Posted: admin on May 14 | healthy nutrition tips
Nine pounds in nine months. This is the average weight gain that experts advise to pregnant women, although this depends on each case. With this recommendation in the head, the main concern of all pregnant women, as recognized Rosa Ortega, professor of Nutrition at the Complutense University of Madrid, “is not take more kilos of necessary”. In its quest to achieve it “may have nutritional imbalances that will bill them long term.” According to Professor Ortega, “pregnancy is a vulnerable stage in terms of nutrition, because the needs are higher and difficult to fill and imbalances in food may have more serious repercussions than in other stages of life, because it affects the mother but also the descendant. ” Therefore, this expert says, “not enough that pregnant women eat more, but should modify their diet, choosing those foods more appropriate. The important thing is to find a rational consumption of all foods. ”
During a seminar on ‘Nutrition and brain’ held in Altea, specialists have gathered insisted that the feeding of pregnant women can drive the development and function of the brain in babies. In addition, confirm that “the nutritional status prior to pregnancy begins not usually the best.”
The nutrients more impact on cognitive development of the baby during pregnancy are: protein, iron, iodine, zinc, copper, selenium, fatty acids (ALA, DHA and EPA), vitamin A and B vitamins (B1, B6, B12, folate). “Deficiencies of these nutrients affect the brain of the fetus, but depend on the time they appear and the seriousness of the findings. The last trimester of pregnancy is especially critical, “says the specialist of the Complutense.
For example, the deficiency of ALA (a fatty acid) affects visual acuity and the cognitive performance of children; deficiencies of B vitamins cause fatigue, nervousness, irritability and depression, and lack of protein is related to deficits global and some specific areas of the brain like the hippocampus or cortex.
The fatty acids are key
Among the essential nutrients to the baby’s brain development emphasizes the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a fatty acid Omega 3. Across the placenta, the fetus mother moved to this fatty acid vital, “so it’s very important that pregnant women consume enough to keep it unreservedly,” explains the expert in nutrition.
Some works show that “children supplemented with DHA until they are 17 months are better visual acuity after four years of living and better cognitive ability,” argues Paul Sanjurjo, a pediatrician at the hospital in Las Cruces Baracaldo. Other studies have shown that DHA deficiency of the mother can be an important enabler for postpartum depression.
“The nutrition education for pregnant women should ensure they take sufficient amount of DHA,” Ortega concluded. However, the intake of this and other Omega 3 acids are insufficient in Europe.
“Consumption of blue fish, which is one of the foods containing Omega-3 naturally, has been reduced in pregnant women, mainly by the fear of mercury,” explains Dr. Sanjurjo. Other products that contain DHA oils are algae and fungi, the viscera and meat, egg and milk. The relationship between nutrition and cognitive development of children is very important because at birth weight of the brain is 70% of an adult and five or six years has already been completed brain growth. What is lost at this stage will then unrecoverable.
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