Vegetables Benefit Baby and Mother

Eating Fruits and Veggies in Pregnancy Can Help You and Baby

Nov 6, 2009

A healthy diet including a variety of healthy vegetables, fruit and lean meats are crucial for pregnancy. New evidence shoes that vegetables may prevent diabetes.

Now there is even more reason to eat a variety of vegetables during pregnancy. Research shows that your growing baby can benefit if you eat fruits and vegetables before pregnancy to prevent leukemia and during pregnancy prevent diabetes later in life.

Vegetables Lowered Child's Risk of Type 1 Diabetes

The first study of its kind took a look at the effect of vegetable consumption on the child's risk of diabetes. This new study from Sweden looked at mothers who consumed varying amount of vegetables in their pregnancy diet. Some of the mothers ate vegetables rarely and others consumed vegetables every day. The mothers who ate rarely vegetables as compared to those who ate them every day, had children with the highest risk of developing type 1 diabetes.

So a good rule of thumb is to make sure you are eating tons of veggies in your daily pregnancy diet.

Vegetables and Fruits Lower Mom's Chances of Upper Respiratory Infections

There may be a protective benefit for mothers who eat plenty of fruits and vegetables every day during pregnancy. Researchers have discovered that mothers who ate a total seven servings of fruits and vegetables every day had a lower risk of getting upper respiratory infections than mothers who ate fewer vegetables. Senior author of the study, Werler, believes that pregnant women may need to eat a larger amount of fruits and vegetables due to the greater demands on their bodies.

Interestingly, the study showed that the protection against upper respiratory infections was only evident if the mothers ate both vegetables and fruits.

Eating Vegetables, Fruits and Protein Before Pregnancy Reduces Leukemia in Children

It is important to get your pregnancy diet off to a good start even before you become pregnant. According to an NIH study, the children with the lowest risk of leukemia had mothers whose diet consisted of eating healthy vegetables, fruits and protein sources in the 12 months before becoming pregnant.

This study actually pointed to several specific foods as being the best ones to reduce your baby's risk of leukemia -- carrots, cantaloupe and string beans. The carotenoids in these three foods provide some of the best protection against cancers.

How to Add More Vegetables and Fruits to Your Pregnancy Diet

Why not add a fruit to your breakfast each morning combined with a protein? Then for lunch, add a fruit and at least one vegetable with a protein. For dinner, have two more vegetables with your protein source. If you eat one to two snacks, you can add another fruit or vegetable to be sure you are getting enough!

Werler, M "Fruits, Vegetables May Protect Against URTI During Pregnancy," Public Health Nutrition, June 25, 2009.

The copyright of the article Vegetables Benefit Baby and Mother in Pregnancy & Childbirth is owned by Brenda Lane. Permission to republish Vegetables Benefit Baby and Mother in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.