Pregnant women often ask me, “Doctor, I’m pregnant, what should I pay attention to?” “Doctor, I have a heavy early pregnancy reaction, I can’t eat, what should I do?” “Doctor, I am very constipated after pregnancy, what should I do?” “Doctor, how should I take calcium after pregnancy?” These questions boil down to the issue of nutrition for pregnant women. As a woman during pregnancy, it is important to pay some attention to all aspects for the healthy growth of the baby, especially the diet. So what is the importance of diet during pregnancy? Which foods should not be eaten and which should be eaten less? What should we pay attention to? Here I will briefly introduce. We usually pay attention to nutrition to ensure the health of the body, and nutrition during pregnancy is for the healthy growth of the baby in the belly. The fetus growing in the womb in 10 months, that is, 280 days, the weight of about 3 kg, its nutrition is absorbed from the mother’s body, while excretion of waste is also carried out through the mother. Research has found that folic acid deficiency during pregnancy is related to fetal neural tube malformation; calcium is related to fetal bone development and gestational hypertension in pregnant women; iron deficiency can lead to anemia in pregnant women, premature birth and miscarriage of fetus; maternal IQ and health directly affects the intelligence and health of the fetus, etc. Therefore, after pregnancy to learn to eat “good”. But you can not eat indiscriminately, because too many calories will add to the burden of the body in all aspects. The most important thing for pregnant women is to take in a reasonable amount of essential and nutritious food, not just a lot of it. First of all, it is important to develop good eating habits. In order for the fetus in the body to grow smoothly, pregnant women should try to arrange their daily dietary life, and must develop balanced and good eating habits, not to be partial, not to be picky, not to overeat, eat less and eat more, and try to cook the food deliciously to enhance appetite. Pay attention to the supplementation of nutrients such as folic acid, iron, calcium, zinc, DHA and protein. Since pregnant women, a special group, need more vitamins and mineral nutrients and increase the ratio more than calories, they should not blindly satisfy by increasing their diet, which will lead to excess calories and cause excessive weight gain or the occurrence of gestational diabetes. Appropriate fortification is a useful option for those elements that require more increase during pregnancy such as folic acid, calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, etc. A large amount of nutrients can be supplemented by consuming some fortified foods. Secondly, it is important to increase the intake of protein, vitamins and various trace elements. Zinc deficiency in early embryonic life can lead to fetal growth retardation, skeletal and visceral malformations, as well as interference with the filopodia and differentiation of central nervous cells, resulting in central nervous system malformations. Inadequate intake of copper in early pregnancy can also lead to fetal skeletal and visceral malformations. In addition to the maternal physiological changes that require protein, the embryo also stores protein at a certain rate during development. Ensuring the supply of high quality protein, proper energy supply, adequate supply of inorganic salts, trace elements and vitamins is needed for fetal growth and development, as well as for the mother’s body. So it is necessary to increase the intake. Specifically, there are: (1) milk and soy products. Provide high quality protein, calcium and vitamins. Pregnant women should get about 1,000 mg of calcium a day, and just 3 cups of skim milk can meet this need. Yogurt is also rich in calcium, as well as protein, which helps with gastrointestinal health. Some pregnant women have a vegetarian diet, and in order to get enough protein, they have to get the nutrients they need during pregnancy from soy products. (2) Fruits. Fruits are easy to eat and nutritious. There are many types of fruits, and the economical and affordable citrus, although 90% water, is rich in vitamin C, folic acid and a lot of fiber, which can help pregnant women maintain their strength and prevent fatigue caused by dehydration. Bananas provide energy quickly and help pregnant women overcome fatigue. If you have severe pregnancy sickness, eating bananas is easier for your stomach to accept. Apples contain fine cellulose; ballast contains special ingredients that have the function of lowering blood lipids, lowering blood pressure and dilating blood vessels; pomegranate is rich in tannin, which has an antidiarrheal effect and causes constipation when consumed in excess; kiwi is the highest in vitamin C content. (3) lean meat. Because lean meat is rich in iron, and easy to be absorbed by the body. Pregnant women will increase the total amount of blood, in order to ensure that the supply of adequate nutrition to the fetus, so pregnant women’s need for iron will increase exponentially. If the body does not store enough iron, pregnant women will feel very easy to fatigue, through the diet, especially lean meat to replenish enough iron is extremely important. (4) Vegetables. Provide minerals, vitamins and dietary fiber. Don’t forget to add dark colored lettuce when making a Western salad; dark colored vegetables often mean high vitamin content. Kale is a good source of calcium, and you can always add these fresh vegetables to soups or dumpling fillings. For spinach, it was once thought to be rich in iron and was used as one of the vegetables that could prevent anemia during pregnancy. However, experts have recently suggested that spinach does not contain much iron and contains a lot of oxalic acid which affects the absorption of zinc and calcium, so do not eat more spinach. Cauliflower, however, has many benefits, is rich in calcium and folic acid, has plenty of fiber and disease-fighting antioxidants, and also helps with the absorption of iron in other green vegetables. (5) Dried fruits. Nuts, such as peanuts, contain heart-healthy unsaturated fats. However, because the caloric and fat content of nuts is relatively high, the daily intake should be controlled at about 30 grams. Dried apricots, dried cherries, sour horns and other dried fruits, convenient, tasty and portable, can always meet the desire of pregnant women want to eat sweets. Walnuts are also a useful snack, rich in calcium and vitamins. Eating more walnuts not only helps the fetus’ blood and bone formation and central nervous system development, but also reduces asthma and back pain of pregnant women. Raisins are also a great snack for pregnant women because they are good for blood and tendons. Women who are more prone to anemia when pregnant, eating more raisins, in addition to foods containing protein and iron, can also help prevent anemia in pregnant women. Also, it is important to control the amount of intake. Many mothers-to-be, once they find out they are pregnant, start worrying about whether they are lacking this or that and that their baby is not well-nourished. In their opinion, as long as it is helpful to the fetus, they should try to eat as much as possible, so that the baby in their belly will not lose in the starting line of physical development. In fact, some nutrients are not good to supplement too much. The mother-to-be ate too much, too much, in the end, the bad luck is still the little baby in the belly. What’s more, some pregnant women just keep getting fatter and fatter, and the baby in the belly does not enjoy much “blessing”. As the old saying goes, “too much is too little”. To do: (1) pregnant women do not overdose on vitamin A. Too much vitamin A intake will lead to premature birth and fetal development is not sound, so only 400-1250 micrograms of vitamin A daily, including pig liver is very rich in vitamin A, pregnant women should not overdose on it. (2) To limit the excitatory effect of the diet. Caffeinated beverages and foods can cause nausea, vomiting, headache and rapid heartbeat when consumed in large quantities by pregnant women. Caffeine can also enter the fetus through the placenta and affect fetal development. Tea is rich in caffeine, drinking tea will increase the heart rate of pregnant women, increasing the burden on the heart and kidneys, which is not conducive to the healthy development of the fetus. At the same time, the intake of too much caffeine will affect the fetal bone growth, there is a risk of finger and toe deformities, but also increase the miscarriage, premature birth, the baby’s low weight. It is best to avoid caffeinated beverages, and if you must, do not drink more than two cups of coffee or three and a half cups of strong tea daily. (3) Avoid drinking alcohol. Drinking too much alcohol can deform the fetus and affect its IQ and physical development. (4) Avoid high sugar and high fat foods. Eating too much food high in sugar and fat, such as soda, sugar and potato chips, will make the pregnant woman too fat, thus increasing the risk of gestational diabetes and gestational hypertension, which will increase the chances of developing diabetes and high blood pressure in the future, and will also make delivery difficult. At the same time, the metabolism of sugar in the body will consume a lot of calcium, and the lack of calcium during pregnancy will affect the development of fetal teeth and bones. (5) Avoid spicy and hot ingredients. Chili, pepper, pepper, cumin, star anise, cinnamon, five spice powder, etc. easily consume intestinal water and reduce gastrointestinal secretion, resulting in stomach pain, hemorrhoids, constipation. Constipation when pregnant women force to hold their breath to relieve the stool, so that the abdominal pressure increases, compression of the fetus in the womb, easy to cause fetal movement, premature delivery and other adverse consequences. Many pregnant women prefer to eat sour hawthorn, but hawthorn has an excitatory effect on the uterus, excessive consumption can make the uterus contraction lead to miscarriage, so eat less. (6) Avoid eating ginseng, cinnamon and other tonic products. Ancestral medicine believes that most pregnant women are Yin and blood deficient, so consuming ginseng will cause Qi and Yin depletion, aggravating early pregnancy reaction, edema and hypertension; cinnamon is pungent and warm to help Yang, so pregnant women are prone to blood and fetus after consumption; therefore, they should not consume them. (7) Avoid replacing normal diet with health care products. In order to strengthen nutrition, some mothers-to-be to supplement a lot of nutrients every day, such as protein powder, multivitamins, calcium tablets, iron, maternal milk powder, etc., a large number of nutrients down, some mothers-to-be think that their nutrition has been enough, the daily three meals of nutrition can not guarantee that it does not matter. In fact, this is not good for the body, because most of the nutritional products are products to strengthen a certain nutrient or improve a certain function, so it is better to use them simply to ensure that the nutritional balance of ordinary meals comes more effectively. In short, as a pregnant woman, pay more attention to nutrition during pregnancy. As the Chinese medicine says, the diet of pregnant women should be rich in nutrients, easy to digest, and moderate hunger and satiety, as the ancient famous doctor Xu Zhicai said in “nourishing the fetus month by month”, “the diet simmered and cooked”, “eat sweet and beautiful “, “adjust the five etc.. The five flavors should not be overly biased, too biased will harm the five organs. May all mothers-to-be have a healthy pregnancy!