Healthy Foods
Pregnancy Diet and Nutrition
Oct 28th
Energy: really eating for two?
Energy requirement varies among individuals. Unfortunately, pregnancy is not the ice-cream-free-for-all as we would like it to be. It is generally recommended that pregnant women increase their daily intake by 100 calories in the first trimester and 300 calories in the second and third trimester. For instance, an extra snack before bedtime consisting of a fruit, a serving of milk or yogurt and a few biscuits is often enough. A daily prenatal multivitamin supplement is often recommended during pregnancy.
Folate
Folate, or folic acid, is needed to support the increasing maternal blood volume and to decrease the risk of baby Neural Tube Defects (NTD). Diet alone is not likely to provide enough folate. Therefore, it is recommended that women should start taking a daily folate supplement of 400ug (0.4mg) 3 months prior to conception and should continue through the first 3 months of the pregnancy.
Iron
Iron is essential to maintaining a sufficient level of blood supply to the growing baby and the placenta. As many women’s iron stores are not enough for meeting the increased requirements during pregnancy, a daily low dose iron supplement (30mg) is often recommended during the second and third trimesters. You can help prevent iron deficiency anemia by eating more iron-rich foods like lean red meat, fish, poultry, dried fruits, whole-grain breads, and iron-fortified cereals.
Calcium and Vitamin D
Your baby gets the calcium necessary for healthy bones and teeth from the mother’s supply. Depending on your age, it is recommended to include 1000mg – 1300mg of calcium and 200IU of Vitamin D in your diet. It means 4 – 6 servings of dairy products or calcium-fortified foods a day. If calcium intake is insufficient during pregnancy, calcium supplements may be needed.
Dietary Cautions
Caffeine: some authorities suggest to limit coffee to 3 – 4 small cups a day; some such as the US Department of Health suggests to avoid it completely.
Seafood: Avoid high-mercury fish such as Shark, Swordfish, King Mackerel and Tilefish. Also limit fish intake to no more than 2 servings per week.
Artificial Sweeteners: use in moderation.
Herbal Tea: Some herbal teas are safe to drink during pregnancy. These include citrus peel, ginger, lemon balm, orange peel and rose hip teas. Avoid chamomile tea.
The Bottom Line: Pregnancy and Diet
- You will very likely experience cravings, but eating a balanced diet now is more important than ever. So eat healthy – do not skip meals.
- If you are trying to conceive, take folate supplement now.
- If you are already pregnant, take your daily prenatal vitamin supplement.
- If you do not eat 4 – 6 servings of dairy daily, do some math on your daily calcium intake. Don’t forget the calcium content in your prenatal vitamin. If the total is less than 1000mg, you may need to take a calcium supplement.
Heart Healthy Cooking
Oct 28th
If we have a heart condition or we usually wish to be healthier in general, a many appropriate thing which we can do is begin scheming heart full of illness in progress recipes. This approach we know which we have been regulating usually mixture which have been good for your heart, as good as this is usually as good for adults as it is full of illness in progress for kids. There have been a couple of discipline which we have been starting to need to hang to when it comes to heart full of illness cooking, as good as which will be discussed here in some-more detail.
Guidelines
For one, we should never consider which by adhering to heart full of illness in progress we have to usually eat a couple of opposite things, since this is not a box during all. Instead, we wish to suffer a accumulation of foods, as good as nonetheless we should try to equivocate tainted as good as sweetened foods, we positively do not have to equivocate them altogether.
There have been a couple of alternative critical discipline as well. Choosing reduce fat dairy products, leaner meats as good as dishes which have been rebuilt with small or no fat have been all critical tips. You should regularly prepare your food fresh, right from a start, rsther than than adhering with processed, rebuilt foods, since these dishes will enclose some-more sodium, which is unequivocally fattening as good as additionally bad for a heart.
Another critical heart full of illness in progress tip is to be clever with which in progress oil we use. There have been literally over twenty opposite sorts of in progress oil available, as good as we wish to have certain which we find a single which is starting to be full of illness for we though which we suffer a ambience of as well. You unequivocally do not comprehend how mostly we have make make make use of of of of in progress oil until we stop to consider about it.
There is a little fat which is good for you, though jam-packed fat is well known as bad fat, as good as should be avoided as many as possible. There have been a couple of opposite easy ways for we to get some-more concerned with heart full of illness in progress as good as for one, to have make make make use of of of of reduction jam-packed fat, have make make make use of of of of soothing cylinder margarine or oils in place of retard margarine.
These have been all good tips as good as will safeguard which we stay in a many appropriate illness possible. Especially if we have been comparison or differently have heart conditions, examination what we eat will be needed to your heart. Your heart is a many critical organ in your body, so of march we wish to keep it in good shape.