Vegan Plant Based Diet and Pregnancy

Plant Based Diet and Pregnancy - The Nutrition Information You Need as an Expecting Mother

Here you will find information about the best foods for a healthy pregnancy and you can also read about how a plant-based nutrition coach / vegan health coach eats during her pregnancy.

Lets start with what to make sure you inlude in your diet.

The HEALTHIEST FOODS FOR PREGNANCY

When we are vegan or eat plant-based, we naturally get a lot of good nutrients in us because of the food choices we make. Fruits and vegetables, all kinds, are very important to have every day. Bananas, all kinds of greens, broccoli, sweet potato... All fruits should be fine, but focus on organic, especially when it comes to berries, and no unripe fruit please, you should for example not have unripe papaya.

But there are some foods that are especially important when pregnant because of what is in them. These you should try to have several times a week. Here is a list for you:

Almonds

Lentils

Chickpeas

Tahini

Peanut butter, without added sugar

Quinoa

Strawberries, organic

Spinach

Peas

Brussel sprouts

Chia seeds

Pumpkin seeds

Dark chocolate, but no more than a few pices a day, so not more than about 30 grams

Oats or oatmeal

Sun-dried tomatoes

Kidney beans

Apples

Dried fruits for extra fiber and for good blood flow

Kiwi (have at least one every day) Good for the new cells that are forming the new little body of the fetus and also very good for helping the gut get more lactobacillus barcterias, that we need a lot of.

Pomegranate, have once in a while, can also be pomegranate juice. Good for the stommach and gut flora, plus it is packed with vitamins.

Stone fruit, a few times a week, for example peaches, cherries, nectarines, plums

Blueberries, and other berries - preferably organic

Baby spinach

Carrots

Avocado

Kale or cabbage

Plant-based yogurt, for the gut

Sea vegetables, for example wakame or nori

Kimchi. contains Vit K2 that we need as well as good baceria

Kimchi and sea vegetabkes you dont need to have every day, once a week is enough

Sometimes it is hard to take suggestions of what to eat if we dont know why we are doing it. To get the reason behind every item on this list, and for specific quantities, a shopping list and recipes, get a meal plan made for you here.

What I Eat During My Vegan Plant-Based Pregnancy

This is me when I was about five months pregnant a while back. Me and my sister and my son had traveled to Porto in Portugal and had a fun little trip over a few days.

Throughout this pregnancy I have been thinking a lot about what I eat. It was not easy in the first trimester when i used to have some morning sickness, and not only in the morning. The nausea coud come anytime of the day. From a bad smell or just out of nowhere. Useually what really helped was to always carry a "ginger shot" with me, a small bottle of ginger/apple juice. This really helped me to feel better quite quickly.

I also had a hard time with many smells, for example the smell of beans. I still made sure I ate well, tried to ignore the nausea as much as possible. It dissapeared about three months into the pregnancy, so if you are still in your first trimester, know that also this will pass and you will soon start to feel normal again.

I eat pretty much like the guidelines on this page, I have all the healthiest foods for pregnancy that are listed here, and I try to have them daily or at least every other day. Nuts and seeds, about a handful each day, tahini, chickpeas,quinoa, kidney beans once in a while (would be better to have them even more often), peas, brussel sprouts, other vegetables and at least 3 whole fruits a day. Some dried fruits also and chia seeds for fiber. Raw vegetables, like carrots and spinach and kale. I dont always have time to make some salad or some dish, so I just cut them up a little and snack on them whicle I am doing something else. I alos like smoothies and green juices.

I take vitamins, DHA and vitamin D3 daily. There is vitamin D in the pre-natal, but I still think it is important to take just a little more every day. I have this vit D mouth spay that is really convenient, its basically just the vitamin in mint oil. A few times a week I take iron. In the beginning of this pregnancy I also took extra B12 for a few weeks. For more info about important vegan supplements, go here.

Plant Based Diet and Pregnancy Tips

When you are pregnant, but also before to becoming pregnant, have more greens, vegetables and salads than you normally would have. This will give you a lot of needed minerals as well a sfolic acid, that is very necessary at this time in your life.

Dont stress so much about all of this though, yes it is important to eat well and sleep enough (preferably sleeping on your left side as often as possible) and relax but also to excersice, but dont overthink it and dont feel bad when you occasionally havent had the best day - it happens to all of us!

advantages of A plant based diet while Expecting

Plant Based Diet and Pregnancy Benefits - I would say that we as vegans or plant-based women have a lot of advantages when it comes to the time of our life when we carry another life inside of us. Our bodies tend to be more alkaline and lighter, be less inflamed and in general do better than most other people on more conventional diets. We also tend to feel and look younger and have less pregnancy issues, like high blood pressure, constipation and heart burn. Sure we can still have some of that too but to a lesser extent than if we would be having meat and fast food on the regular.

If you are only now starting a plant based diet and not yet very used to this lifestyle, check out the plant based diet for beginners section.

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Vegan Plant Based Diet and Pregnancy

The HEALTHIEST FOODS FOR PREGNANCY

What I Eat During My Vegan Plant-Based Pregnancy

Plant Based Diet and Pregnancy Tips

advantages of A plant based diet while Expecting

Comments

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