5 Healthy Eating Tips for Nigerian Pregnant Women

You are what you eat. However, when you are pregnant, you are not only what you eat, your baby also is. Studies have shown that the fetus derives everything needed for its growth and survival, from the very moment of conception to the very moment of birth, from its mother. This includes nutrients, fluid, oxygen, and antibodies. Thus, we can never overemphasize how important it is to eat healthy as a pregnant woman, and you know what? Doing this doesn’t have to be burdensome. Here are 5 tips that would bring you closer toward achieving your healthy-eating goals and maximizing nutrients from available foods as a Nigerian pregnant woman.

1. Start your day with a healthy breakfast

Starting your day with a healthy meal when pregnant doesn’t only energize you, and of course your baby, for the day, it has also been observed to reduce the chances of you feeling hungry every single hour of the day, and that’s a good thing. As you continue reading, you’ll come to understand why that’s good, but for now, let’s get a glimpse of what a healthy breakfast should look like. Really, it’s not far-fetched. A healthy breakfast should span across all, or almost all the classes of food. So, you might want to consider easy combinations like bread and egg with home-made orange juice, or moin-moin(bean pudding) and pap/ eko(solid pap), or even your regular fortified cereal with a lot of milk, and then one apple. Any energy-rich, protein-containing, mineral-and-vitamin-including diet works just fine. Make sure you get enough water too. Also, you need to know that skipping breakfast is not a remedy for early-morning nausea. Find food combinations that work for you, instead. You can consider taking ginger tea or pepper-mint tea before having breakfast too, if that works for you.

2. Eat well, but don’t overeat

Some pregnant women are extra careful when it comes to eating because they are afraid of gaining too much weight. Other pregnant women in the bid to “eat for two” would make sure their mouths are busy all day. The danger of the former is that if you don’t eat well enough, your baby won’t get enough nutrient and can end up being underweight, and in extreme scenarios, the baby can die prenatally. Meanwhile, the danger of the later is that both the mother and the baby can become obese, and this can cause complications, and eventually lead to death. The solution, however, is to eat well, but not overeat. Having a healthy breakfast, like I’ve earlier stated, is one way to achieve this. Also, have a healthy lunch and dinner; experts advise that you should consider spreading your lunch, and even dinner, over 2 or 3 servings, rather than eat a large portion at once. Taking a lot of water all through the day helps too and if you ever feel like munching on something else during the day, you might want to consider healthy snacks, which leads us to the next tip.

Consider healthy snacks.

It’s very possible that even after having a good meal for breakfast and drinking just enough water, you still feel like snacking on something before your next lunch or dinner serving. However, rather than go for junk food that would provide your baby little or no nutrient and would only make both you and your baby gain unnecessary weight, consider healthy snacks. The best and cheapest form of healthy snacks still remain handy fruits like bananas, apples, oranges, watermelons etc. You can try fruit salads too. Youghurt as well has been proven to be a very nutritious snack for pregnant women as it contains fibres, calcium and other vitamins that are necessary for both your health and your baby’s growth. You can also consider other snacks rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals like smoothies, fruit parfaits, fruit-rich cakes, egg scrambles etc.

Vary your diet.

Every class of food plays a role in the proper growth and development of your baby. From carbohydrates and good fats that supply your baby with energy to proteins and minerals that provide a building block for your baby’s developing organs to even vitamins and water that allows the other nutrients to be properly utilized, your baby needs them all. Since no single food has been found to contain all the nutrients your baby needs, you need to make sure your diet is as varied and balanced as possible, from animal proteins to whole grains to legumes and to even fruits and vegetables. If for any reason, you don't eat some kinds of food, you need to find alternatives to getting the nutrients those food contain, and this might involves creating weekly or monthly meal plans that help you ensure you’re getting an adequate amount of every nutrient your baby needs. Creating the plan with someone, maybe your husband, or a friend could make the process more fun, and if you are particularly allergic to some kinds of food, then you should consider involving your dietician or doctor. 

Finally, eat clean.

Eating healthy is not just about eating right but also eating clean. While you endeavour to get a healthy breakfast, eat the right proportion of food, take healthy snacks and vary your diet, you also want to make sure that everything you eat is in a proper condition, so as not to compromise your baby’s mmune system and so your baby can get maximum nutrient from every food. Hence, you have make sure your fruits and vegetables are fresh, and avoid stale or pest-infested food. Also, make sure your fruits and food ingredients are properly washed before you use them. In addition, ensure that your food is always properly cooked. Avoid over-cooking vegetables as this can rid them of the water-soluble vitamins B and C. Make sure your meats are thoroughly cooked too. Basically, just make sure you eat clean.

Now, it hasn't only been established that what you eat as a pregnant woman greatly affects the growth and health of your baby, we’ve also looked into ways pregnant women can go about eating healthy without  particularly stressing themselves. I hope you take these tips into consideration these tips even as you choose your next breakfast and as you create your next meal plan because the healthier you eat, the healthier your baby.