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| Home > Nutrition and Health
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| | Nutrition and Health during Preganancy
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 What you eat before and during your pregnancy can affect the health of your growing baby. Even before you start trying to get pregnant, you should take special care of your health. Eat healthy meals and snacks and take a multivitamin every day. While you are pregnant, you will need additional nutrients to keep you and your baby healthy. But, that does not mean you need to eat twice as much. You should only eat an extra 300 calories per day. A baked potato has 120 calories. So getting these extra 300 calories doesn`t mean you have to consume a lot of food. Pregnant women should consume a total of 2,500 to 2,700 calories every day. These calories should come from a variety of healthy foods.
Make sure not to restrict your diet during pregnancy either. If you do, your unborn baby might not get the right amounts of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Low calorie diets can break down a pregnant woman`s stored fat. This can lead to the production of substances called ketones. Ketones can be found in the mother`s blood and urine and are a sign of starvation. Constant production of ketones can result in a mentally retarded child.
To get enough nutrients, pregnant women should take a multivitamin and eat healthy foods from the four basic food groups everyday.
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