Diet
Keto While Pregnant: Is It Safe Or Are There Risks? The keto diet, or ketogenic diet, is the latest trend in the diet, which is currently the king of diet systems.
It is strange to see
thousands of people eat red meat and saturated fat instead of fruits and bread,
but it turns out that this is not crazy, as all recent studies and people's
experiences indicate that weight loss on ketogenic diets is real and fast.
However, our topic today
does not deal with the keto diet as a whole, but rather deals with the health
of the pregnant woman and about the possibility of doing it during pregnancy to
maintain weight or control the level of sugar, so the main question in this article
is a ketogenic diet safe for a pregnant woman?
Without wrap or spin on
the topic, the short answer is no, this is the final answer to science on the
topic. If you want to know why read on.
What exactly is the keto
diet?
Above all for those who
do not know the keto diet is getting 75% of your daily calories from fat, 20%
from protein, and only 5% from carbohydrates.
Unlike low-carb dieting
types, this percentage means that any major carbohydrates are completely
eliminated.
There is no bread, no rice,
not even fruits. Instead, there is a lot of red and white meat without
forgetting the fish and fat as well.
Carbohydrates are the
preferred means of obtaining energy for the human body, as they are quick to
use and give a lot of energy, but despite this, the body's stock of them is
limited (little glycogen is in the stock in the liver).
It is precisely for this
reason that the keto diet resorts to eliminating this limited storage of
carbohydrates so that the body is forced to use the stored fats and proteins
and enter the state of ketosis, which stimulates the rapid loss of weight.
Supporters of the keto
diet claim that this system will increase the strength of concentration and
reduce the level of blood sugar in the long-term, which helps diabetics to get
rid of their nightmare and finally the rapid weight loss that comes from the
loss of fat tissue.
But all of these
allegations, although some of them are true, the science behind them is weak.
There are not many studies about the keto diet in general, and no one knows the
long-term effect of the keto diet, whether on cardiovascular health or even
kidney health, so we need more studies on the nature of the diet and its
effect. Ketosis on the body in order to resolve the matter, which will
definitely take time.
Is the keto diet safe for
pregnant women?
When it comes to keto
pregnant women, the situation becomes more serious and dangerous. There are no
studies on the effect of keto on pregnant women, as the group to be studied on
has been solved due to the risks posed to children.
However, there are some
experiments on mice during pregnancy, which were placed in the stage of
ketosis, after being deprived of carbohydrates and constantly feeding on fats
and proteins.
The harm of the keto diet
does not diminish only on that, but in most cases, it causes a shortage of
essential nutrients for the fetus and the mother. The phlebitis diet completely
negates the presence of fruits and many vegetables in the diet, which causes a
shortage of the necessary materials found in these foods that are prohibited
for both Mother and fetus.
Experts also explain that
these results do not mean that a pregnant woman should eat a lot of
carbohydrates. Some nutritionists advise starting with low-carbohydrate
(low-carb) regimens for pregnant women, so there must be a balance in the
number of carbohydrates for a pregnant woman, so you can eat a few
carbohydrates, but not very little to enter. Ketosis.
Does the keto diet help
reduce gestational diabetes?
Gestational diabetes is
an increase in the mother's sugar during pregnancy, and according to studies,
this increase has increased in recent decades, and the mother must constantly
monitor the levels of glucose in the blood, as its rise above the limit leads
to health problems for the fetus and the mother alike.
The keto diet, helps
reduce blood sugar for normal people, but there is no evidence of its
effectiveness in lowering the blood sugar of pregnant women, so it is dangerous
to use it for this purpose.
Doctors also advise in
the event of high blood sugar during pregnancy to reduce carbohydrates and to
rely on protein and fats more, and also to divide the food portions into small
meals that contain only small amounts of carbohydrates.
It is possible to reduce
carbohydrates without entering a state of ketosis and at the same time keep
blood sugar under control.
Finally, it is advised to
stick to natural carbohydrates instead of processing them, such as sweets, and
to rely on fruits and vegetables rich in carbohydrates more. This alone will
reduce sugar and control it without cutting carbohydrates completely.
What is the best diet for
pregnant women?
When this question is
asked, we must first remove the keto diet from the list, as we mentioned above,
as it is considered a danger to the health of the fetus and it should never be
tried during pregnancy, and Dr. Nicole, a specialist in women and children,
prefers the Mediterranean diet because it contains balanced quantities of
calories from sources Various healthy foods such as fish, olive oil, and
legumes of all kinds.
As for the number of
calories that must be eaten, in the first trimester of the camel, it is
preferable that a pregnant woman does not increase her weight too much and does
not eat more than usual before pregnancy, because the fetus is still very small
and will not require much energy.
Eggs: They contain
choline, which is an important compound for the development of the fetus's
nervous system.
Seafood: especially those
low in mercury, such as salmon and sardines, which contain healthy unsaturated
fats such as omega-3.
Red meat is an essential
source of iron.
