What to expect when you're expecting (37 page)

Have It Your Way

Have your doubts about diets? Not a fan of eating plans? Just don’t like being told what to eat—or how much? No problem. The Pregnancy Diet is one way to feed yourself and your baby well, but it definitely isn’t the only way. A balanced, healthy diet—one that includes plenty of protein, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables, plus about 300 extra calories a day—will get the job done, too. So if you’d rather not keep track—don’t. Eat well, your way!

There is a very important point to keep in mind as you embark on making a diet change for the better: What’s presented in this chapter is the ideal, the best possible plan for eating well when you’re expecting. Something you should strive for, certainly, but nothing you should stress over (especially early in pregnancy, when your appetite for healthy foods may face a smorgasbord of suppressive symptoms—from nausea to food aversions). Maybe you’ll choose to follow the diet closely, at least most of the time. Or you’ll follow it loosely, all of the time. But even if your allegiance remains to burgers and fries, you’ll still pick up in the pages that follow at least a few pointers that will help nourish you and your baby better during the next nine months (salad with that burger?).

Try These Instead

Looking for healthy alternatives to your not-so-healthy favorite foods? Here are some ideas to get you started:

Bites count.
Chew on this: You’ve got nine months’ worth of meals and snacks (and nibbles and noshes) ahead of you—each one of them an opportunity to feed your baby well before he or she is even born. So open wide, but think first. Try to make your pregnancy bites count by choosing them (at least most of the time) with baby in mind. Remember that each bite during the day is an opportunity to feed that growing baby of yours healthy nutrients.

All calories are not created equal.
Choose your calories with care, selecting quality over quantity when you can. It may seem obvious—and inherently unfair—but those 200 calories in a doughnut are not equal to the 200 calories in a whole-grain raisin-bran muffin. Nor are the 100 calories in 10 potato chips equal to the 100 calories in a baked potato served in its skin. Your baby will benefit a lot more from 2,000 nutrient-rich calories daily than from 2,000 mostly empty ones. And your body will show the benefits postpartum as well.

Starve yourself, starve your baby.
Just as you wouldn’t consider starving your baby after it’s born, don’t consider starving it when it’s at home in your uterus. A fetus can’t thrive by living off your flesh, no matter how much you’re sporting. It needs regular nourishment at regular intervals—and as the sole caterer of your uterine café, only you can provide it. Even if you’re not hungry, your baby is. So try not to skip meals. In fact, eating frequently may be the best route to a well-nourished fetus. Research shows
that mothers who eat at least five times a day (three meals plus two snacks or six mini meals, for instance. are more likely to carry to term. Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially if you’ve been too busy hugging the toilet to even think about eating. And what if your heartburn has made eating a pain—literally? You’ll find plenty of tips on how to eat around these pregnancy inconveniences on
pages 130
and
153
.

Efficiency is effective.
Think it’s impossible to fill each of the Daily Dozen requirements (see
page 93
) each and every day (let’s see, six whole-grains means one every four hours …)? Worried that even if you do manage to eat it all, you’ll end up looking like a pregnant blimp? Think and worry no more. Instead, become an efficiency expert. Get more nutritional bang for your buck by choosing foods that are lightweights when it comes to calories, heavy hitters when it comes to nutrients. Need an example? Eating a cup of pistachio nuts at 715 calories (about 25 percent of your daily allotment) is a considerably less efficient way of netting a 25-gram protein serving than eating a 4-ounce turkey burger, at 250 calories. Another efficiency case in point: Eating a cup and a half of ice cream (about 500 calories; more if you’ve chosen the really good stuff) is a fun but far less efficient way of scoring a 300-mg calcium serving than eating a cup of nonfat frozen yogurt (still fun, but only about 300 calories). Because fat has more than twice as many calories per gram as either proteins or carbohydrates, opting often for lower-fat foods will step up your nutritional efficiency. Choose lean meats over fatty ones, fat-free or low-fat milk and dairy products over full-fat versions, grilled or broiled foods over fried. Spread butter lightly; use a tablespoon of olive oil for sautéing, not a quarter of a cup. Another trick of the efficient-eating trade: Select foods that are overachievers in more than one Daily Dozen category, thus filling two or more requirements at once.

Efficiency is important, too, if you’re having trouble gaining enough weight. To start tipping the scale toward a healthier weight gain, choose foods that are dense in nutrients and calories—avocados, nuts, and dried fruits, for instance—that can fill you and your baby out without filling you up too much.

Carbohydrates are a complex issue.
Some women, concerned about gaining too much weight during pregnancy, mistakenly drop carbohydrates from their diets like so many hot potatoes. There’s no doubt that refined carbs (like white bread, crackers, and pretzels; white rice; refined cereals, cakes, and cookies) are nutritional slackers. But unrefined (complex) carbohydrates (whole-grain breads and cereals, brown rice, fresh fruits and vegetables, dried beans and peas, and, of course, hot potatoes in their skins) supply essential B vitamins, trace minerals,
protein, and important fiber. They’re good not only for your baby, but also for you (they’ll help keep nausea and constipation in check). And because they are filling and fiber-rich but not fattening, they’ll help keep your weight gain in check, too. Recent research suggests yet another bonus for complex carbohydrate consumers: Eating plenty of fiber may reduce the risk of developing gestational diabetes. Be careful to move from a low-fiber diet to a high-fiber diet slowly to avoid possible stomach upset (too much fiber too fast can pump you up with too much gas).

The Six-Meal Solution

Too bloated, queasy, heartburned, or constipated (or all four) to contemplate a full meal? No matter what tummy troubles are getting you down (or keeping food from staying down), you’ll find it easier to spread your Daily Dozen (see
page 93
) into five or six mini meals instead of three squares. A grazing approach keeps your blood sugar level, so you’ll get an energy boost, too (and who couldn’t use that?). And you’ll have fewer headaches—and fewer wild mood swings.

No More Guilt

Willpower has its place, particularly while you’re trying to eat well for two. Still, everyone needs to give in to temptation now and then, without feeling guilty about it. So lose the guilt, hold the deprivation, and allow yourself a treat every once in a while—something that doesn’t add appreciably to your nutritional bottom line but makes your taste buds jump for joy. a blueberry muffin that’s probably more sugar than blueberries but is also off-the-charts yummy, a double scoop of cookies-and-cream (when frozen yogurt just doesn’t cut it), the fast-food burger you’ve been craving like crazy. And when you say “yes” to that occasional frosted brownie or candy bar, serve it up without a side of remorse.

But when venturing down the path of least nutritious, try to pump it up—add a slice of banana and some nuts to your ice-cream sundae; choose a candy bar that’s filled with almonds; order your burger with cheese and tomato (and maybe a side salad). Keeping portions of these foods small is another good strategy: Share that serving of onion rings; take a slender slice of pecan pie instead of a hefty slab. And remember to stop before you get too carried away; otherwise, you might just begin to feel that guilt after all.

Sweet nothings are exactly that.
There’s no gentle way to put this: Sugar calories, sadly, are empty calories. And though empty calories are fine once in a while—even when you’re pregnant—they tend to add up a lot more quickly than you’d think, leaving less room in your diet for nutritionally substantial calories. In addition, researchers are finding that sugar may not only be void of value, but in excessive amounts may potentially be harmful. Studies have suggested that in addition to contributing to obesity, heavy sugar consumption may be linked to tooth decay, diabetes, heart disease, and colon cancer. Perhaps sugar’s biggest shortcoming, however, is that large quantities are often found in foods and drinks that are, on the whole, nutritional underachievers (candy and soda come to mind).

Refined sugar goes by many names on the supermarket shelves, including corn syrup and dehydrated cane juice. Honey, an unrefined sugar, has a nutritional edge because it contains disease-fighting antioxidants. Plus, it is more likely to find its way into more nutritious foods—particularly those whole-grain ones you’d find in the health food sections of your market. Try to limit your intake of all forms of sugar, however, since the calories you save can be spent on foods that pack a much more wholesome punch.

For delicious and nutritious sweetness, substitute fruit, dried fruit, and fruit juice concentrates for sugar when you can. Besides being sweet, they contain vitamins, trace minerals, and valuable
phytochemicals (plant chemicals that may help the body defend itself against disease and aging), all absent in sugar. You can also find sweet revenge in the calorie-free sugar substitutes that appear to be safe for pregnancy use (see
page 111
).

Good foods remember where they came from.
Nature knows a thing or two about nutrition. So it’s not surprising that the most nutritious foods are often the ones that haven’t strayed far from their natural state. Choose fresh vegetables and fruits when they’re in season, or fresh-frozen or canned when fresh are unavailable or you don’t have time to prepare them (look for ones that don’t have added sugar, salt, or fat). And speaking of preparation, less is more when it comes to nutrients. Try to eat some raw vegetables and fruit every day, and when you’re cooking, opt for steaming or a light stir-fry, so more vitamins and minerals will be retained.

And there’s more nutritional know-how in nature’s model. Avoid processed foods; not only have they picked up a lot of chemicals, fat, sugar, and salt on the assembly line, but they’re frequently low in nutrition. Choose fresh roasted turkey breast over smoked turkey, macaroni and cheese made with whole-grain macaroni and natural cheese over that bright orange variety, fresh oatmeal made from rolled oats over the lower-fiber and super sugary instant varieties.

Healthy eating begins at home.
Let’s face it. It isn’t easy to nibble on fresh fruit when your darling husband’s diving headfirst into a half-gallon of ice cream—right next to you on the sofa. Or to reach for the soy chips when he’s filled the cabinets with those orange cheese balls you can’t resist. So enlist him—and other family members—in making your home a healthy food zone. Make whole wheat your house bread, stock your freezer with frozen yogurt, and ban the unhealthy snacks you can’t help attacking when they’re within reach. And don’t stop after delivery. Research associates a good diet not only with a better pregnancy outcome but with a lower risk of many diseases, including adult-onset diabetes and cancer. Which means the family that eats well together is more likely to stay healthy together.

Bad habits can sabotage a good diet.
Eating well is only part of the healthy prenatal picture. The best pregnancy diet in the world can be undermined by alcohol, tobacco, and other unsafe drugs. If you haven’t done so already, change your other lifestyle habits to match.

Calories.
Technically, a pregnant woman is eating for two (rejoice, food lovers). But it’s important to remember that one of the two is a tiny developing fetus whose caloric needs are significantly lower than mom’s—a mere 300 on average a day, more or less (sorry, food lovers). So, if you’re of average weight, you now need only about an average of 300 calories more than you used to eat prepregnancy—the equivalent of two glasses of skim milk and a bowl of oatmeal (not exactly the all-you-can-eat sundae bar you were envisioning). Pretty easy to spend (or overspend), given the extra nutritional requirements of pregnancy. What’s more, during the first trimester you probably don’t need any extra calories at all (that baby you’re growing is only pea size), unless you’re trying to compensate for starting out underweight. By the time your metabolism speeds up during the
second trimester, you can aim for 300 to 350 extra calories. Later in pregnancy (when your baby is much bigger) you may even need more, or upward of about 500 extra calories a day.

Eating more calories than you and your baby need isn’t only unnecessary, it isn’t smart—and can lead to excessive weight gain. Eating too few calories, on the other hand, is not only unwise but also potentially dangerous as pregnancy progresses; women who don’t take in enough calories during the second and third trimesters can seriously slow the growth of their babies.

There are four exceptions to this basic formula—and if any apply to you, it’s even more important to discuss your caloric needs with your practitioner. If you’re overweight, you can possibly do with fewer calories, as long as you have the right nutritional guidance. If you’re seriously underweight, you’ll need more calories so you can catch up weightwise. If you’re a teen, you’re still growing yourself, which means you have unique nutritional needs. And if you’re carrying multiples, you’ll have to add about 300 calories for each additional baby.