Dieting during Pregnancy

Dieting during pregnancy is never a good idea. If anything it's a time when you will be eating more and it's a time when you need to eat extra well.

But admittedly, if you're anywhere near as hi-jacked as I was by body-worry, pregnancy weight gain can be alarming. If I ever looked like this happy picture, it sure wasn't how I was feeling on the inside.

I could feel my body parts growing and expanding and with it the fear of what I looked like and the additional fear of whether I'd ever get my old body back again. Actually, when I think about that now it's somewhat ironic.

I mean, before I fell pregnant - I worried constantly about my body and then, when I fell pregnant, I prayed I'd be able to go back to the body I'd always hated. Ha!

Of course, along with my weight gain came an almost irresistible urge to take up dieting during my pregnancy. Along with thoughts of suddenly taking a vigorous exercise program. Anything to counter my pregnancy weight gain!

But here's what I know now.... dieting during pregnancy is an absolutely no-no. It's the very worst time to start a fad diets - especially those that are very restrictive or cut out major food groups.

Dieting during pregnancy
robs your baby of choices

Remember that little soul growing in your tum? Well as research has progressed, we now know that everything we eat (and even the emotions we experience) are filtered through to our unborn child. So when we're dieting during pregnancy, in effect our developing baby is too.

Talk about our body being a filtering system - did you know that scientists think that unborn babies can be affected when they are exposed to chemicals in plastics? And as we know dieting (and dieting during pregnancy is no different) leads to binges. And that makes me wonder how that little one fares when we have a comfort eating binge of all those sugary things!

There are a number of reasons that make what we eat during pregnancy really important. A balanced diet with lots of variety:

• helps your child get a good start towards a strong and healthy body,

But another important factor to bear in mind is that we're already programming our child to prefer and for their taste structures to become physiologically adapted to eat the foods readily available in your culture.

• will help you maintain your pregnancy weight gain easier.

• will also later play a role in determining the variety of foods your child will one day eat because a child's food choices are formed by familiarity.

Dieting during pregnancy
and Eating Disorders

And here's something else I found absolutely fascinating. With my passion being eating and body, I had a steady stream of referrals from doctors of patients with eating disorders. What stood out for me though was how even the most eating disordered mothers (those with severe anorexia or bulimia) were able to stop the eating disorder and stop dieting during pregnancy once they knew they were pregnant.

Expectant mother's are amazing! So strong was their motivation for giving their child the best possible start in life, that they could do from their unborn child, what they found almost impossible to do for themselves.

For this reason I think that pregnancy is a very special window of opportunity to make important changes.

How to avoid dieting during pregnancy

Here's how to avoid dieting during pregnancy: Be baby-wise! Simply ask yourself the question: If I'm eating or drinking a lot of x or y - am I programming my child with eating habits I'd want them to have?

If the answer if 'No', then change your choices to ones that will help you program your child to make healthy choices themselves one day. And by the way, don't be fooled - all those famous diet foods aren't necessarily healthy or help your weight.

And PS... this isn't to say that if you eat 100% healthily your child will go through childhood without ever giving you uphill about vegetables - especially if they are interacting with peers who don't like them. But overall they will accept healthy eating easier and most likely land up being healthy eaters as adults.

• whenever possible, eat the most nutritious foods - getting a wide variety of nutrients will stop you from having peculiar cravings

• eat whenever you’re physically hungry, (you don't have to eat large quantities, but never skip eating when you're hungry) and stop when you've had enough knowing you can eat again just as soon as you're hungry.

• remember that you may find your hunger varies depending on which trimester you're in - the most growth of your baby happens in the last trimester. You'll find yourself eating more or less depending on which trimester you're in and what your babies growth requirements are.

• Don't have the attitude of "Oh goodie, now I can eat for two!" You will need extra calories, but you certainly won't need to eat for two.

• Keep yourself well hydrated - that also keeps cravings at bay

• get some regular exercise that feels right for you. Don't just suddenly put on your jogging shoes and start training for that marathon you've always been promising yourself you're going to run. If you haven't been doing any exercise, sign up for some supervised pre-natal exercise classes.

Whatever you do though, don't diet during pregnancy. But because it's a time when you are extra tuned into your body - it's a great time to become more body-wise. The wonderful thing about our body is that when we learn how to hear it, it reliably tells us what, when and how much we need to eat.

Because you're so body-aware during pregnancy, instead of dieting during pregnancy, consider this to be a fabulous opportunity to get more in touch with your hunger and satiety signals and that alone prevent you from having to diet during pregnancy and worry about pregnancy weight gain.