Your concerns about eating during pregnancy will change slightly as your baby grows and develops throughout the next nine months. During the first three months, most expectant mothers must make sweeping lifestyle changes to accommodate the new baby. This may include weaning off a caffeine habit, no longer eating junk food, and switching to whole foods and all-natural foods in lieu of processed food products.
In this article, we will examine the changes in your diet during the last two trimesters. During the last six months of pregnancy, after you have kicked your bad habits and implemented healthy ones in their places, you should focus on eating the right foods to give your baby everything she needs to develop.
Second Trimester Needs and Concerns
Second trimester nutrition is focused upon giving your baby the nutrients she needs to develop her brain, spinal cord, and nervous system properly. This is why it’s so essential to increase the amount of protein you eat during this trimester.
In fact, experts agree that you should aim for a serving of lean protein with every meal, including snacks, during months three to six. In addition, you may begin experiencing cravings during this time.
If your cravings are for unhealthy foods, try to limit your consumption to keep your weight gain on an even keel. If you have cravings for healthy foods, indulge them as you see fit.
If you are concerned that your cravings may be caused by a nutritional deficit, consult with your healthcare professional. She may be able to determine if your cravings are being caused by a lack of certain nutrients in your diet.
The second trimester is also one in which you gain the most amount of weight in the quickest amount of time. By carefully monitoring your diet, you can help keep this gain to a healthy minimum. Most experts agree that a gain of 20-30 pounds throughout the course of your pregnancy is ideal.
During the second trimester, you may gain between 10 and 20 of those pounds. By monitoring your weight gain and keeping it within these parameters, you can be assured of an easier delivery as well as a swifter return to your pre-baby weight after you give birth.
Third Trimester Needs and Concerns
Third trimester nutrition is focused on alleviating many of the common discomforts of pregnancy. Unfortunately, many women experience heartburn during this last trimester.
This is due to hormonal changes that relax your muscles for delivery; these hormones also relax the muscle between your esophagus and stomach. This allows stomach acid to creep back up your throat, causing the pain and burning associated with indigestion and heartburn.
You may need to limit your consumption of spicy, citrus, and vinegar-laden foods, and may try eating papaya, which neutralizes stomach acid. You may also choose to sleep sitting in a propped-up position, which can help slow the flow of stomach acid up your esophagus.
Another common problem during this third trimester is the issue of water retention. This is also caused by hormonal changes along with the increasing weight of your baby, which presses on your veins, slowing the flow of blood through your body. This allows fluids to accumulate, particularly in your lower legs and feet. You can ease water retention by increasing your consumption of water and by cutting back on your sodium intake.
Avoid processed foods. You should also avoid or severely any foods that are naturally high in sodium, such as cheeses, salted nuts, and so forth. Nutritional changes aside, you might also need to wear compression socks and rest with your feet elevated to get the blood flowing again. Exercise is another great way to keep your blood flowing and stay healthy during this last stage of pregnancy.
Tag: eating
Case Study – Eating Disorders and Nutritional Needs
Although eating disorders have been around for as long as there have been humans, the extensive research on them has existed for only about thirty years. It is known that there is a distinct and definitive correlation between a diagnosis of depression in the early to late teen years and the development of eating disorders. The three eating disorders that are most commonly studied and/or diagnosed are anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating.
The debate over whether or not obesity should be considered an eating disorder continues; while it is now considered a disease in and of itself, obesity may also become classified as an eating disorder and treated as both a psychological disorder in addition to being a physical problem. For now, it is a medical disorder, as well as a risk factor for a number of serious conditions, but not an eating disorder.
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia is diagnosed when a person (predominantly females) refuses to allow her body to be over 85% of the weight that is normal for her height. Psychologically, the person who is diagnosed with anorexia is obsessed with weight and body image and rigidly monitors everything that goes into his or her mouth at every moment, even counting out the calories in the toothpaste that they might use that day. The DSM-IV-TR, the diagnostic tool for the mental health field, has these criteria for diagnosing anorexia nervosa:
– Unable or unwilling to keep body weight at or above 85% of the normal level
– Intense fear of gaining weight or, more importantly, of becoming fat when they are obviously and dangerously underweight
– Obsession with weight and body image to the point of detriment to the self esteem
– The absence of three menstrual cycles in a row
Some anorexics will spend hours exercising, even when they are exhausted and their muscles are hurting. They may not be sleeping correctly and many of them will have heart problems as a result of their extreme weight loss.
Warning Signs:
– Preoccupation with food, eating or dieting
– Compulsive or excessive exercising
– Negative self esteem
– Withdrawal from friends and family, especially if the social event will involve food
– A complete loss of menstruation
– Intolerance to cold temperatures
Bulimia
The bulimic will eat, either a small amount or a large amount, and then compensate for the calories that they have consumed by either exercising too much, taking laxatives or making themselves vomit. The typical cycle is binge and purge, where the bulimic will eat huge amounts of food, often more than a full day’s worth of calories at a single sitting, and then will vomit immediately. If vomiting becomes problematic, laxatives might be used.
Diagnostic Criteria
– Consumption of large amounts of food, or a total lack of control during the eating cycle
– Recurrent behavior of trying to compensate for the eating/overeating.
– Binge eating and compensatory behaviors at least twice a week for at least a three month period
– Self evaluation that is overly influenced by weight and body shape
– Bulimic behavior that does not occur only during episodes of anorexia
(DSM-IV-TR)
Like anorexia, the presence of depression tends to increase the likelihood of developing an eating disorder. The group that is most affected by this eating disorder is adolescent Caucasian females who are also more likely to abuse diet pills and laxatives.
Binge Eating
Binging is different from the other two eating disorders in that there is no effort to lose weight, no obsessive compulsion to exercise and no supreme need to exercise after eating. The binge can be compulsive snacking that happens mindlessly all day long or can be a huge meal that encompasses a full day’s worth of calories in a single sitting. If this happens continually, the metabolism will slow and eventually stop working altogether, leading to weight gain. Because stress is a major factor for binge eating, the weight gain alone is enough to trigger another binge episode, leading to a vicious cycle of stress, binging, stress, binging, etc.
Other risk factors for binge eating include:
– Stressful situations
– Specific upsetting thoughts
– Feeling guilty about something one has done
– Feeling socially excluded or isolated
– Worries about problems, the future or responsibilities
– Boredom
Recovery Possibilities
After five to ten years, half of those who were treated for bulimia had recovered, 30% had relapsed at least once and 20% were still diagnostically considered bulimic. Those who had double diagnoses, specifically substance abuse and bulimia, were the least likely to have full and meaningful recoveries.
Three Eating Disorders, Three Women
Elaine was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at the age of 20 and has been in counseling for about a year. She has slowly regained some of her weight, but has relapsed several …
Healthy Eating For A Healthy Life
Developing a healthy lifestyle is a life long process. The health of our body starts as embryos with what it receives from the umbilical cord. This nutrition all depends on how the mother is eating. Her knowledge of proper nutrition and the importance of eating well to support the good development of her baby is crucial at this point. There are many know abnormalities that occur as an embryo develops that may occur because of poor nutrition and an unhealthy lifestyle.
As an infant our parents feed us as well as they know how. Again if there is economical restrictions or just the lack of knowledge or understanding of the importance of nutrition our bodies may suffer.
As we grow, we develop our likes and dislikes for certain foods. Our way of eating can be influenced by our peers and what eating habits are accepted in the home we are raised in. If there is no importance placed on healthy eating, that will be carried into our adult life. If a home lifestyle of fast foods and prepackaged meals was normal this is usually the way a young adult will continue on their own.
Fortunately, that can be changed with our own free will as adults. We can take charge by educating ourselves. That is, learning the importance of disease prevention in the present and the importance of good nutrition for prevention of disease over our life time.
What are some of the healthy changes we can make?
Avoid fast foods, usually very high in fats and sodium with very little nutrient values
Avoid prepackaged meals, they are usually high in sodium and fats
Pack your own lunches for work, usually less expensive and you will know what you are eating. Use fresh roasted meats rather than processed meats.
Avoid foods high in sugars and fats, such as soda pop, ice tea, fruit flavored drinks and creamy salad dressings
Eat foods in their most natural state, the less you have to do to the food product the better
Avoid processed food such as luncheon meats, wieners, sausages
Read labels for the nutritional content as well as sodium and sugar content
Eat breakfast, the most important meal of the day
Eat a variety of foods from all food groups making meals and snacks more enjoyable
Follow the food guides for your age group. Different stages of our lives and what is happening in our lives can determine how much we have to eat.
Have an exercise regiment. This will usually change your attitude towards your health and make you want to eat more healthy
Take a good multivitamin to bridge the gaps in your diet. Even when eating accounting to the food guide our bodies are just not getting all the minerals and vitamins it needs. A whole food liquid multivitamin is easily absorbed by the body
Along with educating yourself on how to shop for and prepare healthy meals, it is important to get to know your body and watch for any physical or mental changes. The importance of annual check-ups cannot be over-stressed.…
Cooking and Eating Heart Healthy
Some of the factors that you will most want to consider if cooking heart healthy is to limit the amount and considering the type of fat you cook with. There are, of course, additional ways in which you can cook heart healthy, but following these guidelines will help you to keep your cooking flavorful and low-fat.
First, you want to limit the amount of fat you cook with. If you are sauteing something in a pan, instead of melting a stick of butter in the pan, spray a non-fat or low-fat cooking spray on the pan or use a non-stick pan and just heat the food without oil or butter. If you find that the food has less flavor, experiment with water and spice mixes. You can also use a small amount of oil to heat and brown food and then add water and spices and cover the pot, allowing the food to steam.
Be careful what type of fat you are using. Some fats, called monounsaturated, are better for you than others. As a rule of thumb, if a fat is solid at room temperature, try to avoid or moderate its use in your cooking.
Avoid adding fat to your food. If you enjoy salads, minimize the amount of salad dressing you use. Salad dressing adds a great deal of fat to any meal, and counteracts the health benefits of the fruits and vegetables in your salad. Likewise if you enjoy bread and butter, be careful how much butter you add to your bread. Using apple butter, made from apples, instead of regular butter, is a good way to have a tasty meal and keep your food heart healthy.
Another way to cook and eat heart healthy is to remove any existing fat from the food that you are cooking or eating. For example, meat often has fat in it. If you trim, or remove, this fat, you are reducing the overall fat content of your meal. This may also make the food taste better.…
Comfort Eating And Why We Do It
The average woman has tried to lose weight at least 5 times in her life, usually with a different diet each time, and obviously without success. Either the diet didn’t work, or it did work but was too hard to stick to and so abandoned. Whatever the reason the end result is the regaining of any lost weight, often with a little extra, and probably a feeling of failure, hopelessness, and resignation to never having the body they desire.
But why is this?
Well as I said, in many cases the diet is just too hard to stick too, whether it’s because the food it permits you to eat are so restrictive you get bored with it, or because it’s just plain weird and drains you of emotional and physical energy.
But I have something to ask you…
Why are you overweight?
Your answer will probably be because you eat too much, or because you eat too much junk.
So my next, and more revealing question, is…
Why do you eat too much?
Have you ever asked yourself that question? Have you ever asked yourself why you eat what you eat?
“I eat because I’m hungry,” you’re probably now thinking. Or maybe you’re even saying it out loud because it was such a stupid question. But I’m willing to bet that you often eat when you’re not hungry. I’m willing to bet that food isn’t just something you eat to provide your body with fuel, because if that was the case you wouldn’t be overweight.
Like many, if not most people, your relationship with food has as much to do with providing positive emotions and limiting negative ones as it does with fuelling your body.
If not more.
For example, when you eat, do you always (or ever) choose the healthiest meal that will provide you with the most nutrients and give your body exactly what it needs to function at its best? Or do you go for what sounds (in other words, tastes) nicest, with little or no consideration for what it will do for your body besides maybe a passing thought as to how many calories are in it?
If you’re overweight, chances are you don’t choose the healthiest option, you go for what tastes the best. And generally, the food that tastes the best is the food that contains the most fat, sugar, or salt. Or all three. Which is why most pre-prepared food is full of them and why it’s so bad for you.
You might already know all this, but I’m feeling lucky today so I’m willing to bet again, this time that your favourite food is something that’s full of fat, sugar, salt, or all three.
Why is this? You know it’s bad for you and contributing to, if not solely responsible for, you being overweight. So why do you do it?
Well for hundreds of thousands of years up until very recently, fat, sugar, and salt were hard to come by. This is no longer the case, but because it has only happened to a small percentage of the population in the last few decades, our bodies still haven’t adapted to the fact that they aren’t scarce resources anymore. That will take at least another ten thousand years (by which point they may well be scarce again, but that’s another matter).
So if our bodies still think those three things are scarce and values them because fat and sugar are full of calories, while salt is an essential nutrient, how can it reward you for eating them over say, a stick of celery or some broccoli?
Easy – your brain tells you they taste nicer.
And it does this by releasing chemicals that cause you to feel pleasure when you eat them.
If you doubt this, imagine how you feel when you see some raw broccoli, which contains very little fat, sugar, or salt. Does it make your mouth water? Does the thought of how it will taste when you put it in your mouth and crunch down on it cause you to feel pleasure or pain? Would you enjoy the experience or hate it?
Now I know people who do actually eat raw broccoli, but they don’t enjoy it and they definitely don’t like the taste. They do it because it’s so full of nutrients that it’s known as a super-food. Even after many years however, they still hate the taste.
Now let’s compare that with chocolate.
Your average bar of chocolate is roughly 33% fat and 50% sugar, and although not high in salt, it’s there. How do you feel when you imagine seeing a bar of chocolate? Is it a lot more pleasurable than when you imagined some broccoli? Is the thought of how you’ll feel the instant the chocolate …
Eating Healthy When You Have Diabetes
It is always important to eat a healthy diet, but for those who have such medical conditions as diabetes, it is even more important. There are certain foods that are not good for diabetics and certain foods that they should be getting more of in their diets. Obviously, it is important to make sure that the foods that diabetics eat are not high in sugar and fat, and it also helps to eat foods that will help diabetics maintain a healthy weight.
What Is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a disease that causes the body to either not produce enough insulin, which is necessary for breaking down the foods we eat, or not using the insulin it does produce properly. If you have been diagnosed as having diabetes, it is more important than ever to make sure that you are eating right. There are three types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes, or juvenile diabetes; Type 2 diabetes; and gestational diabetes. When a person has diabetes, it means that they have extremely high sugar counts in their blood and this must be controlled. Depending on which type of diabetes you have, controlling your sugars could be as easy as making some dietary changes-or you may need to take insulin to keep your sugars regulated.
Type 1 Diabetes – People who have Type 1 diabetes do not have enough insulin coming from the pancreas and must rely on insulin shots to make sure that they have enough. At one time, this involved taking needles, sometimes several times daily. Today, there is a device called an insulin pump, which is attached to the stomach and will supply insulin to the body as it needs it. Often, Type 1 diabetes is caused by an autoimmune disorder, and the person with this type of diabetes has an immune system that actually destroys the pancreas cells, making the organ unable to produce enough insulin.
Type 2 Diabetes – When the body does not properly use the insulin created by the pancreas, it is known as Type 2 diabetes. Often, this is a condition that is caused, or at least worsened, by being overweight. It is thought that excess body weight will inhibit the body’s ability to absorb and use insulin, and one way to alleviate this is by losing weight. This can be done by eating a healthy weight loss diet that is meant for diabetics. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease, affecting between 90 and 95% of all diabetics.
Gestational Diabetes – This is the only type of diabetes that is a temporary one. It usually occurs when a woman is in the latter half of her pregnancy. It is always important to eat healthy when pregnant, but when gestational diabetes comes into play, it is even more important. When a woman has gestational diabetes, her pancreas is not able to produce enough insulin, and she will have to make some dietary changes, as well as monitor her blood sugar levels regularly. Fortunately, this form of diabetes usually goes away once the baby is born, and it is rare that it will cause the baby to be born with diabetes. It is important for women who are pregnant to be tested for gestational diabetes, so they can start making the dietary changes necessary to control the condition and have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.
What Are the Symptoms of Diabetes?
There are many different symptoms of diabetes and although many people experience many of the same symptoms, others may not, depending on the type of diabetes they have. Some of the most common symptoms associated with Type 1 diabetes include:
– Extreme thirst and hunger
– Frequent urination
– Loss of weight
– Blurred vision
– Extreme fatigue
The symptoms of Type 2 diabetes are often very similar to those of Type 1 diabetes, but they are not usually as severe and they come on more gradually. Weight is a huge factor and about 80% of people with Type 2 diabetes are overweight.
Risk Factors for Developing Diabetes
There are a number of risk factors for diabetes and if you find that you have some of these risk factors, you should have your physician test you for diabetes. The risk factors for diabetes include:
– If you have a family history of diabetes, you may be at risk of developing the disease yourself.
– Being overweight can greatly increase your risk of developing diabetes and the more overweight you are, the greater the risk.
– Certain ethnic groups are at a higher risk for developing diabetes, including Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, and Latinos.
Blood Sugar Levels
When a person has diabetes, it is essential that they monitor their blood sugar levels and take the appropriate steps to make sure …