Your health pregnancy diet should not contain any raw fish or anything raw for that matter as raw food contains parasite or viruses and chemicals that could harm you as well as your baby.

Pregnancy demands a meticulous approach to food- from the way it is cooked to the ingredients as well as the cleanliness of food preparation. Nutritional status during pregnancy is a critical component in your health pregnancy guide as it affects both your baby and you. With parasites and chemicals in your food, the nutritional expense in the food will be taken away. This causes malnutrition in a new born and it can be magnified many more times especially if the women is pregnant.

Foods that are likely to contain chemicals and parasites are fishes such as cod, pacific salmon and pacific rockfish. Some fish contain methyl mercury, a metal believed to be harmful in high doses to the growing brains of fetuses and young children. The FDA recommends that your health pregnancy diet is limited to consuming tuna and other cooked fish to about 12 ounces a week, the equivalent of about two servings. In the fishing and food industries, many precautions are taken to prevent infected fish from getting into our food supply, but that is not a 100 percent guarantee. So it is up to you, are a new mom to be careful of what you eat during your pregnancy. The best and safest way is to opt it out from your health pregnancy diet.

Another reason for not eating sushi is that pregnant women and infants are at a higher risk of pathogenic organism called Listeria monocytogenes. During pregnancy, a woman is twice as much likely to contract a disease or illness than women who are not pregnant. This is because stamina, metabolic rates and antibodies are all changed the minute a women is pregnant. This is also found in raw fish, along with many cheeses, especially soft cheeses, such as Brie. This is because bacteria and other organisms can live in pasteurized conditions.

Though that, this is no reason to avoid fish at all. Soft cheeses and sushi should be avoided at all cost but fishes can be eaten provided that they are thoroughly cooked. The same goes with meat and poultry as they can carry bacteria and parasites too. Always have your meat well done to avoid getting any illnesses. Fruits and vegetables should also be washed cleanly as this will greatly reduce the risk of you and your baby contracting micro-organisms. Anything that you eat in your health pregnancy diet should always be clean, well-cooked and healthy.

A good nutrition pregnancy guide needs planning together with your doctor or health care provider. In any pregnancy nutrition guide, it will include enough calories for adequate weight gain, as well as a variety of foods from each food group. A pregnancy nutrition guide helps you in eating right but with very limited use of oils and solid fats.

 Also, with the guide, you have to follow a regular meal time and snacking time where the pregnancy nutrition guide provides you with suggestions on what healthy snacks can be taken to maintain your energy levels throughout the day as well as how often you are recommended to be snacking.

Food cravings or bound to come up so snacking on the occasional chocolate cake or butterscotch ice cream is fine. Just don’t do it too often with the excuse of being pregnant. Just as how you maintain what you eat before pregnancy, you should continue healthy eating habits during pregnancy as well.

A pregnancy nutrition guide helps you in getting the recommended daily intake of calcium, protein, fats, carbohydrates and fiber. Most pregnancy nutrition guides stress on at least 30 grams of dietary fiber everyday, with more that 8 cups of water, reduced salt and sugar intake as well as absolutely no alcoholic beverages. You will also find that antenatal vitamins are recommended to be taken according to their daily dosage.

With your pregnancy nutrition guide, you can have a guideline to choose healthy foods to meet both your baby’s and your body’s needs. The guide formulated together with your doctor will also include recommendations to increase intake of nutrient-dense foods. Nutrient-dense foods are foods that are full with more nutrients for the calories than other foods that are mostly calories with few other nutrients. A nutrition pregnancy guide is also formulated based on your age and activity level while adding the additional 300 calories per day at the start of the second trimester; you can get the nourishment you need.

A mom-to-be needs these essential vitamins and minerals which are protein, foliate, calcium, zinc and iron. Protein is essentially needed for the buildup of your body’s muscles, uterus, breasts, blood supply, and baby’s tissues. If you have low protein intake, it can relate to smaller-than-average weight babies who may have health problems. A pregnant woman needs around 60 grams of protein per day to help in the growth of her baby as well as for her health maintenance. It is also important to eat enough foods high in foliate like broccoli, dark green vegetables, and oranges both before and during pregnancy. The dietary reference intake for foliate is 400 milligrams per day. Calcium should be taken for about 1,000 milligrams per day or 1,300 milligrams per day for women under 18 years of age for the development of strong bones and teeth.

Zinc deficiency during pregnancy can cause long labor and small babies who may have health problems. Zinc can be obtained very easily and the dietary reference intake for zinc is 11 milligrams per day or 12 milligrams per day for women under 18 years of age whereas the dietary reference intake for iron is 27 milligrams per day for all pregnant women.

One change that women will experience during pregnancy is a craving for food. Before you were pregnant, you may have been able to eat anything and everything you wanted without much of a second thought, but all that will change once you’re pregnant. That is because you need to remember that your unborn baby is growing inside you, and what you eat will affect it, and studies have shown that healthy pregnancy nutrition is important because it will affect your baby’s health and growth development. That is one of main reasons why you need to make wise and healthy choices during pregnancy, take up healthy habits such as exercising and drop the unhealthy habits like smoking and drinking.

Taking extra vitamins is also essential as part of your healthy pregnancy nutrition plan. During your pregnancy, you will experience changes in your eating patterns and your intake of food will also increase because you need to sustain not just yourself, but your baby as well. Having a healthy pregnancy nutrition means that you need to know which foods you can eat and which foods you should avoid. An expectant mother should add on another 300 extra calories or so to her daily calorie intake as that is the healthy recommendation.

Following healthy nutrition for pregnancy as what is recommended by your doctor can help your unborn baby’s health and reduce its susceptibility to infections and birth defects. A healthy pregnancy nutrition plan is also important for your health as well as it can prevent you from experiencing symptoms such as fatigue, constipation, morning sickness and leg cramps, which are all part of the normal pregnancy symptoms. It also will make the child birth and post-partum depression much easier.

There are a lot of supplements out there which you could take if you are an expectant mother, but you still should be careful about what you consume and not randomly consume them. Every expectant mother is different and her needs would differ depending on her pregnancy. The best thing you can do is get the advice of your regular doctor before you start consuming anything to be on the safe side. The doctor would be the best candidate to recommend you on what you should and should not consume so seek his advice if you have any doubts.