Pregnancy Diet Plan: Reduce the Risk of Gestational Diabetes

When you are pregnant, hormones from the placenta makes it difficult for the body to produce and use insulin efficiently. This can contribute to insulin resistance and eventually result in gestational diabetes. Being proactive with your pregnancy diet plan may help reduce your risk of developing this condition.

Risk Factors for Gestational Diabetes

Family history and genetics play a role in the development of gestational diabetes. Some other risk factors of this condition include:

? obesity

? maternal age over 30

? being Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or African American

? having polycystic ovarian syndrome

? past history of multiple miscarriages

? previous pregnancy with gestational diabetes

? previous birth of a child that weighed more than 9 lbs

? excessive weight gain during pregnancy

? smoking

? history of chronic urinary tract or skin infections

? hypertension

Dangers of Gestational Diabetes to Your Unborn Baby

During pregnancy, anything that affects you affects your unborn baby too. When you have gestational diabetes, the extra glucose crosses the placenta and can cause your unborn baby to have high-blood glucose levels. Your baby's pancreas will work overtime and produce more energy than he needs. The extra energy is then stored in your baby's system as fat.

When energy gets stored as fat, the baby can grow too big and suffer from shoulder damage during birth. The baby may also have breathing problems, low blood sugar, jaundice and low calcium levels after birth. Infants with high blood-glucose levels have an increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes when they get older.

Gestational diabetes goes away after pregnancy, but some women who suffer with this condition go on to develop type 2 diabetes later down the line.

Pregnancy Diet Plan to Reduce the Risk of Gestational Diabetes

To reduce your risk of gestational diabetes, eliminate sugar, processed foods, junk food and artificial sweeteners from your diet. All of these things are unhealthy because they can contribute to weight gain, damage your health and raise your blood-sugar levels. Instead of eating these foods, fill your pregnancy diet with complex carbohydrates, high fiber foods, lean meats, poultry and fish.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that 50 to 60 percent of your diet should consist of complex carbs. Complex carbohydrates take longer to digest so they help regulate your blood-sugar levels. Some examples of healthy complex carbohydrates include beans, lentils, vegetables and brown rice.

Simple carbohydrates such as white bread, pastries, pasta and white rice have no place in your pregnancy diet. These foods breakdown in the body quicker and raise your blood-glucose levels. Less than 30 percent of your meals should come from healthy fats like coconut oil, avocados, hazelnuts, pecans, fish, flaxseed oil and sesame seeds. Protein-rich foods like lean meats, organic poultry, whole eggs and fish should make up 10 to 20 percent of your diet.

Never skip meals. Instead of eating large meals, eat three small meals and two snacks at regular times every day. Also, drink plenty of water. The ideal pregnancy diet will consist of a variety of healthy foods so your baby gets all the nutrients he needs to thrive. If you are unsure about how to create a healthy eating plan, talk to a pregnancy nutritionist.

Exercise helps stimulate glucose transport, so in addition to eating nutritiously, you can reduce your risk of gestational diabetes by working out regularly. All pregnancies are different, so for safety reasons, clear your exercise plan with your doctor first.

While there is no guarantee that you will not get gestational diabetes, following a healthy pregnancy nutrition plan and exercising regularly may reduce your risk of developing this condition.

Proper nutrition is vital to a healthy pregnancy. Learn to follow a nutritious whattoeatwhilepregnant.com pregnancy diet plan at whattoeatwhilepregnant.com whattoeatwhilepregnant.com.