A Pregnant Woman's Daily Diet. At no other time in life is nutrition as important as before, during, and following pregnancy. On the other hand, women can still eat foods that come in a box or a bag, eat out several times a week, or order pizza to go as long as they also follow a few simple eating- for- two dietary guidelines.
A Pregnant Woman Should Include in Her Daily Diet at Least: Five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables (including at least one serving of a dark orange vegetable, two servings of dark green leafy vegetables, and one serving of citrus fruit)Six servings of enriched, whole- grain breads and cereals. Three servings of nonfat or low- fat milk or milk products. Two to three servings of extra- lean meats, chicken without the skin, fish, or cooked dried beans and peas. Eight glasses of water.
The guidelines for eating well for a healthy pregnancy are simple and easy to follow. When, where, and how much she eats is flexible, and often is governed by necessity. A pregnant woman in her first trimester might choose a snack for breakfast and a large evening meal if she suffers from morning sickness, but select a larger breakfast and a light evening meal in the last trimester when heartburn is more of a problem.
Avoid or limit caffeine (such as coffee, tea, and colas) and avoid alcohol and tobacco. Since no safe limit has been established for alcohol, abstinence is a woman's best bet.
A Weighty Issue. If a woman does not gain enough weight, her baby also won't gain enough weight, which places the newborn at high risk for health problems. Optimal weight gains of 2.
Underweight women should gain more weight, or approximately 2. Overweight women should not attempt to use pregnancy as a way to use up extra body fat, since stored body fat is not the stuff from which babies are made. A modest weight gain of between 1.
- Could choosing your baby's gender be as simple as changing the way you eat and diet? According to new research, it just may be- though not every dieter will find it.
- How many weeks pregnant are you? Select your pregnancy week from the timeline.
See an incredible illustration of what your developing baby looks like at 15 weeks.
Further weight gain beyond recommended amounts will not make bigger or healthier babies. It will make regaining a desirable figure more difficult after delivery. The secret is to pace the gain, with weight gain increasing from very little in the first trimester to as much as a pound a week in the last two months of pregnancy. Continued. Folic Acid: It's a Must.
Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces, and measures about 6 inches long. If the baby is a girl, early ovaries contain follicles with forming eggs. How your baby is growing: A complete guide to the development of the fetus at 23 weeks.
Nutrition experts agree that the best place for the mother- to- be to get all the essential nutrients, including ample amounts of vitamins and minerals, is from her diet. The trick is getting enough. For example, the MRC Vitamin Study at the Medical College of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London found that women taking folic acidsupplements around conception had significantly lower risks for giving birth to babies with neural tube defects (NTD), a type of birth defect where the embryonic neural tube that forms the future brain and spinal column fails to close properly. Luckily, in 1. 99. U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a regulation requiring that all enriched grain products, including breads and pasta, be supplemented with folic acid.
Every woman during the childbearing years should make sure she gets at least 4. The Post- Pregnancy Diet. Whether a woman breastfeeds or not, the secret to post- pregnancy nutrition is to gradually regain a desirable figure, while maintaining or restocking nutrient stores. In addition, since some babies are planned and others are surprises, it's never too late to start nourishing the next baby by continuing to eat a diet based on fresh fruits and vegetables, nonfat milk products, whole grains, and protein- rich beans and meats.
Find out what symptoms you can expect at 15 weeks of pregnancy, and how your baby's growing. Also, get advice on the best diet to keep you and your baby healthy.
What your baby looks like at 1. AAFP. Your baby’s development: The second trimester. American Academy of Family Physicians. Prenatal development: How your baby grows during pregnancy. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Fetal development: The 2nd trimester. Office on Women’s Health.
Sushi While Pregnant: How Safe Is it? Eating Sushi is healthy. Eating sushi and raw fish is part of a healthy diet during pregnancy in Japan as long as you eat fish with safe mercury levels.
There is no scientific evidence that eating sushi in pregnancy increases pregnancy complications. As long as you take certain precautions and eat low mercury fish then it should be safe to eat sushi in pregnancy. Everybody tells you to not eat sushi in pregnancy, but are they right? In Japan, sushi is considered healthy in pregnancy and there are many who believe that the American .
But raw seafood is potentially risky because it can contain parasites such as tapeworm. Freezing and cooking kills, most parasites, and many if not most Japanese restaurants that specialize in sushi use frozen rather than fresh fish. You may want to ask your restaurant before ordering Sushi if it has previously been frozen or not. Sushi and PCB chemicals. One concern about seafood, raw or cooked, is PCB and chemical contamination.
If you want to eat fish during your pregnancy, contact your local health department or office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a list of fish in your area that haven't been contaminated with toxins. You may also want to avoid certain fish with higher mercury levels. As a general rule, ocean fish such as tuna, sea bass, sole, flounder, and snapper are safer than river and lake varieties. When eating out at any restaurant, order your fish well cooked.
Many upscale eateries lightly sear fresh fish on the outside, then serve it rare. Which Sushi has no raw fish. Some types of sushi, such as California rolls (which contain steamed crab) and cooked eel, are fine to eat while you're pregnant and if you avoid eating the kinds that contain raw seafood you are sure that you have no problems. In both the United States and Japan, many more people get sick from eating fish served at home than from eating fish at sushi restaurants. For seafood safety at home, the Food and Drug Administration has a few tips. According to the FDA's 1. Food Code, you should cook most seafood to an internal temperature of 1.
Farenheit (6. 3 degrees Celsius) for 1. Guidelines to cook fish. If you don't have a thermometer, the guidelines listed below can help you to determine whether seafood is done. For fish: Slip the point of a sharp knife into the flesh and pull aside. The edges should be opaque and the center slightly translucent with flakes beginning to separate. Let the fish stand three to four minutes to finish cooking. Shrimp and lobster turn red when cooked; the flesh becomes pearly opaque.
Scallops appear milky white or opaque and firm. For clams, mussels, and oysters, watch for the point at which their shells open, which indicates that they're done. Throw out those that remain closed after cooking. When microwaving seafood, rotate the dish several times to ensure even cooking.
After letting the dish stand, check seafood in several spots with a thermometer to see if it's reached the proper temperature. It speaks of ignorance and prejudice to reject a culture's most common foods based on unfounded health claims. In simple terms: There is no scientific evidence that sushi can do harm when eaten in pregnancy. The Bristish National Health Service NHS, an authority on health, states: . Regardless of whether seafood is raw or cooked, pregnant women should choose low mercury seafood (eg, salmon and shrimp) over higher mercury varieties (eg, fresh tuna). Pregnant women should ensure that their food is obtained from reputable establishments; stored, handled, and cooked properly; and consumed within a couple of days of purchasing.
Neither of these organisms are a concern when eating sushi. It is safe to eat raw fish (e. In Japan, pregnant women do not generally stop eating sushi when they become pregnant, and many Japanese pregnancy books suggest eating sushi as part of a healthy, low- fat diet during pregnancy. Japanese tradition has it that postpartum women get certain kinds of sushi in the hospital during their recovery. However, in the United States pregnant women are scared away from sushi by being told that raw fish can contain harmful bacteria and parasites. These warnings, however, often fail to mention specific bacteria and parasites that fish for sushi may contain, nor do they mention that fish prepared at sushi restaurants in the United States is usually flash frozen by the distributers before it gets to the restaurant; any parasites or bacteria in the fish is usually killed during the process. Mercury. There are certain fish which pregnant women should not eat because of increased mercury levels (raw or cooked).
Fish that pregnant women should not eat because of mercury levels include: Swordfish. Mackerel. Shark. Tilefish. Tropical Fish Poisoning. Tropical fish poisoning happens when a person eats fish (either cooked or raw) which contains certain toxins. The most common form of fish poisoning is Ciguatera poisoning which causes up to one million cases of fish poisoning a year. Ciguatera fish toxin is widely distributed throughout the Carribean and South Pacific.
It is caused by eating fish raw or cooked which have ingested a microalga called Giambierdiscus toxicus. Persons poisoned with Ciguatera have nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and other symptoms within 2- 6 hours after eating the poisoned fish and there is no specific tretament. Other fish toxins include scombroid, tetrodotoxin, and saxitoxin which are among the rarest and most poisonest of them. Between the warnings about parasites in sushi as well as mercury and toxins in certain species of fish, pregnant women are being scared away from eating fish alltogether. This is potentially harmful since the fatty acids in fish are the ideal nourishment for a developing baby. Read more here on fish and pregnancy. So what does the evidence say about sushi and pregnancy?
Over the last decade, doctors have been using Evidence- based medicine (EBM) to more uniformly apply the standards of evidence gained from the scientific method to certain aspects of medical practice. According to the Center for Evidence- Based Medicine, . There are few if any published reports on an adverse association between sushi and bad pregnancy outcomes.
Before you go to an all- you- can- eat sushi bar, however, it's important to be informed about the benefits and risks of eating sushi and raw fish during pregnancy. Benefits and Risks of Fish During Pregnancy. Fish is good for you, it's that simple. Not eating enough fish during pregnancy can have a negative effect on your baby's brain development.
But what about all the warnings about fish? Can't it make you sick? The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine concluded in a 1. By comparison, the risk from eating chicken is 1 in 2.
Over all, 7. 6 million cases of food poisoning are reported each year. The main risk of illness from non- mollusks isn't from eating them raw. Rather, as the Institute of Medicine reports, the problem is . It actually began as a way of preserving fish. The raw, cleaned fish was pressed between rice and salt by a heavy stone for a few weeks.
Then, a lighter cover was used and a few months later it was considered ready to eat. Not until the 1. 8th century did a chef decide to serve sushi in its present form as fresh fish and forget about the fermentation process altogether. Nigiri sushi is the traditional sushi which is a slice of fish (occasionally cooked) or shellfish pressed by hand onto a pad of cooked rice. Fish roe is also served as nigiri sushi in a style called gunkan, meaning . They are always served in pairs.
Maki sushi contains fish or other ingredients that are placed on rice and rolled with dried seeweed as an outer layer. Sashimi is thin or thick slices of raw fish that are not served on top of individual rice rolls, but separately. Temaki annd Chirashi sushi are assorted raw fish and vegetables over rice.
Chakin Sushi is vinegared rice wrapped in a thin egg crepe hand- rolled cones made from dried seaweed. Inari Sushi is vinegared rice and vegetables wrapped in a bag of fried tofu. Oshi Sushi is Osaka- style sushi: squares of pressed rice topped with vinegared/cooked fish. Oshinko are Japanese pickles. Wasabi is Japanese horseradish (it's SPICY, watch out!
In the fishing and food industries, precautions are taken in the prevention of infected fish from getting into our food supply, but that is not a 1. Food- borne illness is not limited to sushi or seafood, but is a common concern of all food industries.
Between 1. 97. 3 and 1. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). These statistics may seem high at first glance, but they are somewhat misleading. For example, one in three cases of seafood- borne illness in the U. S. Therefore, the statistics reported by the CDC are skewed by illnesses which either affect only a small geographical area, or only occur with mishandling of fish.
Uncooked meat or fish can potentially contain elements of worms or eggs, and the only way to fully kill worm eggs and other microorganisms is by fully and properly cooking fish and meats. Freezing fish will only kill mature parasitic worms. Illnesses that may develop from eating uncooked or undercooked fish or meats include hepatitis A, worms, parasites, viral intestinal disorders, and other diseases. In Japan there were a few reported cases of anisakidosis, a tiny worms in sushi that can cause gastrointestinal complications, but cases of anisakidosis are not commonly reported in the U. S. Pregnant or not, you should know that any time someone eats raw, uncooked, or improperly or inadequately cooked/handled seafood, there may be a problem.
Some have suggested that pregnant women should avoid any and all raw or undercooked meat, poultry, eggs and seafood (like sushi), as well as unpasteurized juice and milk, and soft cheeses, such as brie, feta and Camembert because these foods may contain bacteria that could be hazardous to you and your baby. But presently there are few cases of problems that justify generalizations.
Weeks Pregnant - Symptoms & What To Expect. Week 2. 0 of your pregnancy signifies the middle of your second trimester, as well as the middle of your pregnancy.
Congratulations—you’ve survived the fatigue, morning sickness, nausea and other pregnancy symptoms so far. You are probably starting to feel better at this point, but you may still experience some fatigue and pain. During this week there are many exciting developmental changes happening with your baby. Symptoms and Body Changes at 2. Weeks. Most women who have smaller body frames begin to experience trouble breathing at this point. The baby’s growth has reached the point at which the baby is pressing on your internal organs, making it hard to breathe.
The top of your uterus is parallel with your belly button, and you’ve probably gained close to fifteen pounds. From this week on, you can expect to gain up to a pound per week. Your waistline continues to expand, and indigestion, heartburn, itching, and constipation probably occur more frequently. You’re also experiencing more and more trips to the restroom at this point. You need to continue to incorporate plenty of iron into your diet, as your baby is using much of the iron that you take in. Dark fruits and vegetables, eggs, chicken, dried fruits, wheat germ, oatmeal, spinach, and other leafy vegetables are all good sources of iron. A shortage of iron can cause a variety of problems with your pregnancy, including anemia or premature labor in some cases.
Baby’s Development. At 1. 1 ounces and a little more than 7 . You’re probably feeling your baby’s movements more frequently as he or she tests the boundaries within the walls of the womb. The lungs are not yet mature, but the baby is breathing.
A dark green sticky substance called meconium is being produced. Meconium consists of cell loss and amniotic fluid that has been swallowed with digestive secretions.
Lanugo (fine hair) still covers the body, and the hair on the scalp is growing quickly. The ears are fully functioning on their own now, so it’s important to spend time in calm and quiet environments, as your baby sleeps for an average of 2. Pregnancy Week 2. Tips. Now is a good time to start a birthing plan if you haven’t done so yet. Include details about your preferences for the birth of the baby, and what procedures you’d like followed in case of emergencies. Feel free to share your birthing plan with your obstetrician so that he or she can provide input. This will allow you to feel more in control if there are unexpected complications, or if the birth isn’t routine.
You may want to start a baby book or a journal that includes your feelings, photos, the baby’s movements, etc. This can help you reflect later down the road, and realize how far you’ve come. Continue exercising regularly and eating a well- balanced diet to ensure that you and your baby stay healthy. Next is 2. 1 weeks pregnant. Photo credit: Amanda Nash 2.