A Vegetarian Pregnancy
Contents:
- Is Vegetarianism During Pregnancy Useful?
- The Danger that Vegetarianism During Pregnancy Can Have
- Vegetarianism During Pregnancy
- Products for a Pregnant Vegetarian
- Safety Measures for a Future Vegetarian Mother
Healthy Vegetarian Diet Plan During Pregnancy
Vegetarianism is not only a way of eating. It’s philosophy. Sticking to the principles of vegetarianism during pregnancy is a very specific case. There are little studies on it, but there are lots of questions.
Is Vegetarianism During Pregnancy Useful?
Not many obstetricians can recommend you excluding from your diet meat or all products of animal origin during the course of pregnancy. The organism of your baby really needs iron to keep the level of hemoglobin in blood. It also needs calcium, folic acid and protein that acts as building material for the organism. Devoted vegetarians, especially vegans, can’t allow themselves such a “drug”. Here we need to remind you that veganism is a strict vegetarianism that implies that all products of animal origin are completely excluded from your diet.
The Danger that Vegetarianism During Pregnancy Can Have
A specific study called “The Farm” was carried out in the USA, Tennessee. Pregnant women who followed the principles of veganism took part in it. The results showed that these women started suffering from a lack of folic acid, iron, zinc, iodine, vitamins D and B12. Exactly these useful elements are included in the products of animal origin. If there are no these elements in an organism, the production of erythrocytes can be decreased. Consequently, a future mother may provoke anemia. The danger of anemia is that it can lead to bleeding after labor and infections that may be hard to fight off. It considered that even replacing meat by other products containing iron cannot completely make up for the lack of it.
According to the scientists opinion, if there are no meat or dairy products in a duet, we do not get a very important element – linoleic acid. It can prevent the development of oncologic diseases.
In order to avoid obvious negative consequences vegetarians will have to go to a nutritionist and consult their gynecologist on what vitamins, mineral elements and food additives they should take during the pregnancy and after labor in order to make up for the products of animal origin.
There is an opinion that if a person has been a vegetarian for 7 years, his immune system may work in a wrong way. Feeling great when you give up eating meat is temporary. It happens due to the fact that your organism is having a rest and it is now free from the excess of animal fats. However, later on your organism will suffer from a lack of these fats.
There data that prove that the babies whose mothers ate enough meat and dairy products and gave preference to a various diet have a better intellectual potential.
Vegetarianism During Pregnancy
Those future mothers who are true vegetarians are sure that their way of eating includes the maximal amount of useful elements because they eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Besides, the amount of fruits and vegetables that a vegetarian eat is much bigger than the amount a usual person eats. Breakfast and lunch may include up to 5 dishes.
In order to make up for the proteins vegetarians recommend to eat lots of beans and nuts. Moreover, these products exclude the possibility of getting cholesterol that may lead to a vascular embolism. This is usually what happens with those who eat meat.
According to the vegetarians opinion, it is possible to make up for iron if a person eats spinach, raisin, peas, tofu, oat, sprouted wheat and drinks decoctions made of beans, prune, wheat bran etc. Apart from products that contain a lot of iron, there is a need to eat vitamin C that increases the intensity of iron assimilation.
If you worry about calcium the lack of which can be “cured” with the help of dairy products, vegetarians have also something to recommend here. Include in your diet sesame seeds, broccoli, tofu, cabbage, and special juices that contain calcium.
If there are enough products that have all the necessary elements, vegetarians say that there is only a need to take vitamin B12 additionally.
After labor vegetarians mothers also stick to vegetarianism when breastfeeding and when they think of the diet of their babies. Actually, there is a belief that this way there are no toxins in mother’s milk. Parents who are devoted vegetarians think that their vegetarian babies are less inclined to have food allergies.
Products for a Pregnant Vegetarian
The diet of a future mother who sticks to vegetarianism should necessarily include:
- lettuce;
- whole grains, bran bread;
- tofu cheese;
- apples, apple puree and other fruits, fruit puree and fruit cocktails;
- onion;
- parsley and dill;
- batata;
- beans;
- brown rice;
- oat;
- sprouted wheat;
- spinach;
- lentil;
- buckwheat;
- soy milk;
- potatoes;
- reddish;
- peas;
- durum macaroni products;
- cucumbers;
- broccoli;
- green head cabbage;
- chinese green head cabbage;
- dried fruits, especially prune and raisin;
- nuts, especially hazelnut, almond and walnut;
- peanut butter;
- sesame seeds;
- sunflower seeds;
- citrons etc.
Safety Measures for a Future Vegetarian Mother
The most important thing is that you shouldn’t start being vegetarian during pregnancy. If you want to be a vegetarian, you need to start following this philosophy long before pregnancy occurs. You need to become a vegetarian gradually. When you stick to the rules of the vegetarianism you should also get enough calories. Losing too much weight, may significantly decrease the chances to get pregnant. You need to remember that the calories you get shouldn’t be “empty” – they shouldn’t be provided with the help of sweets or pastry.
By the way, before you start following the philosophy, you need to know that it is not cheap. This is, of course, if you follow the rules of its healthy and “fully equipped” variant.
If you have strongly decided to stick to vegetarianism during pregnancy, you’ll need to more carefully pay attention to the balance of the necessary elements in your organism and the level of hemoglobin in your blood.
Remember that, in the majority of cases, those who turn out to be long livers devoted to vegetable foods, preferred mixed way of nutrition when they were in their mid-ages or younger. Only when they became older they started giving a preference to vegetable foods. Doctors recommend decreasing the amount of meat products only after we are 30 years old.
Before you start “combining” pregnancy and vegetarianism, try to make sure that it will be useful and will make you and your baby healthy. Let you have a healthy pregnancy!