A vegetarian diet during pregnancy

Many have the intention that they have to eat animal products to have a healthy baby. This is not true. Vegetarians of every variety can have healthy babies without compromising their dietary principles-they just have to be a little more careful in planning their diets than meat-eating mother-to-be. When choosing your meat-free menus, make sure you get all of the following.

Enough protein: For the ovo-lacto vegetarian, who eats eggs and milk products, getting enough protein is as easy as getting enough of these dairy case favourites. If you’re a vegetarian who eats neither milk nor eggs, you may find you’ll need to work a little harder in the protein department, turning to ample quantities of dried beans, peas, lentils, tofu and other soy products.

Enough Calcium: This is no tall order for the vegetarian who eats dairy products, but it can be trickier for those who don’t. Luckily, dairy products are the most obvious but not the only sources of calcium. Calcium-fortified juices offer as much calcium as milk, ounce for ounce. Other nondairy dietary sources of calcium include dark leafy green vegetables, sesame seeds, almonds, and many soy products. For added insurance, vegans should probably also take a calcium supplement, check with your practitioner for a recommendation.

Vitamin B12: Though B12 deficiencies are rare, vegetarians, particularly vegans, often don’t get enough of this vitamin because it is found only in animal foods. So be certain to take supplemental B12, as well as folic acid and iron. Other dietary sources include B12-fortified soy milk, fortified cereals, nutritional yeast and fortified meat substitutes.

Vitamin D: This important vitamin is produces by your skin when you’re exposed to sunlight. But since spending lots of time in the sun is no longer considered a good health or beauty bet, relying on this source of vitamin D isn’t smart. To ensure adequate intake of vitamin D, federal law required that milk be fortified with 400mg of Vitamin D per quart. If you don’t drink cows milk, be sure there is enough vitamin D added to the Soy milk you drink or in the pregnancy supplement you are taking. Breads ad cereals are also fortified with it.

Article Posted By : sreevani  On May 17, 2013lView All Articles

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http://www.veethi.com/articles/vegetarian-food-during-pregnancy-article-2263.htm

Keywords :
Vegetarian food , pregnancy