Gestational Diabetes Diet: What to Eat to When You Are Pregnant to Prevent Gestational Diabetes

Disclaimer #1. First of all I want to say that you should NOT DIET during pregnancy in the sense that you should not try to lose weight. When I’ll be talking about dieting, I mean a certain way of eating that is healthy, sustainable (not a calorie-counting, restrictive type of diet), rich in nutrients and health promoting. This type of eating is not a short-term solution to one problem – to lose 10 pounds, or fix a certain health condition - it’s a life-long commitment to your health and wellbeing.

I feel lucky I did not get gestational diabetes, but I was at high risk. When I was pregnant with my son 6 years ago, I was very close to getting gestational diabetes blood sugar levels. I gained lots of weight, much more than I should, according to general guidelines. On average, a woman can expect to gain 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy. I gained twice as much, over seventy pounds! All that while following well-meaning, but completely misguided and potentially harmful advice coming from various sources, which at the time all seemed like knowledgeable authorities on the subject of diet and pregnancy.

Gestational diabetes is a condition that affects growing numbers of pregnant women. It is a condition when a woman's blood sugar levels get too high. It can be dangerous because it can cause the baby to gain too much weight, and lead to premature delivery, endangering the health of the baby.

If you are worried about developing gestational diabetes, you should know that diabetes is preventable with proper diet and physical activity. The important part is understanding what you need to be doing, and then implementing that knowledge.

So, what should you be eating during pregnancy? Diet to prevent gestational diabetes does not differ from a healthy diet that we should all be following every day to ensure the best of health and well-being. It's a diet that is based mostly on fresh plant foods - raw fruits, vegetables, and greens, with small amounts of nuts, seeds, as well as whole grains, and beans. The bulk of the calories should be coming from unprocessed, lightly cooked, or raw plant sources. Even in pregnancy, animal proteins, should be consumed in limited amounts.

Although it’s commonly believed that carbohydrates have the greatest impact on blood glucose levels, it’s really fats that are responsible for the blood sugar problems, as they interfere with glucose absorption into the cells.

You may be wondering "How about the protein? Will I be getting enough vitamins, calcium and other nutrients on this type of diet?" Diet rich in green vegetables, green leaf salads, fruits and other natural foods, will provide you and your baby with all the nutrients you need need. Unprocessed plant foods contain all the proteins, fats, vitamins, calcium and other nutrients our body need in perfect proportions to properly function and stay healthy.

Read more how to maintain normal blood sugar levels on my blog. Also, visit my hubpage on Gestational Diabetes diet.