What should you eat?
A healthy diet is an important part of a healthy lifestyle at any time, but particularly if you are pregnant or are planning a pregnancy. Eating healthily during pregnancy will help your baby develop and grow and will help keep you fit and well. You don't need to go on a special diet, but make sure that you eat a variety of different foods every day in order to get the right balance of nutrients that you and your baby need. You should also avoid certain foods to be on the safe side. There's no need to 'eat for two' when you are pregnant. It's the quality not the quantity that's important. With a few exceptions you can continue to eat all the foods you enjoy. Eating healthily often means just changing the amounts of different foods that you eat rather than cutting out all your favourites.

The balance of good health
Make these food groups the main part of every meal, eat wholegrain, organic varieties where appropriate when you can as these can help lift the burden on your liver which will have enoug h to cope with dealing with detoxification of increased oestrogen levels. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables as these provide the vitamins and minerals, as well as fibre which helps digestion and prevents constipation. Eat them lightly steamed or raw to get the most out of them. Fresh frozen vegetables are good too. Starchy foods like wholegrain bread, organic potatoes, brown rice, wholegrain pasta, salt free chapatis, yams and non refined breakfast cereals are an important part of any diet and should, with vegetables, be included with most meals. They are satisfying, without containing too many calories, and are an important source of vitamins and fibre. Try eating wholemeal/wholegrain bread and wholegrain cereals (muesli/oats etc) when you can. Lean white meat; oily fish, poultry, eggs, beans and pulses are all good sources of nutrients - especially quality protein needed for developing new skin and tissue. Eat some every day if possible. Making sure you include suitable amounts of protein into a daily diet helps ensure that your baby will have all the essential amino acids (the building blocks of new protein) it needs to grow. Dairy foods like milk, cheese and yoghurt are important as they contain calcium and other nutrients needed for your baby's development. (Choose low-fat varieties wherever possible). Soya based formulas also offer high levels of calcium and many are enriched with many other vitamins and minerals too. They offer a good alternative to cows milk which has been found, along with many other dairy products, to cause allergies in infants and are quite mucous forming in both baby and mother. Try to cut down on sugar and sugary foods like sweets, biscuits and cakes and sugary drinks like cola if they are part of your diet. sugar contains calories without providing any other nutrients the body needs. It also raises blood sugar levels artificially which can cause your energy levels to fluctuate wildly leaving you potentially with periods of increased tiredness throug hout the day Cut down on fat and fatty foods as well. Most of us eat far more fat than we need. Fat is very high in calories and too much can cause excess weight gain and increase the risk of heart disease and it can contribute to being overweight. Avoid fried foods, trim the fat off meat, use spreads sparingly and avoid foods like pastry, chocolate and chips which contain a lot of saturated fats. If you choose to have dairy in your pregnancy diet, choose low fat varieties and supplement the essential fats as a daily nutritional oil supplement (This will probably be included in my nutritional plan to you anyway).

Key food groups and their nutrients
Green, leafy vegetables, lean meat, dried fruit, seeds and nuts contain iron. If you are short of iron you're likely to get very tired and may suffer from anaemia - your midwife or GP may run a random blood test to check this. Citrus fruit, tomatoes, broccoli, blackcurrants and potatoes are good sources of vitamin C, which you need to help you to absorb iron.

Dairy products, oily fish like sardines, wholegrain bread, nuts and green leafy vegetables are rich in calcium, which is vital for making bones and teeth. Dairy margarine, oily fish (like sardines) and taramasalata contain vitamin D to keep your bones healthy and to provide your baby with vitamin D to last during the first few months of life. The best source of vitamin D is summer sunlight. You need extra folic acid from the time you start trying to conceive until the 12th week of pregnancy This has been shown to help prevent birth defects, which are known as neural tube defects, such as spina bifida. You can get folic acid from green, leafy vegetables, but don't overcook them as this destroys the vitamin. Some wholegrain breakfast cereals and breads have had folic acid added to them, so look at the label. Regardless of what you eat, always take a 400 microgram (0.4 milligram) folic acid tablet every day (This will be included in most multivitamin formulations aimed at nutritional support during pregnancy and pre-conceptually also)

Vegetarian and Vegan diets
Providing a vegetarian diet is varied and balanced, it will provide adequate nutrients for you and your baby during pregnancy. However, iron and vitamin B12 can be hard to obtain from a vegetarian diet. If this is appropriate to you, we will have talked about ways to increase intakes of these important nutrients. If you are vegan (i.e. you cut out all animal products from your diet), or you follow another type of restricted diet such as gluten free, for example, because of food intolerance (e.g. coeliac disease) or for religious reasons, then we will have discussed this also. If you want to, ask your GP to refer you to a Nutritionist for absolute clarity and for added advice on how to eat healthily during pregnancy

Healthier snacks

Sandwiches or pitta bread filled with grated cheese, lean ham, mashed tuna, salmon or sardines and salad

Salad vegetables washed thoroug hly

Low-fat yoghurt and fromage frais

Hummous and rye crackers, crispbread or vegetable sticks

Ready-to-eat apricots, figs or prunes

Vegetable and bean soups or broths

Unsweetened breakfast cereals or porridge and Soya milk

Piles of chopped fresh soft fruit with nuts and Yofu (soya Yogurt) - good for breakfast!

Soya drinks like Provamel or unsweetened fruit juices

Fresh fruit - in season only and preferably organic as this will have no pesticide or toxic residues

Low salt/sugar baked beans on wholegrain toast or baked potato

Taking care with some foods
Besides eating a wide variety of foods, there are certain precautions you should take in order to safeguard your baby's well-being as well as your own.

Cook all meat and poultry thoroug hly so that there is no trace of pink or blood and wash all surfaces and utensils after preparing raw meat. This will help to avoid infection with Toxoplasma, which may cause toxoplasmosis and can harm your baby

Wash fruit, vegetables and salads to remove all traces of soil which may contain Toxoplasma. Also, make up a weak solution of white vinegar and water and wash fruit surfaces with this to remove artificial waxes and traces of pesticides...or if in doubt, peel!

Make sure eggs are thoroug hly cooked until the whites and yolks are solid, to prevent the risk of Salmonella food poisoning, and avoid foods containing raw and undercooked eggs like homemade mayonnaise, ice-cream, cheesecake or mousse.

Avoid eating all types of pate and mould-ripened soft cheese, like Brie and Camembert, and similar blue‹ veined varieties, like Stilton or Danish blue, because of the risk of Listeria infection. You can eat hard cheeses such as cheddar and parmesan, and other cheeses made from pasteurised milk such as cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese and cheese spreads. Althoug h Listeria is a very rare disease, it is important to take special precautions during pregnancy because even the mild form of the illness can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth or severe illness in the newborn.

If you are going to drink milk, drink only pasteurised or UHT milk which has had the harmful germs destroyed. Don't drink unpasteurised goat's or sheep's milk or eat their milk products.

Don't eat liver or liver products, like liver pate or liver sausage, as they may contain a lot of vitamin A. Too much vitamin A could harm your baby

Avoid eating salted peanuts and foods containing peanut products (e.g. peanut butter, unrefined groundnut oil, some snacks, etc.) if you or your baby's father or any previous children have a history of hayfever, asthma, eczema or other allergies. This may reduce the risk of your baby developing a potentially serious allergy to peanuts. Read food labels carefully and, if you are still in doubt about the contents, avoid these foods.

Smoking
If you smoke, carbon monoxide and nicotine pass into your lungs and bloodstream. This means that:

Your baby gets less oxygen and cannot grow as well as it should, and

The nicotine makes your baby's heart beat faster which places an unnecessary strain on it at a crucial stage in its development.

Breathing in other people's smoke makes the baby more likely to suffer from asthma attacks, chest infections, coug hs and colds, and to be admitted to hospital.

If you stop smoking now

You're more likely to have a healthier pregnancy and a healthier baby;

You & your baby will cope better with any birth complication that may arise

Your baby is less likely to be born too early and have to face the additional breathing, feeding and health problems which so often go with prematurity

Your baby is less likely to be born underweight and have extra problems in keeping warm. Research has shown conclusively that babies of mothers who smoke are, on average, 200 g (about 8 oz) lighter than other babies. These babies may have problems during and after labour and are more prone to infection

It will be better for your baby later too. Children whose parents smoke are more likely to suffer later on from illnesses which need hospital treatment (such as asthma);

Research has shown that stopping smoking reduces the risk of cot death. If you smoke- even socially - the sooner you stop, the better. If any members of your household smoke, their smoke can affect you and the baby both before and after birth. Protecting the fetus and the new baby from tobacco smoke is one of the best things you can do to give your child a healthy start in life.

Alcohol

Find a non-alcoholic drink you enjoy - low sugar!

If people try to pressure you into drinking. refuse politely but firmly

Avoid getting drunk - big strain on the liver!. The good news is there appears no hard evidence that occasional drinking in pregnancy will harm your baby. But research shows that heavy or frequent drinking can seriously harm your baby's development. To be on the safe side - if in doubt, stop!