Perhaps you just learned that you are pregnant? Your baby may not even seem real yet. However the choices you make and what you eat now and every day you are pregnant or breastfeeding can affect your health and the health of your baby.The placenta brings important things, such as oxygen and nutrients, to your baby and it removes the waste products that your baby produces while in your womb. However the placenta cannot stop harmful substances such as alcohol and nicotine, from smoking, crossing from you to your baby.
Eating regular, well-balanced meals is more important when you are pregnant than at any other time of your life. Your needs for most vitamins and minerals, particularly folic acid and iron, also increase. These nutrients are important for your baby's growth and development. They give your baby strong bones and teeth, healthy skin, and a healthy body.
Some nutrients have been found to provide specific benefit to mother or child. For example, the B vitamins have been found to be especially important. One of them, folate, or its synthetic form, folic acid, can reduce the risk of birth defects of the brain and spinal cord, called the "neural tube.
A healthy diet is one that is based mainly on plant foods. Therefore it is important to eat lots of vegetables, fruits, bread, potatoes, pasta, cereals, beans and lentils accompanied by only relatively small amounts of: low fat milk, cheeses, kefir and yogurts; fish, lean red meats, and poultry. Whenever possible try to get locally grown vegetables and fruits, especially when they are in season. These can be less expensive, more nutrient dense, fresh and safe from contamination.
Studies have examined dietary intakes of fruits, vegetables, cereals and starches, various fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, minerals (sodium, magnesium, copper, zinc, and selenium), and antioxidants for possible associations with asthma. Diet is complex and difficult to measure, and standardized tools are still lacking.Variation in methods of determining the frequency of intake, which individual foods are consumed, eating habits, and serum nutrient levels can introduce substantial misclassification, and the close correlations among the intakes of different nutrients make it difficult to identify independent effects. In cross-sectional surveys, a wide range of nutrients appear to have an effect on asthma outcomes.
Maternal nutrition during pregnancy also may have a role.Pregnancy is the one time in your life when your eating habits directly affect another person. Your decision to incorporate delicious vegetables, whole grains and legumes, lean protein, and other wise food choices into your eating plan before and during pregnancy will give your baby a strong start to life.Fruits and vegetables rich in Vitamin C will help with wound healing, teeth and bone development, and promotes metabolic processes.
A new study suggests that women who eat apples while pregnant may protect their child from developing asthma and related symptoms.
In the study, researchers from The Netherlands and Scotland led by S. M. Willers of Utrecht University tracked the diets of nearly 2,000 pregnant women and checked the lung health of 1,253 of their children.
At age 5 years, 162 children (12.9 percent) had a bout of wheezing in the past year and 145 (11.6 percent) had doctor-confirmed asthma.
Among a wide variety of foods eaten and recorded by the pregnant women, only apple consumption showed a consistent protective association with the occurrence of childhood wheeze and asthma, according to the team's report published in the medical journal Thorax. This is a novel finding, Willers and colleagues note.
Researchers also have discovered that apples rich with compounds called flavonoids help ward off debilitating cell diseases, such as heart disease and age-related cancers.
The researchers found that children of moms who munched on more than 4 apples per week were 37 percent less likely to have a history of wheezing and 53 percent less likely to have doctor-confirmed asthma, compared to moms who ate one or no apples per week while pregnant.
Childhood asthma has become more widespread in recent decades. As the most common chronic illness in children, childhood asthma causes more missed school and places more limits on activity than any other disease.Smoking during pregnancy may be a cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS, or crib death). Also, smoking by the mother during and after pregnancy has been linked to asthma in children. And some studies have shown that these children may have learning and behavioral problems. Also, if you smoke, you are more likely to have a tubal pregnancy (a pregnancy outside the uterus) or miscarriage (loss of the baby).
The specific association found with apples, and not with the total amount of fruits eaten or with citrus, fruit juice or vegetable consumption, hints at an apple-specific effect, the researchers say, possible because of its phytochemical content, such as flavonoids, which have been shown to have beneficial effects on adult lung function.
The study also found that eating fish during pregnancy may curb the risk of the allergic skin condition eczema in offspring. Children of mothers who ate fish once per week or more while pregnant had a 43 percent lower risk of eczema compared to children whose mothers avoided fish altogether.
"If these results are confirmed," say the investigators, "recommendations on dietary modification during pregnancy may help to prevent childhood asthma and allergy."
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