Yoga Diet During Pregnancy Healthy Eating While Pregnant

Quick checklist

Good salt: Pickle, papad, sherbet, khara singdana or the practice of putting kalanamak on fruits like guava, star fruit, amla, karvand, etc. Regular use of salt in cooking, salt in bathing water, the occasional pakora or wada made at home.

Bad salt: Packaged and processed biscuits, chips (ya, even your vegan, kale chips), packaged salted nuts and chakna items, processed cheese, butter, outside stuff like Chinese take-away, samosa, pizza, popcorn, burgers, etc., basically anything that is sold in a franchise model in malls and on highways.

Yoga Diet During Pregnancy Healthy Eating While Pregnant Photo Gallery

A NOTE ON SALT

The USDA reversed guidelines on cholesterol in April 2015; the next one that is likely to get revised is on salt in 2020. Till now it was acceptable that salt should be minimized or avoided, just like what we thought of cholesterol. But research now shows that very low consumption of salt is linked to insulin resistance, ageing and even heart disease. The USDA also came up with something called ‘voluntary sodium targets’ for food companies and restaurants, because more than 75 per cent of sodium that Americans eat comes from packaged, processed and restaurant foods, and not as namak in their nimbu pani or sabzi. Salt restriction needs to be understood as a surrogate measure of restriction on eating out, eating out of packets, etc., and not on mathris, papads, pickle and other nutritious foods made at home.

Caffeine: The cup or two of chai or coffee with sugar will not harm, but caffeine crawls up from many unseen places—chocolates, cupcakes, energy drinks and colas—and it’s through these things that it will leave you dehydrated.

So while you don’t need to kick the cuppa, you must follow the basics:

1. No chai or coffee first thing in the morning, start with a fruit or dry fruit.

2. No chai or coffee as a replacement to a meal. E.g. in office during / after long meetings.

3. No chai or coffee as a late-night meal post dinner like when you step out to meet friends / go for a drive, etc.

All the above are applicable also to green tea or white tea or any other tea.

Basically, the thing to keep an eye on is your urine: if it smells of tea, coffee, you are overdoing it and need to cut back; especially the invisible sources as mentioned earlier.

And one more special pregnancy tip is to never have tea or coffee just before stepping out of the house. During pregnancy, the body maintains a delicate balance between its anti-diuretic hormone, hydration level and blood pressure, and a cuppa for the road may well leave you needing a loo, which in India you are not going to find easily. The best drink that will get you from point A to point B while keeping you hydrated without you needing to pee is a glass of milk.