often.
Here are some of the foods that are clearly unsaturated fats. Take a look at them!
- Avocados
- Peanut Butter
- Olive Oil
- Salmon
- Nuts and Seeds
- Sunflower Oil
Therefore, during your pre-pregnancy period, eat a healthy diet by reducing the saturated fats and increasing the unsaturated fats in your diet. Do not completely deprive your body of the minimum fats it requires.
IV. Pre – Pregnancy Diet Calls For Vitamin D
It is crucial for you to take sufficient Vitamin D in your diet during the pre-pregnancy period because your bones tend to get weak at this time. That said, a woman should make it a point to consume the required Vitamins to boost her health before she gets pregnant.
Taking Vitamin D during the pre-pregnancy phase will help in the following ways
If you have enough Vitamin D in your body, it will boost your baby’s weight and it is good to keep your body away from an issue named pre-eclampsia, this condition increases the blood pressure in your body.
If you give your body Vitamin D, you would not have to go through this. This mostly happens to women during pregnancy. Additionally, Vitamin D has the following benefits
- Vitamin D keeps your body away from osteoporosis
- it helps in keeping your body’s blood pressure in control
- It protects your body from heart diseases
Your body needs about 3800 UI’s of Vitamin a day, make sure you give this to your body before you plan on getting pregnant.
V. Improve Your Fertility With Few Foods
If you are planning to get pregnant you need to work on improving your efficiency in terms of fertility as well. For that to happen you would need to add certain changes in your lifestyle and the food you eat. Take a look at some of the foods that would help in improving fertility.
The best foods to improve your fertility are yogurt and milk. Do not eat too much of sweet stuff. Alternatively, try natural sweeteners such as maple syrup and honey. If fish is your favorite dish then be choosy on what kind of fish you eat.
VI. Add Iron To Your Diet
If you are seriously looking out on a diet that is going to do good to you during pre-pregnancy then adding Iron will prove super beneficial.
That said, if you do not get sufficient iron then you would tend to have problems while ovulating and that can make it even more difficult for you to conceive. You get saved from feeling anemic if the iron content in your body is sufficient.
Few of the foods rich in Iron are as follows :
Cashew nuts – Cashew nuts has 6.7 mg of Iron
Kidney beans – Kidney beans has 8.2 of mg Iron
Spinach Leaves – Spinach leaves has 3.57 mg of Iron
Pomegranate -Pomegranate has 0.3 mg of Iron
Kale – Kale has 1.5mg of Iron
Thus, having enough Iron in your body will help you get saved from issues such as breathlessness, tiredness and from your skin getting bad and pale. All of these problems disappear. Thoroughly enrich your body with enough nutrients before pregnancy so that you are all energized.
All in all, talking of a nutritious diet for pre-pregnancy, you more or less have to give your body the same fiber, vitamins, minerals, iron and calcium.
However, every nutrient has a different value of doing good to your body, One would either help by improving the efficiency of fertility. While one would help prepare your body for the pregnancy period. Take every nutrient and enjoy a bit of everything.
Pre-Pregnancy Lifestyle Changes And Exercises Plan
A drastic change in the lifestyle makes a difference in the quality of life. This goes without saying and a woman should make changes to her lifestyle during the pre-pregnancy phase because it won’t be about just her health, she has to be used to living the right lifestyle and doing the right exercises so that she is fit and fine during pregnancy.
Take a look at few changes that you need to make to your lifestyle and add certain exercises in making yourself fit for pregnancy.
4. Subtract Bad Habits! Add Good Habits!
You are already aware of the bad habits that you are to put to an end. Those bad habits are drinking, smoking or drugs. You cannot afford to have too much of them when you intend to have a baby soon. Keep your habits in control because it would affect the baby’s developing capacity.
Talking of good habits, it is about eating the right food, going for pre-pregnancy exercises, they could be light cardio exercises that a woman can try, exercise is just to ensure you have built enough stamina to carry your baby as well as resist the labour pain.
At the same time, keep in mind that you do not get into a vigorous workout such as lifting too much weights right before you are planning to have a baby. Do not put too much or lose too much, it can affect your process of planning for a baby. Be aware about this.
Avoid taking birth control pills at least few months in prior to planning a baby because that can affect your body and can stop you from becoming pregnant.
5. Carry A Stress-Free Mind
If you do not want the fertility process to get affected an you want to have an eased out pregnancy, you go to prepare for it in advance. That said, keep your mind calm, relax, spend a considerable amount of time with your partner and do things that make you happy. Even planning a baby when you are sad or too stressed might not end up being successful.
In conclusion, after going through the pre-pregnancy nutrition requirements you have a fair idea about the pre-pregnancy foods to eat and avoid. Take the right control of your lifestyle and habits to be successful in planning a healthy pregnancy. Increase folate, iron, vitamins and protein in the pre-pregnancy diet so that you are totally nourished before getting pregnant.
Start it right here! Do not delay on doing the right things!
