Summer diet tips for mom-to-be to stay hydrated and healthy

Summer season is a wonderful time to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. Here are the few diet tips by the nutritionist for expecting moms to add to their diet in this hot summer. To stay hydrated, include 8-10 glasses of water. Apart from water add mint lemonade, fruit smoothies, jeera buttermilk, tender coconut water and sugarcane juice to meet electrolytes and nutrients along with hydration.

Add leafy vegetables to your dals, soups and parathas to meet iron, folic acid and calcium. Include more vitamin C rich fruits & vegetables like guava, oranges, mangoes, kiwi, capsicum, tomatoes and lemon to absorb iron from your diet.

Avoid caffeine rich foods like coffee which may obstruct absorbing iron in your body. Summer season brings a lot of hydrating fruits and vegetables like watermelons, cucumbers, and water apple, ice apple which are rich in water, vitamins, nutrients and fiber.

Milk and milk products like paneer, curd are good source of calcium. Curd is good source of probiotic helps for better digestion. Make your plate more colorful by adding salads, boiled vegetables, carrots, beet, colored capsicum which are good source of antioxidants helps to boost immunity.

Grab some healthy snacks nuts like Greek yogurt with fruit, chiaseeds pudding, hummus with carrot sticks, almonds, walnuts, sunflower, pumpkin seeds to meet magnesium, zinc, B complex vitamins, vitamin E. Salads like baby carrots, cucumber and boiled sweetcorn helps to provide enough fiber to avoid constipation.

Expecting mothers are advised to include complex carbohydrates like whole grains, oats, whole wheat, millets and single polish rice to reduce gestational diabetes and to avoid constipation. Stay away from acidity causing fried, oily, greasy foods like pizzas, burgers, chips, French fries. Limit eating spicy gravy curries, chilies, and sour foods to avoid acidity, gastric problems. One of the best healthy tip in summer is to reduce or avoid eating red meat, organ meats.

Include more frequent small meals and rather than eating large meals at a time. Method of cooking like boiling, steaming, steaming, pressure cooking, shallow frying and sautéing helps to avoid adding additional fat to your diet. Healthy fats like walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseeds, almonds, fish and olive oil give omega 3&6 fatty acids for baby’s brain development.

Protein is the essential macronutrient required for baby growth and development, boiled eggs are good source of protein and easy to prepare, fish, lean chicken, paneer, legumes are best protein sources. Avoid stress eating, before you start eating something, just think once about your feeling like bored, emotional, lonely or anxious. This will help you to avoid eating junk and prevent overeating. Make sure that junk foods are not handy like sugar candies, ice-creams in fridge, cool drinks, packed chips, ready to eat foods.

Foods within your eyesight and premises may attract you and increase your cravings to eat junk even when you are not actually feeling hungry. Practice mindful eating and maintain a regular eating meal pattern like three big meals and small snacks in between. By following above tips in your diet in this summer, you can improve your health and baby health too. Stay hydrated and stay safe.

(The writer is a Sr. clinical nutritionist & lactation counselorApollo Cradle & Children’s Hospital)