Healthy Foods for Mom and Baby

While you are pregnant, you may need to consume additional nutrients to keep you and your baby healthy. Although, that does not mean you should eat twice as much! Professionals, commonly recommend a healthy increase of approximately 300 or so calories per day. For example, a sweet potato has about 100 calories so getting those extra calories should not be too difficult. When you are pregnant, eating too much of any snack food, healthy or otherwise, may lead to excessive weight gain, that may boost your risk for complications, including gestational diabetes and even high blood pressure.

As a pregnant women, be sure not to restrict or deprive your pregnancy diet, as this may lead to not getting the proper amounts of essential nutrients such as; protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals, which are necessary to properly nourish you and your growing baby. Calorie restricted diets can cause the mother's stored fat and even muscle tissue to break down into glucose (blood sugar), leading to and elevated level of ketone production. Ketones, which can be found in your blood and urine, are a sign of starvation or a starvation-like state. Constant production, or elevated levels of ketones can result in ketosis and/or ketoacidosis, which may affect you and your growing child.