Fueling for pregnancy: Vitamins you need

From the book: " The 100 Healthiest Foods to Eat During Pregnancy" I will also be posting a daily food from this book for those who are interested

FUELING THE EXPANSION

"Eating for two" may be the expression we all use to joke about how a pregnant woman should eat, but it sure isn't a very accurate statement. if you're looking at pregnancy as an opportunnity to finally eat everything you want and as you want of everything, listen carefully: Your foal is not to eat twice as much as normal!

You actually only need about 300 extra calories per day. What you do need to do is make sure that you're eating enough nutrient to support the growth of the fetus and to feel good through the process. A much better expression would be "quality over quantity." Maybe the new mantra for pregnancy should be, eat twice as healthy as before!

Let's take a closer look at the key nutrient you'll need to kick off your healthy pregnancy:

PROTEIN
Protein comes from the Green, meaning "of prime importance," which is exactly what it is during pregnancy. Protein's actually one of the foods most underconsumed by women in Western society, and it's truly "of prime importance: for new mom's. Every single cell in your new baby's body will need protein to form properly.

You may remember that protein is needed to create the hormones responsible for the miraculous changes happening in your body, but did you know that protein is also the raw material for enzymes? Enzymes instruct cells to divide, grow, metabolize, and more. They help your baby to grow and develop. And they give you energy, something you might be seriously lacking in that first trimester.

VITAMIN A
Vitamin A isanother important nutrient that helps fuel your baby's growth. Vitamin A is a powerful antioxidant that can help protect the important process of cell devision. When cells divide, they make a copy of their DNA-the cells' "blueprint"-and you don't want any mistakes to happen here.

Antioxidants neutralize damaging compounds falled free radicals that attack your cells and are the enemy of your DNA. You want the powerful protection of vitamin A and other antioxidants working for you, especially during pregnancy. They protect not only your cells and your DNA but also your proteins and fats-all compounds that can be seriously damaged by free radicals.

VITAMIN E
Another powerful member of the antioxidant SWAT team is vitamin E. Researcher from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey found that a mother's blood level of vitamin E was positively associated with fetal growth. We suspect this may be due to vitamin E's ability to imporve blood flow and nutrient supply to the fetus.

In fact, researchers have found that antioxidant levels in general may affect many pregnancy outcomes besides fetal growth, including birth weight, preterm deliveries, and preeclampsia. The bottol line: Eating foods rich in antioxidants is a smart strategy for promoting a healthy pregnancy.

FOLATE (FOLIC ACID)
Although it's been an accepted and uncontroversial fact for years, many women are still unaware of thhe vital importance of folic acid before and during pregnancy. In fact, Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 2005 suggested that all women of childbearing age take a daily folic acid supplement and eat folic acid rich foods like spinach, liver and fortified cereals.

Evidence shows that folate is important for preventing birth defects of the brain and spinal cord, spefically a disabling defect called spina bifida. And the time to start taking folic acid is before you get pregnant! Studies have also shows that taking folic acid spplements reduce the risk of cleft lip by about a third.

FAST FACT: Folic acid is one of the few vitamins that is actually better absorbed from supplements than food

IRON
Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in Northo America, and it's the most common nutritional deficiency in women of childbearing age. You lose iron every time you have your period, which can also conribute to low iron stores in women during their childbearing years-just wehn you need iron most. During pregnancy, your blood colume increases to meet the demands of your growing baby increasing the need for iron even more.

Women who are iron deficient are at higher risk of having a preterm delivery or a baby with a low birth weight. Vitamin C helps enhave the absorption of iron, so eating iron-rich foods in combination with foods that contain vitamin C is a realy smart idea.

FAST FACT: Your body's iron needs can double during pregnancy!

DIETING DURING PREGNANCY: JUST SAY NO!
Remember, you don't need to consume a ton of extra calories a day to have a healthy prenancy-just 300 extra calories a day is all it takes. Those 300 calories will go to your baby, not your hips, so you don't have to agonize about gaining weight. And ou certainly shouldn't be thinkgin about dieting!

It's just not worth the risk unless you're very overweight, and even then, you should work very closely with your obstetrician or midwife and aim for a very slow loss. Otherwise, dieting during pregnancy is a dangerous mistake. During a diet, you try to cut back on calorie consumption. The easiest ways to do that is to cut back on fat consumption. This can lead to deficiency in fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin E and A, both needed for your baby's growth. Plus, diets tend to cut back on dairy products- your main source of calcium and vitamin D during your pregnancy. Dieting makes it hard to eat healthflly. Instead, focus on foods with a low gycemic load. And reach for healthy foods like vegetables, beans, grains, low-fat dairy products, and fish, and you'll find your weight will sort itself out.