HEALTHY EATING

A healthy diet when you're pregnant will help your baby develop and grow and will keep you well. You don't need a special diet, just a good variety of foods to give your baby all the various nutrients for healthy growth.

The best guide to healthy eating is to keep down the amount of sugar and fat that you eat , and to step up the amount of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and cereals. Fruit and vegetables are important for vitamins, but the vitamin content is reduced during cooking, processing and storage. So eat them raw whenever possible and don't store fresh ones for a long time before use. Frozen vegetables are often as good as the available fresh ones and do not lose vitamins during storage in the freezer.

Cereals are important for fibre which helps digestion and prevents constipation. Cereal foods which contain a lot of fibre include wholegrain breakfast cereals, and wholemeal and brown bread. Remember that bread, and potatoes too can make for satisfying meals without adding too many calories, so long as you go easy on the amount of butter or margarine you put with them.
You also need some protein foods - meat, fish, eggs or cheese. Beans, peas and nuts are also protein foods, so a quick, cheap meal like baked beans on toast is good value.

As well as protein, the dairy foods like milk, cheese and yoghurt contain calcium which is important for your baby's development. But ordinary amounts in your diet will be enough at the beginning of pregnancy. Some dairy foods contain a lot of fat so too much can make you put on weight.

It's important to get enough iron in what you eat. Iron is needed for a healthy blood supply and if you don't have enough you can become anaemic. Iron tablets are often prescribed for pregnant women, but for now just include in what you eat foods tat are rich in iron. The best way of doing this is to eat red meat. Iron in meat is easily absorbed by the body. To help the body absorb the iron in other foods, you need vitamin C, from fresh fruit and vegetables. There's a lot of vitamin C in oranges, grapefruit, lemons, strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, tomatoes, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, leeks, potatoes and green peppers.

Another vitamin believed to be important in pregnancy is  folic acid. Folic acid is needed for the baby's development and is probably especially important in the early weeks just after conception. Foods containing folic acid are spinach, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and also peanuts. You can also get folic acid from wholemeal bread and brown rice.

From about twenty-eight weeks, increase the amount of milk you have just a bit. You don't have to drink it - remember that food like cheese and yoghurt are made from milk and you can use milk in cooking. Contrary to what a lot of people think, there is no need to drink very large amounts of milk in pregnancy. Milk contains fat and if you have too much you will put on too much weight.