New Pregnancy & Birth: A practical guide for all parents - to - be: Dr Miriam Stoppard, the UK's most trusted parenting expert (2009)
Your energy requirements increase only by about 15 per cent, which meants that 200-300 extra calories a day will be sufficent. Every morsel of food you take in should be good for you and the baby.
FOODS TO AVOID IN PREGNANCY
As a gerneral rule, foods have a higher nutritional value the less , they are processed and cooked. Choose fresh, raw wholefoods whereever you can. When planning what to eat, remember:
- Processed foods with preservatives and colourings contain high levels of undesirable chemicals.
- White flour products or anything with added sugars provide little nutrition at the price of a lot of calories. Look at the list of ingredients in the labels of processed foods - you may be surprised how many savoury foods actually contain sugar!
- Sweet fizzy drinks - even the low - calorie versions - are not good for you. They provide few nutrients and may contain harmful additives.
-Strong coffee and tea adversely affect the digestive system. Caffiene in tea and coffee is a stimulant and should be avoided. The tannin in tea interferes with absorbtion so drink organic herbal teas instead.
- Certain foods may harbour dangerous bacteria and should be avoided during pregnancy. pate and soft cheeses ( listeria ), raw eggs ( salmonella ).
- Current advice is to avoid liver and liver products in pregnancy as the high levels of vitamin A they contain can be harmful for your baby.
- Avoid undercooked meat, unpasteurized goat's milk and goat's milk products. They may contain a parasite called toxoplasma, which can seriously harm an unborn baby.
-Avoid raw fish, especially shellfish, and dont eat shark, swordfish or marlin, which contain higher levels of mercur than other fish.
- Wash all fruits and vegetables thoroughly before eating or cooking to remove any traces of soil
- Certain moulds produce toxic substances so don't eat mouldy foods. Its not enough to remove the mould as the harmful substances can entetrate deeper and arent destroyed by cooking.
VITAL NUTRIENTS NEEDED IN PREGNANCY
Protein
Your protein requirements increase by 30% during pregnancy. Your needs just from 45-60g (1 & 1/2- 2 & 1/4oz) to 75-100g (3-4 oz) of protein daily, depending on how active you are. Proteins are found in animal products - meat, dairy foods, fish, pultry and eggs - as well as in plant foods such as peas, beans and lentils, brewers yeast, seeds and nuts.
Fibre and fluids
As pregnancy progresses, there is a tendency to develop constipation. You can help to overcome it by giving your intenstines plenty of roughage to work on. Raw fruit and vegatables, bran, wholegrains, peas and beans are all fibrous foods that you should eat some of every day.
When you're pregnant you have nearly 50 per cent more blood in your body than usual, so you need to keep up your fluid intake. Water is best, though fruit juice is also good. Drinking plenty also helps to avoid the risk of urinary tract infection. Don't cut down on your fluid intake if your hands and feet swell - it wont make any difference to this type of fluid retention
Vitamins
Vegetables and fruits are good sources of many vitamins and minerals. Some are rich in vitamin C, others contain vitamins A, B, C mierals and folic acid - all of which you need in your diet. Vitamins are quicky destroyed by exposure to light, air and heat and many cant cant be sored by the body, so you need to top your supplies every day. Leafy green vegetables, yello/red vegetables and fruit supply vitamins A, E, B6, iron, zincand magnesium. Choose broccoli, spinah, watercress, carrots, tomatoes, bananas, apriocts and cherries.
Some vegetables, such as watercress are rich in mny vitamins so are an excellent choice. Others provide a selection of vitamins and minerals, as well as fibre. It's particuarly important to keep your levels of iron and calcium high to support your baby's development.
Although we can get some B vitamins from vegetables and fruit, the bulk of our intake comes from meat, fish, dairy products, grains and nuts. Some of the B vitamins are in animal foods so vegetarians must make sure they are getting enough. If you dont eat dairy foods you may need vitamin B12 supplements, but check with your doctor. Vitamins can be toxic in large quantities, so never take supplements without your doctors advic.
Folic Acid
This is essentail for making red blood cells and plays an important part in the growth of your baby, especially during the first 12 weeks. Folic acid is essential to the development of the nervous sysyem and research shows that folic acid supplements taken up to three months before conception and for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy significantly reduce the incidence of neural tube defects such as spina bifida. If you werent taking folic acid before conception, start when you know you're pregnant. It is available in tablet form, and it's in cereals, bread and green leafy vegetables in the form of folate.
Iron and zinc
The body needs iron to make haemoglobin ( the oxygen- carrying part of the red blood cells). When you are pregnant your iron intake must not only be adequate but also continuous. You need to keep up supplies of extra iron to support the large increase in the amount of blood in your body during pregnancy because your baby's need for iron is constant. Your body needs vitamin c to absorb iron.
Iron can block the babys absorption of zic, which is essential for the development of your baby's brain and nervous system to you need zin-rich foods, such as fish and wheatgerm as well as iron-rich food.
Calcium
A baby's bones begin to form between 4 and 6 weeks, so you'll need plenty of calcium before you concieve and while you're pregnancy. Dairy products, leafy vegetables, brocollo and fish containing soft, edible bones ( such as sardines) are rich in calcium. If you dont eat dairy products, you may need supplements. Vitamin D is needed for calcium absorption so try to eat eggs and cheese every day.
https://www.nhs.uk/Planners/pregnancycareplanner/Pages/vitaminsmineralsdiets.aspx
On this link it says "If you are pregnant and receive Income Support, income-based Jobseekers Allowance or Child Tax Credit without Working Tax Credit and have a family income of less than £15,575 you could get Healthy Start vouchers. To find out more and see if you qualify, visit the Healthy Start website (see External links)."
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/ ( Just thought id add this, as I didnt know about this at all )
Handy Foodstuffs
Potatoes are very nutritious, so do include them in your diet. A potato contains about 3g( 1 oz) of protein, together with calcium, iron, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin, plus seven times as much Vitamin C as an apple. Try to cooks potatoes in the skins; peeling them first means you lose fibre, most of the protein, many vitamins and half the iron.
Another useful food is milk; it is easy to use, a cheap source of protein, and provides calcium together with vitamins A and D. Skimmed or semi-skimmed milk contains the same amount of calcium as full - fat milk but fewer calories. If you dont like drinking milk, use it on cereals, soupls and sauces, or eat cheese ( two small cubes of cheddar are equal to one small glass of milk ) or yoghurt. It you areallergiv to milk, substitue other sources of the nutrients it provides, especially calcium.
You'll see from the foods mentioned in this that a few sources will provide the goodness you need for your own and your baby's health. Your daily needs ARE met by eating some of the following foods each day; milk or yohurt, eggs, fish, lean meat, yeast products, heard cheeses, wholegrain foods ( brown bread, pasta or rice ) fresh fruit and vegetables, fruit juices, dried fruits. Dark chocolate is good for a treat and its rich in iron.
Hope this helps hun xx
It's nice to be able to visualise what might be going on - and while the embryo/fetus is being measured in mm it's sort of hard to imagine where it might be 
