Wishing for a pregnancy, carrying and giving life, a beautiful adventure that begins!
Eating healthily during your pregnancy is certainly one of your major concerns. Between what to eat and the prohibitions, how do you find your way? Rest assured, it’s about quality choices and dietary patterns more than specific diets. The earlier you install it in your life, the simpler and easier it will be to pass on to your child.
All traditional and empirical medicines teach us that our diet is our first medicine, a healthy and varied diet is our best ally as preventative medicine. Before and during your pregnancy, it is already a wonderful gift that you give to your baby. Today, many mothers have adopted this eating model as healthily as possible without wanting to return to the previous one.
Adopt the healthy plate!
Make your plate 80% plant-based and 20% animal-based. A vegetarian diet during your pregnancy is entirely possible, in this case please include vegetable proteins every day.
The 5 essential reflexes of pregnancy
1/ PROTEINS: THE “BUILDERS” THEY ARE ESSENTIAL:
- To your muscle building and your baby's growth.
- To maintenance and your immune system.
Your needs change throughout your pregnancy:
- 10 g more per day in the first trimester
- Again 10 g more per day for the last two trimesters and while breastfeeding
- For a twin pregnancy, protein requirements will be further increased by 10 g per day.
- Animal proteins are consumed at midday, to avoid overloading the elimination functions in the evening.
Choose fatty fish (wild salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, cod liver spread) 2 to 3 times a week. Avoid certain fish: tuna, pike, sea bass, mullet, Nile perch, shark or swordfish, they are too rich in heavy metals (methylmercury, dioxin) as well as fish from the Baltic Sea. Surimi is not recommended.
Eat poultry that has roamed (free-range or free-range, omega 3), chicken, turkey and guinea fowl twice a week.
Organic or omega 3 eggs (blue-white-heart) cooked soft-boiled or soft-boiled, up to 4 per week and preferably in the morning.
Limit red meat, once a week is enough. They are often sources of toxins (residues from taking hormones and antibiotics). If you are anemic and if you feel like it, eat black pudding twice a week, it is very effective in raising your iron levels.
2/ (GOOD) FAT IS LIFE!
We can never say enough that good fats are essential to our health, especially during pregnancy.
Briefly because the subject is dense, here is what you need to remember. Essential fatty acids are fatty acids not synthesized by the human body. They must therefore be provided through food. The fatty acids to absolutely favor are monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and especially polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The PUFA family includes omega-6 (abbreviated as “n-6”) as well as the famous omega-3 (abbreviated as “n-3”). These are found mainly in vegetable oils and fatty fish.
At Quintesens, it makes perfect sense to offer an ideal oil for the nutritional intake of the future mother and her baby.
Oils are therapeutic! For the mother-to-be, the benefits act on the nervous system, fluidity of cell membranes, hormonal synthesis, absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K); skin elasticity and prevention of stretch marks; prevention of pathologies, inflammatory and allergic; prevention of certain complications (hypertension, premature birth) and postpartum depression (baby blues). For your baby, they are fundamental to the brain and retinal development of the fetus. For seasoning , mix one oil from each category:
- 1 tbsp. tablespoon of omega-3 (linseed, rapeseed, walnut, camelina, hemp oil)
- 1 tbsp. tablespoons of omega-6 (walnut, wheat germ, sunflower, evening primrose and borage oil)
- 1 tbsp. tablespoon of omega-9 (olive oil)
To cook, first put a little water in your pan, then oil:
- olive (cooking below 180°C)
- coconut (cooking above 180°C)
You are often (or not) attracted to sugar during your pregnancy, this is explained by the fact that sugar metabolism is modified during pregnancy, in order to build up your fat reserves and make them available in the third trimester for the fetus. , hence the risk of diabetes. Choose good sources of carbohydrates, which guarantee you a constant energy supply throughout the day. The secret lies in a good intake of proteins (animal or vegetable) and good fatty acids. Because industrial products from refining disrupt the nutritional intake and increase the glycemic index of food.
Choose raw and whole foods:- Semi-complete cereals are a good compromise: they are nutritious and have a reduced cooking time. They are better supported by the fragile intestines.
- Foods with a low or medium glycemic index (GI), such as whole-grain natural sourdough bread, basmati rice, etc.
- Gluten-free cereals, rice, quinoa and even buckwheat help limit digestive discomfort (bloating and constipation).
- Legumes (lentils, chickpeas, red beans, split peas, coral lentils, etc.)
- Sweet potato, pumpkin, pumpkin, parsnip.
Ignore the confectionery aisle and leave aside cereals with a high glycemic index: refined cereals, sandwich bread, rusk, white bread, baguette, rice or corn pancakes, white rice, white pasta. Be careful, gluten-free products are too often sources of high GI (based on rice or corn). Sweeteners and low-fat products (yogurt, cheese), which are not natural. They can be dangerous for your baby, they send him false nutritional messages. Aspartame contains phenylalanine, which is toxic to babies.
4/ TO RECHARGE WITH IRON YOU HAVE TWO OPTIONS: ONE PLANT-BASED BUT NOT EASILY ASSIMILATED AND THE OTHER ANIMAL-BASED, SAID TO BE BIO-AVAILABLE.
In all cases the state of your intestinal microbiota (formerly called intestinal flora) is very important, because it is thanks to it that you will assimilate the iron present in food. Most often vary the sources of iron: egg yolk, legumes (lentils), whole grains, sprouted seeds, algae, dried fruits, pine nuts, raw cocoa, parsley, watercress, nettle, crustaceans (mussels, oysters, shellfish ), black pudding, red meat.
Your iron needs greatly increase from the second trimester: you will certainly be prescribed supplementation, but it is often poorly tolerated. There are natural organic iron food supplements (iron bisglycinate or iron fumarate) that are much better assimilated and tolerated. Vitamin C and a probiotic further improve its absorption.
Avoid: tea, coffee and milk, they limit iron absorption. Replace them with infusions or a plant-based drink.
5/ STOP REFINED AND DEVITALIZING FOODS
- Moderate your consumption of prepared and industrialized products
- Limit gluten cereals: wheat and all its derivatives, oats, rye, barley.
- Moderate your consumption of cow's milk products; milk, cream, cheese and yogurt. Choose goat or sheep dairy products.
- Do not consume alcohol, tobacco or cannabis
- Avoid low-fat foods, sweeteners
To regain vitality after birth, energize your plate with:
- A base of raw vegetables before meals or in the form of vegetable juice
- Low or medium GI foods
- Superfoods : spirulina, goji berries , chia seeds…
- Gentle steaming
- Sprouted seeds and oilseeds