What are healthy foods to eat if you have preeclampsia?

Answer 1

Make sure to discuss all diets with your doctor beforetaking anyones advice or recommendations--

My wife and I began eating all organic when she was diagnosed with preeclampsia. We wanted her to be as healthy as possible to try and keep our baby from having to be born too early. It was a completely different diet than we were accustomed to. Not that we ate unhealthy foods before, but we certainly watched the food we ate after her diagnosis.

I made sure to give her fruit and veggie smoothies everyday for a snack after breakfast and before lunch. I would blend together organic bananas, strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, spinach, beat juice, and crushed ice. There were so many fruits in it that she couldn't taste the spinach or the beat juice. My awesome wife, Liz, didn't care for the taste of beat juice (or beats for that matter). When all of the ingredients were blended together, it tasted delicious and she didn't know the spinach or beat juice was in it. To be fair, I did tell her the ingredients after she said how much she liked it. Try experimenting with different in-season fruits and veggies to create your own smoothie variations.

A really healthy food to include in your diet with preeclampsia is garlic. There was a study done in the UK that concluded "...garlic may help to boost the birth-weight of babies destined to be too small." There is an increase in the % of growth promoting substances in the placenta that can quickly stimulate growth in the baby. Garlic is also said to help lower high blood pressure which can also be beneficial to mommies.

Try your hardest to stay away from excess sodium and artificial sweeteners. These 2 substances are so unhealthy for anyone, especially someone with preeclampsia. Of course, common sense should be everyone's best guide. We all know the foods we should be staying away from; and when in doubt look at the label of ingredients. If there are words you can't pronounce, chances are you don't need to be eating it.'

We began eating salads every day for dinner. We would load them up with lots of great things like different kinds of nuts, fruits, avocado, tomatoes, onion, etc. To keep things exciting we rotate the toppings ever night along with the main source of protein, whether fish, white meat, or red meat. Again we tried keeping everything as organic and free-range as we could find.

I'll close with this; don't be afraid to indulge every once in a while. Don't feel like your torturing yourself by depriving your body of what it craves. Sometimes an intense craving may come for oreo cookie ice cream! By all means enjoy the ice cream, just not the whole carton The joy of eating your favorite food can have great positive effects on your mental well-being.

Remember to feed the soul :)