What Can I Eat When I’m Pregnant?

Expectant mothers are often unsure: what else can I eat if I am pregnant and what not? It’s not that difficult with our six strategies.

You have successfully fulfilled your desire to have children and are now pregnant? Then your thoughts will probably soon be circling around the right food. Sure, healthy eating is the order of the day! Wholemeal products, fruit and lots of vegetables are now part of the daily menu, so that the baby and the expectant mother are provided with vitamins, minerals and fibre. As pregnant women have an increased need for calcium and iron, they should not do without dairy products and eggs. Eggs also contain folic acid, which is also important and healthy for the body. Like meat and fish, however, they should not be eaten raw. Goodbye Sushi!

Why it is like that? Because listeria and toxoplasmosis pathogens are transmitted through food – and can become a danger to unborn children. The bacteria are found, for example, in raw milk and cheese made from it. Hard cheese, on the other hand, is harmless. And you should only eat small quantities of wild mushrooms, as they can have a high content of harmful substances. Even if some foods should be avoided during pregnancy and the subsequent breastfeeding period for the sake of health: a strict dietary plan is unnecessary. In fact, it is sufficient to adhere to the following strategies – then nothing can go wrong with your food!

Strategy 1: Getting the baby to taste the food

The more colorful it looks on your plate, the safer you get all the nutrients you need when you’re pregnant. A nice side effect: your baby gets to know the world of taste into which it is born through the amniotic fluid. Later, your child will prefer these foods to others, as studies show. The variety of flavors makes it open for culinary discoveries.

Strategy 2: Don’t go crazy (let it)

Are you one of those pregnant women who hear all the alarms ringing in the restaurant? Who annoy their fellow eaters by having the ingredients explained to them in detail? And who end up listlessly poking around in a salad. Anyone who restricts his or her diet too much risks a shortage of food for the child and for himself or herself. Of course, something can always happen, but the risk of a food infection, which also infects the child, is very low with us. Listeriosis (the infection is spread by contaminated food) affects just 0.005 percent of newborns. And not all of them necessarily suffer permanent damage.

To be on the safe side, the simple basic rule applies: Be careful with raw animal products and dishes containing such ingredients (e.g. raw milk cheese, sushi, ground pork, carpaccio, spreadable sausage, tiramisu) – they could be infected with salmonella, listeria, toxoplasmosis or Escherichia coli pathogens. If the food is thoroughly cooked, i.e. baked, fried or boiled, you can safely access it: Heat destroys those bacteria. The beasts also do not tolerate long ripening processes, so hard cheese made from raw milk (e.g. Gruyère) is no problem. Even air-dried ham is harmless because of its long maturing time – just as strongly salted or acidified fish (rollmops, anchovies).

Strategy 3: Allergy prevention does not have to be

Many hope to save their child from allergies by omitting certain foods. Unfortunately, this does not work, as is now known: children of women who had a low allergen diet during pregnancy developed allergies as often as the children whose mothers had not taken any account of them. Experts now even assume that a diet that is as varied as possible offers the best protection because the immune system of the new human being can get used to possible allergens very gently before birth.

Strategy 4: Countermeasures for complaints

First the hormone switch turns your stomach, then your big belly presses on your lungs and esophagus – being pregnant isn’t just fun. But there is usually a remedy: Cut down 2 cm of peeled ginger against nausea and cook with the peel of an organic lemon and possibly 1 teaspoon of aniseed grains in 1 liter of water for about 10 minutes. Strain and sweeten with a little honey. If you have heartburn, eat less and eat more often. In between nibble almonds and drink milk (dampens the acid).

Artichoke extract also helps, and some pregnant women dispel the acid attacks with mustard. If constipated, drink a glass of warm water or plum juice in the morning or eat cereal with flax seeds. Muscle cramps are usually a sign of magnesium deficiency. Good sources are green vegetables, berries, potatoes and nuts.

Strategy 5: Just be happy on the scales

Now is not the time to go on a diet. If you still want to weigh yourself regularly, please do it without worry lines on your forehead! After all, not only the child grows, but also breasts, placenta, amniotic fluid and even blood volume increase. This alone adds up to around nine kilos. The rest of the pregnancy pounds are (necessary) fat reserves for birth and lactation.

So stay cool! By the way, even in the last three months of pregnancy, the body only needs about 400 additional calories a day. For this, the need for some nutrients increases by up to 50 percent and more. Mainly eat foods that contain many vitamins and minerals per calorie, i.e. fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Milk and cheese are also important because they provide calcium for the child’s bone formation.

Strategy 6: Do not worry so much – enjoy!

Almost the most important thing: Don’t forget to enjoy your baby’s food, because your child will only be well if you are well. And that doesn’t change when the baby is born. So it’s best to start practicing now …