No Sushi

One food that you definitely should not eat during your pregnancy is sushi. Uncooked fish is not good for you at this time. So put it off until you have the baby.

Listen To Yourself

Eating right during this precious time is completely up to you. Don't listen to no one but your doctor, yourself, and most importantly your baby. Whatever you feel like eating, eat.

It's Up To You

Every pregnancy is pretty much different. So when someone tells you not to eat something because it made them feel sick or something, don't listen to them. Your body might not respond the same way that theirs did. It is completely up to you. Try it and see what happens. You will never know until you do.

"Water" You Drinking?

Pregnant women should drink at least six eight-ounce glasses of water per day. Plus, pregnant women should drink another glass of water for each hour of activity. Water carries the nutrients from the food you eat to your baby. It also helps prevent constipation, hemorrhoids, excessive swelling, and urinary tract or bladder infections. Drinking enough water, especially in your last trimester, prevents you from becoming dehydrated. Not getting enough water can lead to premature or early labor. Juices also contain water. But juice also has a lot of calories that can cause you to gain extra weight. Coffee, soft drinks, and teas with caffeine actually reduce the amount of fluid in your body. So caffeinated drinks do not count towards the total amount of water you need every day.

Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of fiber, vitamins and minerals. Fruits and vegetables with vitamin C help you and your baby to have healthy gums and other tissues. Vitamin C also helps your body to heal wounds and to absorb iron. Vitamin C items include strawberries, melons, oranges, papaya, tomatoes, peppers, greens, cabbage, and broccoli. Dark green vegetables have vitamin A, iron, and folate, which are important nutrients during pregnancy.

• One Serving Fruit = 1 medium apple, 1 medium banana, 1/2 cup of chopped fruit, 3/4 cup of fruit juice
• One Serving Vegetable = 1 cup raw leafy vegetables, 1/2 cup of other vegetables (raw or cooked), 3/4 cup vegetable juice

Reservations For Two

You will need additional nutrients to keep you and your baby healthy. But, that does not mean you need to eat twice as much. A pregnant woman needs only 300 calories a day more than she did before she got pregnant. The American Dietetic Association (ADA) recommends that pregnant women eat a total of 2,500 to 2,700 calories every day. These calories should come from a variety of healthy foods. What pregnant women eat is more important than how much she eats. A pregnant woman needs more of many important vitamins, minerals and nutrients than she did pre-pregnancy. Make sure not to restrict your diet because 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. Constant production of ketones can result in a mentally retarded child.

What's Best

There are a lot of foods out there that's good for you and your baby. Here are a few:

• Orange Juice: This juice is high in folic acid, vitamin C, and potassium, which has been shown to help lower high blood pressure, a real danger during pregnancy.
• Yogurt: An excellent source of protein. It has more calcium than milk and also contains active cultures that reduce the risk of yeast infections, which are more common while you're expecting.
• Broccoli: A good source of calcium, vitamin C, folate, and vitamin B6.
• Figs: They have more fiber than any typical fruit or vegetable, more potassium than bananas, and plenty of calcium and iron whether they are fresh or dried.
  
• Lentils: Like beans, lentils are a good source of folate and are rich in iron and protein. They're also full of fiber, which can help prevent constipation and help hemorrhoids.

Eggs-cellent Choice

Eating eggs during your pregnancy is very good for you and your baby. They are high in protein, and eating them has excellent health benefits. Its been said that eating eggs may build your memory, protect you from certain eye diseases, and reduce your chances of breast cancer and heart disease. Eggs are a great source of choline, a nutrient that helps in developing fetal brains during pregnancy and that may protect against memory loss later in life. Egg yolks contain antioxidants such as lutein and zeaxanthin, which may help avoid free radicals from breaking down cells and tissue in the eyes and causing cataracts and degeneration, a condition that can lead to blindness. The lutein in eggs doesn't just benefit your eyes, it can keep your arteries healthy too. People with high levels of lutein in their blood experienced less thickening of their arteries than those who had lower levels.

Calcium For Your Baby

Here are a few tips that you can use to get as much calcium into your diet as possible:

• Cook rice, hot cereals, and other grains in nonfat milk.
• Substitute nonfat yogurt for sour cream or butter.
• Drink at least one glass of milk with every snack or meal.
• Eat string cheese or fill a bag with low-fat cheese cubes for a snack on the go.
• Try a glass of chocolate milk instead of candy when you want something sweet.

Your need for calcium in your third trimester will elevate do to the baby's skeletal system rapidly growing.

Surprising Fact

All my life, I have always heard that eating hot foods is not good for the baby. The worst that I heard was that it could cause the baby to be blind. But I'm here to tell you that you can eat spicy foods if you can handle it. In fact, it's actual good for you. There are vitamins in peppers that are really needed for you. The only side effect is heartburn. But if you can handle it, go for it.

Nutrition

There are a lot of things about nutrition that you should know while you are pregnant. There are certain things that you have to eat and it is very wise to take your prenatal vitamins daily.