The Vegetarian Diet and Pregnancy

If you followed a vegetarian diet for some time and suddenly you know you've been pregnant, you might wonder what may vegetarian women ask to themselves: Do I have to keep eating well? My diet will meet the essential needs for my baby? Should I be a vegetarian at the moment? In fact vegetarian diet is perfectly adequate and very healthy in pregnancy, if, as in any diet, it is able to cover enough calories and nutrients that require phase of gestation.

Adequate intake of calories

As the pregnancy is a period where the body spends more energy than normal, it is very important to consume 300 extra calories per day, so as to ensure the power demand at each stage of pregnancy. The type of food consumed to meet this calorie requirement should not be based on the belief that the sugars contained in sweets, breads, chocolates, fried or processed food, provide "a great deal of energy." This belief, besides being wrong, if you are carried by it, your body will result in an unnecessary increase in weight, and it will not be sufficiently large for the energy and nutritional demands of this moment. If your neighbor told you that no one should be exaggerated and that we should eat everything, we suggest that the larger amount of non-nutritious food, the higher your unnecessary weight gain, and you will feel more tired than usual and a tense or nervous emotional state.

The best thing for the moment is the quality calories, which must be obtained from food that is not refined, but natural foods, fresh and / or organic, such as fruits, vegetables, honey, nuts, the pasta, soup of vegetables, oilseeds, and so on. So if you are pregnant and interested in your baby, the first thing you have to do is buy more apples and other vegetables, and eat about three or four more servings of fruit a day. Now if you're overweight, it is extremely important to remove from your diet all foods such as sausages unnecessary, foods with refined sugar (soda, candy, cakes, cookies, etc.), and fatty or fried products, it is important to watch your weight by either the health of yourself and your baby.

Important vitamins and minerals you should include in your diet

The nutritional requirements are increased significantly during pregnancy, and women often have to make a special alignment in their vegetarian diet during that time.

Minerals and vitamins for pregnancy:

Iron: This is one of the minerals recommended during pregnancy, the major deficiency of this mineral results in anemia, which is a big problem for vegetarians who have neglected this aspect of nutrition. There are many products and derivatives of animal origin with high amount of iron, but there are many vegetarian products that contain and surpass animal products in both quality and quantity. The best thing for a pregnant woman meets a vegetarian diet that meets the demands for iron, which is consumed are breads and cereals, preferably whole grain and fortified with iron; nuts, dried fruits, green leafy vegetables, are good alternatives to ensure that pregnant women are getting sufficient amounts of iron.

Calcium: another essential mineral in this period is calcium, it is important to ensure consuming at least 1,000 milligrams of calcium per day. This can be achieved by consuming vegetarian products and calcium-rich like tofu, almonds (which contain two double calcium than a glass of cow's milk), soymilk, honey, lemon, the steamed vegetables, kale, broccoli, so on.

Silicon: if you want to not only look good but superbly well at this stage of your pregnancy, do not forget to include this mineral: this mineral, in addition to giving the tersira and losania to skin and hair, stimulates your nervous system. Oats and celery are foods rich in silicon.

Vitamin D: without vitamin D, it is useless to you try to get enough calcium, since this vitamin is needed for calcium to be absorbed well. However,the best to get vitamin D is the sun, so do not hesitate about thirty minutes sitting in the garden, or walk on a nearby par. Rays of the sun to help the body to produce vitamin D naturally. Besides that you should consume goat's milk or soy.

Vitamin B12: This vitamin is essential to contribute to the process of cell division during the pregnancy, can be found in fish cereals and breads fortified with this vitamin, yeast, etc. .

These are just some of the important vitamins and minerals at this time, but you must not forget taking into account all the nutritional elements that we do not mention as the important vitamin C, E, potassium, manganese, etc.. Always remember to take into account a very varied diet of good quality, avoiding at all costs satisfy the hunger only filling with food that do not feed.

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