Pregnant women, vitamins and essential nutrients

Green fresh lettuce leafs on the background

We’re often cajoled and exhorted to take dietary supplements in pregnancy. Advice comes from everywhere and it’s often difficult for pregnant women to decide what to do.

What’s for sure is that for pregnant women, vitamins and essential nutrients play a big role.

Interestingly, some of the evidence about special nutrients in pregnancy is a little misleading, to say the least, with women on perfectly healthy diets being coaxed to increase their intake of things their bodies are producing naturally. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples: biotin and folate.

Vitamins

Folic acid (not itself biologically active) and its naturally occurring form in the body, folate, are forms of vitamin B9. This vitamin is essential for the production of DNA and the rapid growth of cells, such as those of a growing embryo or a small child. Interestingly the word folate comes from the same source as foliage, as it is found in green leafy vegetables.

As in all things, a complete absence of folate can cause problems. The good news is that many of the foods we buy already contain added folate. Indeed there’s so much of it that my doctor says she finds high levels in virtually every blood test she does! Further, a complete absence of folate takes months to result in symptoms because the body has its own stores. So, if you’re into Mindful Eating and you keep a properly balanced diet during pregnancy, you really don’t need to worry about your folate levels!

What about biotin? Well here’s another interesting case. Biotin is also known as vitamin B7. It is also necessary for cell growth and the production of fatty acids. There is also some evidence that it helps maintain blood sugar at even levels. All very important, for sure. But here’s the thing. There is no recommended Australian dietary guideline for daily intake of biotin. Why not? Quite simply, because the bacteria in our intestine produce more biotin than we need every day. As a result biotin deficiency is very rare.

So there you are. If you follow your own good sense and the principles of Mindful Eating, you and your growing baby will be just fine on a well-balanced diet with lots of fresh, natural ingredients.

Mindful Eating

If you’d like to know more about Bellamy’s Organic and the certified organic baby foods we make, click on this link.

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