Dealing With Morning Sickness

Morning sickness affects many women during their pregnancy, especially during the first trimester. According to BabyMed “70 to 85 percent of pregnant women experience morning sickness”. There is no exact known cause for morning sickness. It could be due to changes in hormones, blood sugar and/or stress. Certain foods may also trigger nausea and vomiting, reducing one's intake. Since this may result in inadequate nutrition intake it is important to help provide the body with the necessary vitamins and minerals by taking a prenatal vitamin every day.

Below are several things one can do to help minimize morning sickness.

• Consume snacks and/or small meals often aim to eat every 2-3 hours.
• Avoid large meals.
• Get up slowly in the morning.
• Stay hydrated between meals with a goal of 64 ounces per day. Avoid drinking them with meals to allow room for more food.
• Have a snack before bed.
• Avoid smells that may cause nausea.
• Consume products with ginger such as ginger tea and ginger ale.
• Eat high protein and complex carbohydrates food items. Peanut butter, apples, celery, cheese, saltine crackers, milk, yogurt, nuts and cottage cheese.
• Avoid foods that are high in fat and salt with little nutrition.
• Relaxing reduces nausea and vomiting. 

References

Neifield, R. Five nutrition tips to help with morning sickness. Retrieved from  http://www.babymed.com/food-and-nutrition/5-nutrition-tips-to-help-with-morning-sickness-during-pregnancy.

Juice Craze: Healthy or Unhealthy?

The latest diet craze has been on juicing fruits and vegetables. But is it really safe? Many argue that there are many benefits such as the body being able to absorb the nutrients better. However, there is no scientific evidence or studies that have proven this to be the case. Not only is there not enough evidence to support this but it is known that eating whole fruits and vegetables can be beneficial to the body as it provides the appropriate fiber the body needs. Juicing results in a loss of this essential healthy fiber, which is the very reason some say it’s suppose to be better for the body to digest and absorb.

Juicing also provides inadequate amounts of calories, may cause dehydration, nausea, fatigue and as mentioned earlier loss of fiber and protein.

Overall while it may help kick start a diet any benefits will go away once one is off the juice diet and reverts back to eating. It is also important to remember that the body is designed to remove toxins via the liver and kidneys. Therefore, one does not need to juice to rid or detoxify the body. As mentioned earlier often times other problems can arise during a juicing.

This is not to say that drinking juice or juicing is a horrible thing because it can provide added fruits and vegetables to individuals who do not enjoy eating whole fruits and vegetables. However, one should be careful to not rely solely on juicing or juice fasts. But one should consume food products from all food groups in moderation and variety.

Photo Source

Haddock, D., (2013).  "Juicing Recipes." Retrieved from http://www.daphnehaddock.com/juicing-recipes/