Pregnant Woman with Diabetes. What do doctors usually advise? | Avoid long breaks between carbohydrate meals! | Eat less carbohydrates for breakfast! | Avoid simple carbohydrates! | Less unpredictable food!
It is not news that modern medicine does not require a person with Type 1 diabetes to follow a special diet. You can eat everything that is calculated and preceded by the required amount of insulin. However, a pregnant woman with diabetes may be advised to follow some dietary guidelines.
Of course, for any expectant mother, it is important to control weight gain, get nutrients and limit the intake of unsafe substances. This is a special time, and now we will discuss the nutritional aspects of a pregnant woman with diabetes.
What do doctors usually advise?
Eat enough carbohydrates!
Carbohydrates – a source of energy, including necessary for the formation of organs and systems of the baby. In addition, with insufficient intake of carbohydrates, ketone bodies are formed in the mother’s body. In large quantities, ketones are able to penetrate the placenta and affect the baby.
Solution: Include at least 175 g of carbohydrates in your daily diet.
Avoid long breaks between carbohydrate meals!
Ketones form especially quickly during pregnancy. Also, with long breaks between meals, there is a greater risk of hypoglycemia, especially in the first trimester, when the need for insulin is temporarily reduced.
Solution:
- include carbohydrates in every meal;
- have a snack on 1-2 XE of slow carbohydrates before going to bed.
Eat less carbohydrates for breakfast!
In the morning, insulin sensitivity is worse due to the high level of stress hormones, those that help us start a new day, but have the opposite effect of insulin. During the day, the level of these hormones decreases, and it becomes easier to cope with the increase in blood glucose after eating.
Solution: try to distribute carbohydrates during the day in this way – 5-15% for breakfast, 30-35% for lunch and dinner, 5-10% for 2-4 snacks.
Avoid simple carbohydrates!
Simple carbohydrates are absorbed into the blood so quickly that even ultra-short insulin may not be able to prevent an increase in blood glucose. With an increase in gestational age, insulin sensitivity worsens due to the work of the hormones of the placenta and it takes even longer for the insulin to begin to act effectively. But the large size of the baby, in the first place, is associated with an excess increase in glucose after eating.
Solution: cook delicious food yourself: whole grain flour, nuts, berries, cream from cottage cheese or soft cheese – a cake is ready! if simple carbohydrates cannot be avoided, consider how to slow their absorption: eat a salad of fresh vegetables beforehand.
Less unpredictable food!
With the change in gestational age, the need for insulin also changes. If you and your doctor are confident in the amount of carbohydrates, timely adjustment of the basal insulin dose, carbohydrate ratios and sensitivity ratios will be easier.
Solution: if you want a multi-component salad, it is better to prepare it yourself – then its composition will not be a mystery;
These are general recommendations, but nutritional issues are always individual! Talk with your doctor about your taste preferences and daily routine. Perhaps your pregnancy plan will not be a lot of confusing advice, but it will turn out to be a reasonable and natural system for you, which, in addition, will make it easier for you to control diabetes.