Gestational Diabetes And Food: A Balancing Act

Many women who never had diabetes are shocked when they are diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  Food takes on a whole new meaning.It is the stuff of life – but, could also trigger a diabetic coma if you treat your diet casually.  The good news is that your gestational diabetes and food suspicions will end as soon as the baby pops out.  The better news is that nine months or so is good time to learn better eating habits for your overall health, not just your blood sugar levels. 

Pay Attention To Your Carbs

With gestational diabetes and food, counting your daily intake of carbohydrates is key.Carbohydrates converts to glucose (blood sugar), which is what you will watching like a hawk.  Carbohydrates effects your blood sugar and monitoring your blood sugar helps you with monitoring your carbohydrates.  It might seem daunting at first, but you’ll get the hang of managing gestational diabetes with food.

You want to make sure your carbs are spread out throughout your day.  This is also true of your calories.  With a growing baby, you need to eat about 300 extra calories per day.  That means you will be eating about 2200 calories per day.  Check with your doctor to be sure. You need to have five or six small meals rather than three large ones. 

You also need to cut out fatty meats, high fat snacks and lots of processed or fast food.  A good idea is to fill a third of your plate with protein, a third with carbohydrates and another third with fruits and vegetables.

Your Relationship With Food

A major gestational diabetes risk is if you are overweight and over 25 when you get pregnant.  This means you have probably been having some food issues and have been trying to have a better relationship with food, anyway.  Well, gestational diabetes will force you to eat better.  This will help not only your growing baby’s health and your blood sugar, but your joints, your heart and many other health conditions.

With gestational diabetes, food intake alone will often not be enough to be sure that you and your baby get through the pregnancy okay.  You also need to go to all of your check ups, learn to monitor your blood sugar, exercise regularly and take any medication prescribed.  Please don’t do any fad diets, colon cleansings, fastings or any drastic measures like that.  Your body will not be able to handle the shock.

Go here for more about diabetes symptoms and diabetic meal plan.

Gestational Diabetes Is A Serious Condition

You have enough to worry about when you discover you are pregnant, but you need to pay attention if you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  This is a serious condition, but not a hopeless condition.  With regular check ups, treatment, regular exercise and a healthy and varied diet, you should be able to get through your pregnancy with gestational diabetes.  But it is vital that you get to see a doctor or obstetrician as soon as you know you are pregnant to get tested for conditions like gestational diabetes.

Who Is At Risk

Basically, all pregnant women can theoretically get gestational diabetes, but some women are more at risk than others.  When you’re over 25, you’re at risk.  If any woman in your immediate family had gestational diabetes, then you’re at risk.  If you’re overweight, you’re at risk.If you are Native American, black, or of Asian or Spanish origin, you are also more prone to getting gestational diabetes.  You do not have to be diabetic in order to get gestational diabetes.

Treatments

With gestational diabetes, you can’t just take medication and cross your fingers.  You need to manage the condition through multiple means.  First off, take any medication if you are prescribed it.  These include blood sugar injections and a pill made of glyburide.  You also need to monitor your blood sugar levels several times a day, just like any other diabetic.

When you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, food takes on an entirely new meaning.  You now have to look at food in the way it will affect your blood sugar levels.  You have to time when you eat and eat several smaller meals throughout the day.  You also need to need stay away from high fat, high calorie foods – like you should be doing anyway.

And you also need to exercise regularly.  This can be a bit problematic if your pregnancy gets even more complicated and you are confined to bed throughout it.  Even then, there sometimes can be stretches in bed that you can do.  But you must talk to your doctor or obstetrician first before you throw yourself into an exercise regimen.

For those having a normal pregnancy, except for gestational diabetes, then there are a lot of exercise options.  There are yoga routines specifically designed for pregnant women.  Walking is always a good option, as well as doing the garden, doing housework and swimming.  Exercise also can help reduce constipation and cramps associated with pregneancy.

Go here for more about diabetes symptoms and diabetic meal plan.

Gestational Diabetes and Food

There are many new things for women to cope with when they become pregnant. Suddenly, everything you do, eat, and drink takes on a new meaning. What holidays have you planned, are you able to fly, can you cope with the heat, what medicines can you use, how far should you walk, can you exercise, etc. One of the lesser know things is the possibility of gestational diabetes. Mums are so taken with what they can or can’t do that few consider diabetes as a possibility. It does mean you will have to pay close attention to what you eat and drink, but the good news is that gestational diabetes normally ends when baby arrives.

Watching The Carbs.

If you find you have gestational diabetes, then you will soon discover that counting your daily intake of carbohydrates is a key factor in dealing with this problem. Since carbohydrates convert to glucose (blood sugar), you will need to keep a close eye on them. Indeed the monitoring of the both (Carbohydrates and blood sugar), will help you to help your body at this time and although it seems quite daunting, you will soon get the hang of it.

First of all you need to take five or six small meals spread out through the day rather than two or three larger ones. This will automatically ensure that your intake of calories (and carbohydrates0 are spread out over the day. With a growing baby it is usual to need an extra 300 calories a day (not the double portions that used to be suggested) so the total would be around 2200 calories.

Next you need to look at what you are eating. It is best to avoid fatty meats, high fat snacks and lots of processed or fast food. The idea is to eat more natural food that is preferably home cooked. A good idea is to divide your plate into thirds. You make up your meal with a third of protein, a third of carbohydrates plus a third of fruit and vegetables.

Your Relationship with Food

Risks with gestational diabetes usually come for women who are overweight or are over the age of 25 years when they become pregnant. It is really important to consider what you are eating since it will lay down good practices for the feeding of your growing family and help to teach them healthy habits and food choices. If you are slightly overweight it will help not to put on too much extra weight and put extra strain on your joints and heart.

You will also need to monitor everything very carefully. It is essential that you attend all of your check-ups and discuss things with your doctor or midwife regularly. Pregnancy is not the time to diet to lose weight, neither is it the time to use fad diets, or any form of fasting or cleansing diets. It will put too much of a strain on your body. The best you can do is to monitor your progress and try to eat as healthy and balanced a diet as possible to ensure a healthy pregnancy and a health baby at the end of your gestation.