Nutrition has a major impact on our lives and the lives of our descendants. We also pay close attention to it during pregnancy. Sometimes we hear that if we teach a mother healthy lifestyle habits, the whole family will be healthy. And this is partly true. Especially during pregnancy, women tend to change their lifestyle habits—both in terms of physical activity and nutrition. And rightly so. However, it’s also important that they find an appropriate source of relevant information on how to approach this. It’s essential that knowledge about healthy nutrition and its impact on quality of life is spread among healthcare professionals who come into daily contact with expectant parents, and that they present the importance of healthy and balanced nutrition for them and their descendants.
The diet of pregnant women is not fundamentally different from a generally healthy diet. It’s beneficial to eat smaller, evenly distributed meals—five or six meals a day—to ensure a steady supply of nutrients, emphasizes Evgen Benedik. Adequate hydration is also important, meaning the consumption of unsweetened teas, mineral water, and water. This does NOT include smoothies. It’s most advisable to consume locally grown and seasonal foods, as minimally processed and as high-quality as possible.
If a mother has developed healthy eating habits, she will pass them on to her child. The process begins even before pregnancy itself. Nutritional programming lasts a thousand days—what the mother eats is important three months before conception (what the father eats is also important here), throughout the entire pregnancy, and two years after birth. Investing in healthy eating habits during this time is the best gift for a lifetime. It reduces the risk of developing excess body weight, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, and digestive disorders. It even affects the next generation of descendants. This is what we call metabolic programming or metabolic imprinting.
Source: The First 1000 Days – A Gift for Life; Evgen Benedik, B.Sc. in Food Technology
Epigenetics – deals with changes in gene expression that are not the result of changes in DNA sequence (e.g., mutations), but are hereditary (mitosis).
At the link you can watch a recording from the show “Good Morning” where Assistant Dr. Evgen Benedik, B.Sc. in Food Technology, employed at UKC Ljubljana, spoke about nutrition during pregnancy. Summary from the show:
- pregnant women in Slovenia, regardless of age and education, reach for nutrient-poor foods (chocolate, Bled cream cake), consume a lot of processed foods and too little vegetables and fruit
- it’s necessary to avoid foods (food and drink) with sugars and too little water, unsweetened beverages, saturated fats (wafers, cookies, fried items such as doughnuts), and they also consume too much salt
- exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months and then continuing also helps with losing weight after childbirth
- due to evolution, because food wasn’t available at every turn, a woman’s body creates a “reserve” so that through breastfeeding she can give all the necessary nutrients to the child
- a pregnant woman must eat nutrient-rich foods and NOT EAT FOR TWO
- the food pyramid during pregnancy does not change, only 1-2 times a week is it recommended to consume fatty sea fish (the smaller they are, the better—sardines, anchovies NOT FRIED), and folic acid until the 12th week of pregnancy
- most pregnant women find fish smelly during pregnancy, so they should consume dietary supplements of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids
- a breastfeeding mother needs nutrients, so do NOT give up fresh fruit and vegetables; within normal limits they do not affect COLIC
- colic in a newborn is a “necessary evil” for the first three months regardless of what the mother ate
- a healthy diet can also include the occasional treat, indulgence, a piece of chocolate, a cream cake from time to time, but not on a daily basis
- it’s important that a pregnant and breastfeeding mother is not on diets (except for health reasons), because the fetus receives signals about flavors from the environment or through her milk when she breastfeeds; this makes introducing solid food easier, as the child will accept it more quickly because the flavors will be familiar; infants fed only with milk formulas may have more difficulty introducing solid food because the flavors do not change
- if we consume a normal, balanced diet, apart from folic acid and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, there is no need to add dietary supplements
FABRIKA organized a screening of the documentary film “That Sugar Film,” which is the reason for my writing. To summarize briefly, the film talks about how much sugar we actually consume. It’s a 60-day experiment where Damon Gameau consumed a typical Australian 40 teaspoons of sugar daily from food that, according to outdated theories, was considered “healthy nutrition”—low-fat products or products with less or no fat. Today, however, we know that it can be directly or indirectly linked to the development of certain diseases and conditions, malabsorption, etc. Unfortunately, this food is still considered “good” for people today, as the food industry convinces us of this. His menu during the experiment strictly included food or products labeled as low-fat or no-fat that can be found on healthy food shelves in stores: cereals, smoothies, muesli bars, and low-fat yogurts. In 60 days, he did not consume fast food, chocolates, ice cream, or any sweets. The result: mood swings, 10 cm of (fat) layer around the waist, significant deterioration of liver function, and a shortcut to cardiovascular diseases. The film highlights the differences between different types of sugar and the fact that a calorie is not equal to a calorie.
Have you reduced the amount of sugar in your diet?
