!#8# Foods a Woman Can Eat to Help Get Pregnant

!±8± Foods a Woman Can Eat to Help Get Pregnant

In order to conceive and give birth to a healthy baby, preparing your body for pregnancy is essential. There are certain foods and herbal supplements that can help you to conceive faster, by regulating your hormones and menstrual cycle. Also, some vitamins are more than recommendable to be taken, such as folates, but the overall quality of your diet is the most important thing.

Maintaining a healthy weight is very important. Women preparing for pregnancy should visit a qualified nutritionist and calculate their body mass index (BMI), body fat index (BFI) and waist-hip ratio (WHR). After these anthropometric calculations are done, which you can do on your own too, by measuring your height and weight and using BMI and BFI calculators that are available online, you can get yourself introduced to healthy eating and other aspects of an healthy lifestyle. Calculators that will help you to determine the number of calories you should take in order to keep, lose or gain weight and reach the desirable goal of healthy weight for pregnancy.

Just to remind you, calories represent energy, and though level of energy intake is pretty much important, you should inform yourself about what particular foods contain, apart from energy-vitamins; minerals, protein, fat, carbs and extremely important phytochemicals and other antioxidants.

If you are overweight, loosing just 5 to 10 % of your weight could significantly improve your general overall reproductive health and will help you get pregnant. But it is not enough to lose weight in one of the unhealthy ways out there - you should simply eat good stuff. It basically means stop drinking alcohol (one regular standard drink is acceptable), stop drinking fountain drinks and coffee, stop eating candies and junk food. And avoid red meat and margarine and use cold-pressed canola and olive oil instead.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are going to become your and baby's best friends on this journey. Eat nuts too, but sparingly. Soy protein can be also beneficial, since they contain isoflavons, which have estrogen-like qualities.

There is no better medicine than healthy food! Keep in mind this basic mantra when trying to conceive. Also remember it's not all or nothing. You can take some time and improve your diet over a reasonable period of time. Processed food - the ones you cannot find in nature - is a bad option, go whole and organic. It doesn't have to be organic at every cost, but simple, fresh and hygienically prepared. Take folate 400 micrograms a day at least 4 months prior the pregnancy and at least for the first 3 months of pregnancy. Also choose some calcium and iron-rich or fortified foods in order to make your bones and teeth stronger and prevent anemia. Vitamin D3 is synthesized in your skin due to sun light exposure and it is important to soak up the sun or take additionally RDA recommended doses of this important vitamin.

Eat small meals at least 5 times a day and drink pure water and unsweetened herbal teas. Don't drink more than 8 oz of fruit juice, unless of course it's with 'no sugar added'. Fruit juice is great, but cannot replace the whole fruit. Also don't forget to stop smoking, start walking, swimming, and socializing to have some fun. These are some basics, but all of them will help you to detoxify your body, solve some minor health problems, lose weight, and get your hormones balanced for pregnancy.