If you're following a healthy pregnancy eating plan you'll notice levels of refined sugar are quite low, this is because it's suggested women avoid too much sugar during pregnancy.
With this is mind our healthy pregnancy recipes and meals are packed with the nutrients you need for you and your baby during this special time.
In our current society eating a high sugar diet during pregnancy is really common, in fact studies show women think pregnancy gives them free rein to eat whatever they feel like.
However, this can have serious consequences for mothers and their babies, and when we talk sugar, we are not just talking about the white powdered stuff, we are talking about most of your white foods such as breads, pasta, cakes, biscuits and potatoes.
This also includes all of the high GI foods such as flavoured and fizzy soft drinks, alcohol, lollies, jam, jelly, sauce and breakfast cereals. You get the idea!
1. A higher sugar consumption is linked to a higher pregnancy weight gain.
2. Too much sugar increases glucose and insulin levels. So yes, eating excess sugar, does contribute to gestational diabetes.
3. It can contributes to the development of a fatty liver.
4. The birth weight of your baby may be smaller.
5. By eating a diet high in sugar during pregnancy, we are programming our child's genes to be higher risk for metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.
6. Eating high sugar diets alters our children's blood vessel structure and places them more at risk for heart diseases. These risk factors are found to be present in our children as early as age 7!
7. Eating a diet high in added sugars increases risk of pre-eclampsia.
8. Drinking both artificially-sweetened soft drinks, and standard soft drinks increases risk of pre-term delivery.
9. Prenatal and pregnancy consumption of sugar has been linked to having obese children.
10. You increase your likelihood of having nausea and/or vomiting if you eat a diet high in carbohydrates and added sugars.
Hopefully, you're convinced about why you need to remove lots of high GI carbs and sugars from your diet. But in case you are now wondering what to eat and how to make healthy food swaps, here are some suggestions in this post.
Here are 3 very simple ways to help you make healthy food choices during pregnancy.
Cheree is an experienced naturopath who specialises in nutritional medicine; focusing on pregnancy support, babies and children. She is a published recipe developer whose background as a chef allows her to develop healthy, nutritionally balanced meals. Being a mum herself, she loves recipes that are easy to make and appeal to the whole family. Cheree has worked for the Healthy Mummy since early 2015 developing Healthy Mummy specific recipes and preparing the challenge meals for our monthly 28 Day Weight Loss Challenges. She calculates all the nutritional information for the recipes and provides our team with expert advice and information on current nutritional issues. Cheree loves working for the The Healthy Mummy because "I have the chance to share my love of delicious, nutritious food with other mums".