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Are There Any Specific Foods To Avoid During Pregnancy?

What are the foods to avoid during pregnancy? You'll get different answers from different people.

The Quick List of Foods to Avoid During Pregnancy
Raw meat, fish and eggs should be avoided as should raw dairy cheeses. Alcohol is a big no-no. Produce should be well washed to avoid contamination. Beyond those, your main goal is to eat properly and well while giving a bit more importance to those nutrients that are more essential during pregnancy.

Other Foods to Avoid When Pregnant
In some ways it is easier to tell you what to avoid then what you should eat. One basic rule is to avoid white foods. Granted we aren’t talking about whole organic eggs or cauliflower, we mean sugar, white flour, artificial sweeteners, white potatoes and milk. Just that one simple step can make a huge difference in your body and how it produces and uses insulin.

Once you have eliminated white foods, it is time to go a bit further. Take a look at the food in your kitchen. Is it as close to its original form as possible? Are grains still whole – coated with their bran? Where did your meat come from? Was it a commercial farm where the animals stood in a feed lot and were routinely fed antibiotics and hormones or did they grow on the range, eating only grass? Don’t just look at big items, even smaller ones, such as salt can make a difference.

For example, sea salt contains many trace minerals that don’t exist in commercial salt. Even refined sea salt has lost most of its mineral related benefits, so opt for unrefined sea salt when you can.

Use coconut and olive oil for all your cooking and baking needs. They are the best ones available; good for your heart and they help promote efficient energy usage too.

Are there “healthy foods” I should avoid?
Even healthy foods can offer some challenges during pregnancy. Vitamin A, found in high quantities in liver, can actually be harmful, if consumed from meat. If taken in through vegetables it is fine, since you don’t actually get the complete vitamin, rather you get the biochemical building blocks of vitamin A and the body only makes what it needs.

Another seemingly good for you food to avoid whenever you can is produce grown conventionally. Even small levels of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides can affect fetal development. How much it takes to cause a defect isn’t known, but pregnant women in farm country are told to leave their homes when large scale spraying is taking place. There has to be a reason for that precaution.

If you can’t afford to purchase organic produce for every item in your kitchen, then purchase those that are most offensive – chemical wise, and make sure to rinse everything well.

Eat for Life
Something we forget in our fast paced society is that we are eating not just to “stoke the furnace” we are eating for life. We have come to see food as the enemy, and it isn’t. Without good, healthy food, our bodies deteriorate and sicken. Pregnancy isn’t the time to try and lose weight, rather you should eat well and relish the changes that are taking over your body.

By: Isabel DeLosRios

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Not sure which foods to avoid during pregnancy? Maximize your nutrition, feel great and get all that you and your baby need to thrive without any worries. Visit www.whattoeatwhilepregnant.com for the answers to see you through your pregnancy.

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