Writer of the book "Pregnancy Nutrition" Rujuta Diwekar addresses three myths about eating during pregnancy:
(1). You can eat whatever now that you are allowed to gain weight: Obviously not true. Eating right is more crucial now than ever, for both a healthy pregnancy and your child. Also, you don't need to eat for two, instead you need to become more attuned to your hunger signals and eat as per appetite. So no distractions when eating.
(2). You have to eat a lot of protein: You don't exclusively get a certain nutrient from a specific food. Food delivers much more than a single or multiple nutrients. One of the things that matters most with the protein is its digestibility ration, and a thumb rule to increase that is to eat protein-rich foods as part of a complete meal and not on its own. So back to eating wholesome meals and not as per food groups.
(3). You can get Folic acid only from the pill: The key here is to not entirely depend on the supplement but use it as an aid to support folic acid intake from natural foods Beetroot, seasonal vegetables and an under-valued source is cooked lentils - moong, black-eyed beans and the likes. Vitamin B 12 is required for Vitamin B 9 (folic acid) to carry out its functions, so don't forget the dahi, chhaas, and again the soaked, sprouted and well-cooked lentils. The following is an edited excerpt from Diwekar's latest book, "Pregnancy Notes: Before, During and After".
Eat Food That:
(1). Is easy to cook and digest.
(2). Hydrates and works as a natural antacid.
(3). Provides easy-to-assimilate amino acids .
(4). Is rich in micro-nutrients like iron, folic acid, calcium.
Rule 1-Easy To Cook And Digest: This is probably the core of the food rules. Digestion slows down during pregnancy, and the process of cooking ensures that food is actually pre-digested even before you begin to chew it. In terms of nutrition science, cooking of grains and vegetables helped remove the anti-nutrients from them, these re-molecules like phytates and oxalates that exist naturally but come in the way of nutrient absorption. So no salads, no juices and chew on your fruit when it's ripe. Also, fresh, local food and time-tested recipes are by default easy to cook and nutritious at the same time. The foods that are easy to cook and digest are also the ones that are hydrating and keep acidity down.
Rule 2-Hydrates and works as a Natural Antacid: Here are a few ingredients that can tilt the balance in your favour when taken right, but can leave you dehydrated and, therefore, acidic or sick when consumed in excess amounts or in wrong proportions and combinations:
(a). Sugar:It is useful and helpful for the body in certain combinations but in high amounts will leave you feeling drained out. Also, the origin matters. Sugar from sugarcane is good, but that from corn (high fructose corn syrup) is not. Sugar is like that falls from the sky: if it falls in muddy waters, it becomes muddy. Unfortunately, a lot of pregnancy foods' fall in that category. So sugar in biscuits, juices, cereals, flavoured milks and other packaged 'health' drinks is like muddy water, don't have it. And when this same drop falls in your chai, it's fine, drinks is like muddy water, don't have it. And when this same drop falls in your chai, it's fine, drink it. Or, for that matter, if it falls in your lad doo or kheer.
Quick Checklist:
--Good Sugar: Sugarcane and its derivatives, all seasonal fruits, coconut water, homemade sherbets, homemade laddoos, barfis and halwa, sugar used as seasoning while cooking certain dishes, jaggery and ghee or jaggery and saunf post meals.
--Bad Sugar: Cakes, pastries, biscotti, biscuits, ready-made sherbets and juices (tetra-packed or stylishly glass-packed), chocolates, brownies, ice creams, icing, ready-made cereal, protein biscuits, protein or other health powders that one mixes in milk (the ones with a typical profile of 9 gms protein, 28 gms carbs and 20 gms sugars per serving - that's four tsp in just one drink), cup-cakes, etc.
(b). Salt: Again, the namak in your nimbu pani will hydrate but most stuff that comes out of packets is a bad idea. So are options like popcorn while watching a movie or those chips that you are eating since you are allowed to gain weight now. Like sugar, it is not salt itself but the company it is keeping which is going to make it a good or a bad boy. So anything over the counter is a big no, but a home-made bhaji or mathri will do the trick.
During pregnancy, the serum sodium levels actually fall as the blood volume goes up, and this could well be one of the reasons why women crave salty stuff. Earlier, they would mostly end up eating imli with some salt or pickel, both healthy and rich in nutrients and friendly bacteria enhancers. But now, as the palate has been trained to eat on the go and consume processed stuff, they mostly crave chips and chicken wings. If you have been eating junk, expect an exaggerated effect during pregnancy. The unrefined or Himalayan or natural or coloured salt is especially good because it is not just sodium chloride but carries within itself multiple minerals and phyto-nutrients (which give it a particular taste, smell, colour and consistency) and other electrolytes too, like potassium and magnesium. These salts, often used in fasts, are great to keep the pH level of the body in place, beat bloating and prevent fluctuations in BP.
Quick Checklist:
--Good Salt: Pickle, papad, sherbet, khara singdana or the practice of putting kala namak (black salt) on fruits like guava, star fruit, amla, etc. Regular use of salt in cooking, salt in bathing water, the occasional pakoda or wada made at home.
--Bad Salt: Packaged and processed biscuits, chips (even the vegan, kala chips), packaged salted nuts, processed cheese, butter, outisde stuff like Chinese takeaway, samosa, pizza, popcorn, burgers, etc., basically anything that is sold in a franchise model in malls and on highways.
(c). Caffeine: The cup or two of chai or coffee with sugar will not harm, but caffeine crawls up from many unseen places - chocolates, cup-cakes, energy drinks and colas - and its' through these things that it will leave you dehydrated. So while you don't need to kick the cuppa, you must follow the basics: (i). No chai of coffee first thing in the morning, start with a fruit or dry fruit. (ii). No chai or coffee as a replacement to a meal. (iii). No chai or coffee as a late-night meal post dinner like when you step out to meet friends for for a drive, etc.
All the above are applicable also to green tea or white tea or any other tea. Basically, the thing to keep an eye on is your urine: If it semlls of tea, coffee, you are overdoing it and need to cut back; especially the invisible sources as mentioned earlier.
Rule 3-Provides Easy-To Assimilate Amino Acids: Do you need more protein when you are pregnant? Yes, to support the growth of the foetus and for your own body's needs. But the only way your body will have access to more protein is if it comes in the form of easy-to-assimilate amino acids. Along with amino acids in foods, the other nutrients that improve protein synthesis are essential fats, like those found in dairy and dairy products, minerals like those found in nuts, and phyto-nutrients, like the ones found in vegetables. It's really about distributing your protein intake through the day and consuming it as part of a nutrient-rich meal versus just ingesting protein on its own. A pre-sleep protein drink that is also rich in fat can further amplify protein synthesis and that's why it was common practice to feed an expecting mother a cup of milk as a bedtime snack.
Rule 4-Naturally Rich In Micro-Nutrients: Micro-nutrients like folic acid, calcium and iron we all know of, but a healthy pregnancy needs an array of micro-nutrients, from the phytosterols to lycopenes, the flavonoids to the phyto-estrogens and the resveratol to antho-cyanins. These come into our diet through almost a secret route - the pickle, the chutney, the laddoo. And if you are going by conventional information on diet, you are most likely to miss out on them. Let's look at how:
- You may be told to consume more iron or folic acid and you must just rely on pills or drown yourself in a bowl of spinach everyday without realising that a handful of cashews or an aliv (garden cress) laddoo will load you on both the folate and the iron and that too without constipating you.
- Or you may avoid pickle because you fear that it has 'too much salt' and then land up missing out on many essential nutrients from the pickle, especially Vitamin K2. You may have never heard of Vitamin K2, or you may be completely unaware of its role in preventing bone loss and osteoporosis, but what doesn't mean that you won't benefit from it.
- Or you could be loading up on high-fibre packaged cereals or oats because you have been told it's healthier, little knowing that the phytate from it is going to block the absorption of many minerals in your body, more importantly that of magnesium. And then what we often overlook, but our grandmoms didn't, is that Vitamin K2 and magnesium are critical for Vitamin D absorption.
--Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy--
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