Many women enjoy a nice juicy burger, or other high fat foods. However, if you intend to include them frequently in your diet while pregnant, you may want to think twice…
Are you pregnant and still open your day with bacon, eggs, and pancakes? And then for lunch or dinner do you have a nice juicy burger with fries on the side? If so, you might want to reconsider the amount of high-fat foods you include in your pregnancy nutrition. Not only you cause damage to yourself, but you might hurt your baby for life.
Before you Sink Your Teeth in that: Some of the Risks of High Fat Pregnancy Diet
Pregnancy diet that is too rich with fat is one of the most common problems amongst pregnant women, especially in the western world. This is despite the fact that it is well known that a pregnancy diet with too much fat is dangerous for both the mother and child. Here are just some of the risks of such diet while pregnant might cause during the pregnancy:
- Excessive weight gain for the mother (may lead to pregnancy and delivery complications)
- Fetus overgrowth (may lead to delivery complications)
- Gestational diabetes
- Stillbirth
- And more…
But beyond the pregnancy, a fat-rich pregnancy diet may increase the risk that the baby will suffer from many problems later in life:
- High levels of fat in the baby’s blood and body
- Blood vessel damage
- Heart problems
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
And many more…! in fact, the affect of high fat pregnancy nutrition might go even further and beyond the baby – it seems that such diet might increase the risk for breast cancer for the granddaughters of women who had too much fat food during their pregnancy!
This was just a brief review of the risks high fat diet while pregnant might cause. See an extensive review of this subject here.
High Fat Pregnancy Nutrition Might Lead to Baby’s Increased Desire for Fat
In addition to all the risks mentioned above, recent researches proved that high fat diet while pregnant might cause neural changes in the baby’s brain. Those changes seem to be linked with the baby’s desire with high fat foods later in life. They seem to be causing increased appetite and fondness with high fat food.
In other words, a pregnant woman who will have a fat-rich diet might cause her baby to be highly fond of high-fat foods for the rest of his life! This, of course, might lead to a whole new set of complication which might negatively affect your baby later in life:
- Overweight and obesity
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease
- Slower metabolism
- Sexual disfunction
- Lower immune system
- Fertility problems
And much more…!
So what should you do? Decrease the amount of fat in your pregnancy diet, of course…
Decreasing the Fat in your Diet while Pregnant
There’s no doubt, too much fat in your pregnancy diet isn’t good. It might harm you, cause pregnancy and delivery complications, and worse than that, it might affect your baby’s health for the rest of his or her life! On the other hand, decreasing the amount of fat you have while pregnant can give you an easy pregnancy and delivery, significantly decrease delivery and health risks for you and your baby, and of course – help you look great during the pregnancy and after delivery.
But there’s no argue that changing long-time eating habits is not an easy thing at all. Still, know that there are many people around you who can help you improve your and your baby’s health. For example, consult with you dietitian about finding foods to replace your favorite fat-rich foods. If you feel the process of changing your diet to one with lower fat is too challenging, maybe join a weigh-watchers group, who can support you in your journey. And of course, share your thought and feeling about this subject with your spouse, family and friends – all of these people want nothing else than seeing you and your child healthy and happy, and they are willing to be there for you.
Do you have any advice for all the women who want to decrease the amount of fat in their diet while pregnant? Share your insights in the discussion below.
