During pregnancy, women's nutritional needs change significantly. It is not so much a question of calories but rather, of essential nutritional contributions for the correct development of the fetus and for the mother to carry a healthy pregnancy. All pregnant women should take a vitamin supplement that ensures that the contribution of these essential vitamins are sufficiently covered.
And in general, a normal and healthy diet that includes foods of all kinds is enough to cover these needs. However, when you adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet and you are pregnant, you must take certain precautions to ensure that you do not have a significant deficit in your diet.
First of all, you should consult with your pregnancy doctor or midwife your type of diet. In this way, in addition to prescribing the vitamin supplement, they can advise you on the best way to eat so that you do not lose any essential nutrients, minerals or vitamins.
Vitamins and essential nutrients
This is very important, since although you generally watch that your diet does not lack nutrients, during pregnancy the needs increase by different percentages. Let's check what are those essential nutrients to watch out for, the most important are:
- Iron, necessary for the formation of red blood cells. You can get it from dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, cabbage, or collard greens. Take good care of the cleanliness of the vegetables to avoid toxoplasmosis. For this you must wash each leaf of the vegetable that you are going to consume well. You can also find iron in soy and derived foods of it like tofu. Also, in legumes such as lentils or beans and in some whole grain cereals. As an extra recommendation, try to eat foods rich in iron accompanied by others enriched in vitamin C. This vitamin helps improve iron absorption, take an orange after an iron-enriched dish, for example.
- Proteins, the needs during pregnancy increase by 30%. Therefore you should not neglect your protein intake. If you are a vegetarian, you can get large amounts of protein in eggs, milk, dairy, and honey. In the event that you are vegan and do not take any animal product, you must make sure you get enough plant-based protein in your diet. Take legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grain cereals, as well as soy and any of its derivatives.
- Calcium is essential for the development of the baby. Also for the formation of your bones and teeth, your muscles and for the proper functioning of the blood. You should include calcium-enriched foods in your diet, always ensuring that the products are pasteurized. If you are vegan, eat a lot of foods derived from soy, such as milk. You can also get calcium from some seeds, like sesame or almonds.
- Vitamin B12, very important for brain development. If you eat eggs, the yolk has large amounts of B12, so do not hesitate to include several eggs a week in your meals. If you do not eat this food, you should look for it in some foods produced from fermented soybeans, such as miso.
Foods that a pregnant vegetarian diet should include
Any pregnant woman should pay attention to her diet during this period, also lengthening it during breastfeeding. But in the case of pregnant vegetarians or vegans, it is more important to dedicate time to food. If this is your case, you should look foods that meet nutritional needs that you do not receive from animal products.
You must be very rigorous when selecting the foods that make up your diet. So that you can substitute nutrients of animal origin, by others of plant origin that meet your needs. Include in your diet foods such as:
- Legumes, nuts, seeds and tofu, foods that provide iron and zinc.
- Vegetables of all kinds, especially those with dark green leaves due to their high iron content.
- Dairy enriched in football, whether of animal or plant origin.
- Seasonal fruits, food low in calories and sugars that will provide you with a large amount of vitamins and minerals.
- Carbohydrates, preferably whole grains like bread, or whole grain cereals.
- Vegetable oils such as omega3You can find it in fatty fish like salmon. If you are vegan, you will get it from flax seeds and walnuts, in addition to virgin olive oil.