Dr. Arvind Dubey
Courtesy-Wikipedia
If you are a future
mother, give your child a better start by taking balanced and adequate
nutrition.
Proteins
Brain is nothing but protein:
The basic brain cells,
connecting wires like structures (Axons), receiving ends, chemicals
communicating these massages, are all proteins.
Substances that manage the growth of this all network are nothing but
protein.
How much protein:
Regarding the above fact
you may decide to go on high protein diet in pregnancy but there is a warning
too. Avoid excessive protein in pregnancy not for brighter kids but to avoid
toxemia of pregnancy. What your unborn
kid’s brain need is right amounts of right protein which is around 100to 120 grams a day for a 45 to 50
kilograms women and about 200 to 250 grams for 70
kilograms woman.
Protein sources:
Animal proteins are
considered as complete protein as they contain all amino acids in right amount
and proportions, which is not the case with vegetable proteins. So one has to combine two or more source of
vegetable proteins to get the right amount and proportion of amino acids. The components of this mixture are separately
called complementary proteins. Few of
these mixtures are rice and beans, rice and lentils, beans and peas, bean and
cornmeal or corn bread, roasted soybeans-sunflower seeds and peanuts, lentil
and barley etc. These combinations
should replace the usual foods in strictly vegetarian expectant mothers.
Fat and Cholesterol
It is the interconnecting
fine meshwork, which determine the potential brightness, a brain can
achieve. This all made up of fat and
cholesterol. So high fat, high cholesterol diet is the answer. Surprising!
Isn’t so? Repeatedly you might be advised to give away fat and cholesterol from
your diet by your family physician to avoid heart disease and thickening of blood
vessels. But unborn and younger children
certainly need high fat high cholesterol for their better growth.
Right amount of right fats:
Polyunsaturated fats,
which are vegetable fats (expect palm and coconut oil, which are saturated ones
and implicated in the onset of hardening of blood vessels) were considered
good. But recently there are evidences
that under certain conditions these too may turn into harmful products. So now monounsaturated fats, found in olive
and peanut oil are consider best. But do
not take this as a license to gorge you with fatty foods. Follow the guidelines
of your doctor.
Best and worst fat and cholesterol foods:
Best fat foods are the
vegetable oils such as almonds, corn, safflower, soybeans and animal fats such
as butter, fish liver oil etcetera.
While all other animal fats except above two are the worst fats for
growing brain of your unborn child.
Similarly whole milk, eggs, dairy products meals (especially liver),
fish etcetera are the good cholesterol foods but grains, pulses; vegetables are
the worst foods for cholesterol.
Glucose: Instant energy for growing
brain
Natural or purified sugar:
Commercially available
white crystalline sugar does not contain any mineral or vitamin so it is an
empty calorie food. But in natural
sources such as unprocessed fresh fruits, berries vegetables, and sugar cane
sugar is always packaged with vitamins and minerals needed by body. Saccharine and pure glucose too equals with
pure crystalline sugars.
How it helps?
It helps in providing energy
for the structural and hormonal changes needed for a successful pregnancy. These too prevent a commonest complaint of
“worn out feeling”, during pregnancy.
Best and worst sugar sources:
Fruits (grapes), berries,
grains, vegetables, potatoes, milk and liver are the best however pure white
crystalline sugars, glucose and other pure sugars and their products no doubt
are source of sugar but worst ones.
Vital to vital mechanism: The
Vitamins
To be very accurate these
should be supplemented prior to the conception to replenish all the
deficiencies adequately as most of the females who are on vegetarian diet, are
deficient for these vitamins. To
compensate this, researchers recommend higher doses of these vitamins as no
harmful effect of such high doses of these vitamins is seen in volunteers.
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