Pregnancy Diet South Indian - General Tips

A few of you asked me some tips for pregnancy diet. Yeah food is the medicine. Food is the key for a healthy, brainy and strong baby. If you give more importance to food diet, you could maintain your health and develop a healthy baby.

Women staying at home and first time mothers need more care on exercises and food diet. You should not put on more weight. Working women or women already having child should concentrate more on nutrition. Otherwise, there is a chance for deficiencies.

You can see sample diet charts for each trimester.

• Sample Diet for First Trimester
• Sample Diet for Second Trimester
• Sample Diet for Third Trimester

The diet is based on the trimester. The items to include and exclude varies based on the trimester. C'mon let us see in detail.

Throughout pregnancy, doctors give importance to three things

• Maintaining blood pressure
• Maintaining correct blood sugar levels
• Maintaining proper haemoglobin levels
• Drinking lots of fluids 
• Improving Calcium and Vitamin D

General Advice on Foods

• Include fruits like apple, orange, pomegranate, banana and berries.
• Include more green, orange and red colour fruits.
• Include lentils, peas and nuts. 
• Mix water with milk and skim it with water. Don't use anything low fat. Also add half sugar. 
• It is not good to have more fruits at night. It may result in cold.
• It is not good to have keerai in night. It will be hard to digest.
• Use half sugar throughout pregnancy.

Most Needed Vitamins and Minerals - Based on Trimester

Foods to Avoid

• Avoid more quantity of pineapple, papaya, ellu(sesame) and ginger. Doctors say having them in minimum quantity wont affect. But usually parent advice not to have. 
• Don't eat over salty foods, continuously 
• Don't eat more cheese. Soft cheese should be avoided.
• Avoid large types of fishes like swordfish.
• Avoid undercooked meat at any cost.
• Avoid uncooked or undercooked egg. 
• Avoid unpasteurised milk. You need to be careful at the juice shops. If you add juices in milk, Use only pasteurized milk. 
• Unwashed fruits or vegetables. They have more chemicals.
• Caffeine. Bad news for coffee lovers
• Artificial sweeteners. It is really not good. 
• All purpose flour or maida would cause constipation.