Vegetarian Diets

If you are a strict 'vegan' and eat no animal products or animal byproducts, you may feel you will have a problem during pregnancy. Or perhaps you are a 'lacto-ovo-vegan' and you do eat eggs and dairy products.

If you wish to maintain a vegan diet during pregnancy, by all means you should find a doctor who is willing to support this approach and stay in close contact with her regarding your nutritional health and your baby's health, as your pregnancy progresses.

Here are some nutritional guidelines that will help you stay healthy and deliver a healthy baby.

To get all the protein and calcium you need - the biggest problem faced by most vegans - you will want to eat appropriate amounts of the following things:

• dried peas (split peas are great),
• dried beans (cooked) including navy beans, kidney or red beans, black or lima beans and white beans,
• soy products like tempeh, tofu and tofu cheese,
• almonds and other nuts, and butter made from nut oils,
• soy milk or goat milk or cow milk (if you drink it), and/or
• active yogurt
• turnip greens,
• oranges,
• broccoli,
• molasses,
• fortified cereals,
• wheat germ,
• spinach,
• raisins

The great thing about a vegetarian diet is that it is already high in folic acid and B Vitamins and that is important to your baby's health and growth.

However, you may find it hard to get your extra 300-350 calories per day if you are eating a vegetarian diet.

Your diet, while high in fiber, with plenty of vegetables, fruits and grains, tends to be low in calories and you don't feel hungry enough to eat more because all that fiber will fill you up!

Talk to your doctor about this, if you find that it is a problem. You may want to take a caloric supplement.

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