Pregnancy and Nutrition

My first pregnancy and nutrition encounter took place in the gynae's office. After the checkup, I was handed a bottle of tiny yellow tablets and told I had to start taking them daily. It was the first time I had heard of folic acid supplements.

When you have a baby growing within you, you become responsible for this tiny person that you can't even see. Whatever you eat and drink becomes the main source of nutrition for your baby. It is time to be conscious of what you put in your mouth, what you breathe in and what you use on your skin. Your baby is depending wholly on you to keep him safe.

We need to know the facts about pregnancy and nutrition.

With potentially dangerous substances like alcohol, cigarette smoke and recreational drugs, there is no such thing as a safe limit.

With toxic chemicals that are invisible but ever-present in bath, body and hair products, the danger is even greater. The toxins we absorb through our skin stay in us and are passed on to our unborn babies. EWG tested the umbilical cord blood of 10 newborns and found nearly 300 chemicals. Our babies are being born pre-polluted.

Why take the risk at all? If in doubt, don't.

Pregnancy and Nutrition: What's Good For You, What's Good For Your Baby

There are two things you can do to give your unborn baby a healthy start in life.

• One, eat well.

  A good way to achieve this is through a balanced diet.

  Pay particular attention to the quality of the produce. Go for fresh, organic and unprocessed, so you don't load your system with toxic chemicals that can cross the placenta and harm your baby.

  A rainbow diet with a variety of super foods supplies your pregnancy and nutrition needs and gives your body the tools to create the best possible environment for your baby to thrive in.

Foods to avoid in pregnancy

Fish - your favorite fish is likely to have been farmed in polluted waters or caught from fresh waters, which tends to contain high levels of mercury, PCBs and dioxins. Studies have shown that eating mercury contaminated fish can have a detrimental effect on your baby's mental capacity. Instead of enhancing fetal brain development, mercury poisoning from fish can bring down your baby's mental scores.

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The EWG has a Tuna Calculator that uses your body weight to calculate how much tuna you can safely eat a week. EWG also advises that women of childbearing age and children under 5 avoid eating albacore tuna, as most albacore tuna contains high levels of mercury. Albacore tuna is said to have 3 times as much mercury as light tuna.

• Two, take high quality supplements.

  If you have wondered when to take supplements, pregnancy is probably one of the best times to start.

  Why supplement? Because widespread pollution and the heavy use of synthetic chemicals in farming and food processing mean we can no longer rely on food alone to provide our bodies with the amounts of antioxidants it needs to defend us from inflammation and disease.

  Read about free radicals, oxidative stress and how antioxidants work.

Benefits of Vitamins and Supplements

Supplements help to make up for any nutritional deficiencies you may have. They are also a good way to boost the supply of essential nutrients your fetus needs to become the healthy, beautiful baby you can't wait to hold in your arms.

Here are some recommended pregnancy and nutrition supplements. If you are unsure, always check with your health practitioner first.

Folic acid

Folic acid, also called folate, is essential for an unborn baby's brain development and helps reduce the risk of serious birth defects. In fact, folic acid is ideally taken before conception, so that you have the best possible chances of conceiving a healthy and normal baby.

Calcium

Besides folic acid, an expectant woman should increase her intake of calcium. Calcium absorption, so essential for strong bones and joints, decreases after the age of 35. As more of us marry later and have children in our late 30s and 40s, this can become a time of great strain on our aging bodies. A good daily calcium supplement can strengthen and protect bones and teeth and replenish lost supplement stores once breastfeeding begins in earnest.

Omega-3

Omega-3 is good for the brain and heart and can also help you feel better. Pregnancy hormones can make some women teary and prone to depression, so this is a good supplement to consider. Omega-3 is found in marine (fish) and plant sources (flaxseed). For pregnant women, you want to be particularly careful about the source of your Omega-3 fish oil supplement. Eating fish from polluted waters can put you at risk of chemical poisoning from mercury and PCB exposure.

Super Supplements

There are two types of supplements not often discussed as part of the daily vitamin supplements regime for pregnancy and nutrition for women, but which are just as necessary for the health of mother and child. I wish I had known about these when I had my babies. I am referring to Immune System Supplements and Probiotic Supplements.

Let me explain why I say this.

Pregnancy and Immune System

Immune system supplements help to strengthen the body's natural defense system, which can become vulnerable to attack by toxins, infections and viruses. Toxins are present in our environment: our air, water, food, even the personal body care products we use daily contain dangerous chemicals that over time drain us of health and vitality.

This is something to think about when you are pregnant and carrying a yet-to-be-fully-formed life within you. Your baby is vulnerable and completely dependent on you to feed it and to keep it safe it from harm. This means staying away from anything that might affect your baby's fragile brain and organ development, such as chemical fumes from nail polish and hair dyes and cigarette smoke, and substances that can be absorbed through your skin.

We can't completely eradicate toxins from our lives, but there are ways we can minimize our chemical exposure and neutralize the effect they have on our bodies.

One way to avoid accidentally ingesting or absorbing harmful chemicals is to choose certified organic skincare. Products with the Certified Organic logo have been independently audited by reputable third party organizations, so their claims of being 100% natural and chemical-free are more credible.

Another way is to take a good quality immune system supplement. The best immune system supplements are rich in antioxidant super foods like acai berry, soy beans, flaxseed, olive, chickpeas, lentils, mung beans, spirulina and wheat grass. Antioxidants are our best weapon in fighting free radicals' oxidative stress, the leading cause of aging, inflammation and DNA damage which can result in cancer.

One of the best immune system boosters available is Berry Radical Antioxidant Super Food. It combines 9 of the world's most potent super foods to support building a strong immune system, protecting cells and minimizing cell damage from the harmful free radicals in the body.

Probiotics and Pregnancy

Probiotic supplements are indispensable to pregnancy and nutrition for women. Why do I say this?

Think of all the things you are prone to when pregnant. Constipation. Indigestion. Yeast infections and candida.

These conditions are caused in part by a bacterial imbalance. Too much bad bacteria in the gut overwhelms the good bacteria and pollutes our organs. A good probiotic supplement contains beneficial bacteria that helps to replenish and increase the supply of good bacteria in our gut, and restore the balance of good and bad bacteria in our bodies.

Synthetic antibiotics, caffeine, over-the-counter medication, food additives, food coloring and preservatives in food, all add an extra burden to our organs: a chemical burden. This is why we need Probiotics. A good probiotic supplement helps to detoxify our bodies by cleansing the colon and restoring its natural function. The function of a healthy colon is to flush out unwanted toxins and keep them from accumulating and slowly poisoning us from inside.

When buying a probotic supplement, choose one that is certified organic so that you are guaranteed of its quality. Probiotic supplements come in capsules, as a powdered supplement and as a probiotic liquid. For those who find capsules hard to swallow, a liquid probiotic is a good option as it is easy for the body to absorb and easy to take (have it neat or mix into your favorite beverage).

As more supplement companies bring to market affordable supplements for pregnancy and nutrition, achieving a healthy pregnancy has never been easier. Consider this an investment in your health and your child's. Get the best nutritional supplements that suit your pregnancy and nutrition situation.

Learn more about Super Supplements and Probiotics here.

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