It is not so easy to make up a menu for a pregnant woman. At the beginning of a pregnancy, most women suffer from toxicosis; by the seconds, half of this period the appetite comes back, but now a woman tries to do her best to fight with the excess weight. Moreover, she needs to eat healthy products!
Unfortunately, some recommendations as to menu during a pregnancy are too boring. It seems, she can eat only fat – free natural yogurts and porridge.
You should know that there are some useful products for pregnant women, and the products, which are not recommended during this period. Products, which are not allowed, are: alcohol drinks, coffee, spicy and smoked products, fatty and fries dishes.
However, if you eat some product, which is not recommended just once, it won’t affect you and your fetus in a negative way. All you need to do is to consume such products and dishes in moderate quantities.
Is it possible to make up both tasty and useful menu for pregnant women? Yes, it is as far as there are so many products, which are healthy for a mother and her child.
Strictly Forbidden Products
Coffee and wine provoke blood pressure increase. Beer and salted products add the additional load on kidneys, which work in intensive mode under the pregnancy. Alcohol affects negatively the developing organs and systems of a fetus. Fried, spicy, smoked and fatty dishes overload liver and gall bladder.
Thus, organs may drift with a growing womb and then they should work in straitened conditions. Of course, if you are prone to allergic reactions, don’t eat lots of chocolate, citrus products, exotic fruits, seafood, nuts, and other products to cause an allergy. If a future mother knows about her possible reaction to this or that product, then it’s necessary to exclude such product from the ration or to eat it no more than once per week.
A Correct Menu for a Pregnant Woman
Before to discuss different products and dishes, let us learn the general rules of the ration to satisfy the desires of a pregnant woman.
It is desirable to consume vegetables (2/3 from the daily ration). Such menu is actual within the last weeks before the childbirth. Vegetables and verdure contain prostaglandins, which provide the elasticity of birth canals tissues. During the pregnancy, such diet helps the future mother to normalize digestion and reach the even gain in weight. It is strongly forbidden to reduce the amount of animal protein (meat, fish, and dairy products). The ration of a pregnant woman should contain 70 – 90 gm of animal proteins!
Fresh fruits and vegetables are more useful than heat-treated products: fresh carrot, cabbage and verdure are healthier than cooked soup with these ingredients. Try to eat the dish as soon as you cook it. If you have not time to cook 3 – 4 times a day, then do it on weekdays.
Don’t eat on –the – run and let the food be properly digested. Chew the food you eat! Don’t hurry to swallow the next piece and you won’t have any problems with digestion.
Useful Cooking For Pregnant Woman
Steamed and baked dishes
You can bake everything: meat, fish, vegetables, fruits in a foil or use a special baking paper. Wrap up a piece of non – fat pork with spices and herbs in a foil and leave in the oven for 2 – 3 hours under 140˚ and you will get a perfect home – made cold boiled pork. White meat of poultry, carrot, cauliflower and broccoli is good for a steam treatment.
Stewing
Such dish should be stewed on a small fire with a little amount of water.
Try to cook beef, lamb and potatoes and you will get a perfect tasty dish.
Boiling
Boil a product in a required amount of water on low heat. Thus, you can cook many delicious soups.
Frying
If you want the fried products to stay healthy, then cut them in small slices and cook within 3 – 4 minutes without adding the fat. Use a special frying pan with thin walls to let the warm distribute evenly.
However, there are a lot of nuances if you use such a vessel. Cook on a gas – cooker with a big hearth ring. There are frying pans for electric ovens and they are flat.
If you cook outdoors, use charcoals. Choose non – fat slices of meat and enjoy fried squashes, pumpkins, tomatoes and potatoes. However, before you start eating, remove a slightly burnt crust.
A Good Diet While Pregnant
Vegetables and fruits are allowed if you don’t have an allergy reaction. Eat them fresh and heat – treated. Add them to salads and in a main course. Dress such salad with non – refined oil and don’t forget to wash vegetables and fruits before you eat them!
Berries: cranberry, cowberry, dog – rose, huckleberry, currant, black rowanberries are very healthy for kidneys because of a natural source of C vitamin. You can eat fresh and buy frozen berries and boil them within 5 minutes, mix them with sugar and cook fruit drinks, compotes and kissels.
Porridge. This is a perfect breakfast for a future mother. Buckwheat meal, millet porridge, corn and oaten meals are also healthy as they contain iron, carbohydrates, vitamins and fatty tissue. It is better to cook them on water and add milk at the very end of cooking. If you need to get a sweet porridge then add dried fruits in it. If you want to cook salted meal then use sauté vegetables. Muesli is a vitamin cocktail. Eat muesli with milk, kefir, yogurt and fruit juice. However, you should know that this delicacy is very caloric.
Meat is the main source of the animal protein, vitamins of B group and iron. It’s better to cook cool, but not frozen meat. Give preference to cool boiled pork and non – fat ham. Stint yourself in sausage products as they contain many fats and other unhealthy agents.
Fish contains D vitamin and phosphorus, which is responsible for baby’s nervous system functioning. Of course, it’s recommended to cool fresh fish of non – fat sorts (cod, perch, pike, pollack and hake).
In conclusion, we would like to advise you to cook and eat with pleasure then your diet will become the key to successful pregnancy, good mood and healthy babies!
