Foods that contain a lot of folate or folic acids are very essential for pregnant women, adding vegetables and fortified grains to your healthy pregnancy diet will do you and your baby a lot of good, plus a prenatal vitamin, to your lineup.
The B vitamin is known as folate, or the synthetic version known as folic acid offers many benefits before you get pregnant and during pregnancy period. It protects your baby against neural tube defects (NTD), serious abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord. "As a woman, you need to eat a well-balanced diet to produce a healthy baby, with plenty of folate-rich foods. One of the best things you can do to ensure a healthy baby is to make sure you are eating a healthy diet, with plenty of folate-rich foods, before you get pregnant.
It has been proven that 70% percent of all NTD could be prevented if pregnant women take the recommended amount of folic acid needed for a healthy baby before and during early pregnancy. The best way to ensure you get enough folate as needed is to take a multivitamin with 400 micrograms of folic acid and eat plenty of rich folate foods like the following:
Cereals Fortified with Folate
Before it's is regarded as kids' food but now is no longer for kids alone. Do you know that the majority of the fortified cereals as the recommended dosage of folic acid? It supplies 100 to 400 mcg of folic acid in each half cup to one-and-a-half cup serving.
To get maximum benefit, check the nutrition label of the cereals and make sure it contains 35% of the daily value for folic acid. That means you will be eating twice as much as one cereal serving in a sitting (10 times faster). Also, check the nutrition label and make sure it contains at least three grams of fiber and less sugar of ten grams, as suggested by a nutritionist. Eat a bowl in the morning with low-fat milk, sprinkle it on your yogurt, or pack it in a snack-size plastic bag and take it with you to the office or glove compartment to munch on throughout the day.
Cooked Lentils contain 180 mcg of folate.
Lentils belong to the family member of a legume with a whooping 180mcg of folate in each half-cup serving. They're also rich in protein, fiber and low in fat, which makes them a better alternative to meat.
Get them from your local health food store around you, and before eating rinse away the dirt and boil for up to 20 minutes and add spices of your choice (such as ginger or Tumeric) and serve over brown rice, or use the lentils to prepare a soup of your choice. If you don't have time for this and you prefer to eat it raw, make sure you rinse very well to remove 30 percent of the sodium.
Great white Beans
These white beans contain the key nutrient that you need during pregnancy including calcium and potassium, and a half-cup serving gives you 90 mcg of folate. Also, it contains fiber and has no saturated fat. It may reduce your risk of preeclampsia (high blood pressure during 20 weeks of pregnancy), type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancer condition.
Get the low-sodium canned type, and wash it very well with cold water and drain— it reduces all the sodium and reduces the gas as well. By doing this you will not experience any gas by consuming them. You can sprinkle it on the soups or stir-fry the beans instead.
Asparagus
These folic-acid food are low calories and has no cholesterol or fat in it. Also, they are rich in potassium and fiber. If you boil four spears of asparagus and eat, it will give you 85mcg of folate.
Make sure you get firm and fresh spears with closed, compact tips that are similar in diameter to cook evenly. The bigger the length of the spears, the more tender the veggie. To cock, cut stem ends slightly and cook for 5 to 8 minutes in boiling water.
Enriched Pasta contains 100mcg of folate
Pregnant women need to rest often to regain more energy, and pasta is an excellent source of carbohydrate that supplies glucose, the fundamental fuel for your body. Get whole-wheat pasta, which digests more slowly and provides a slow, steady stream of energy; it's also higher in fiber than the white type. One cup of cooked pasta provides 100 mcg of folic acid.
Our advice
To get maximum benefit for you and your baby you need to eat healthy nutritional foods. Try all the pregnancy diets you can find around including folate-rich food and other vitamins. This will ensure a healthy baby and healthy mother as well.
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