Life without consuming meat or becoming a vegetarian is a choice. Vegetarians believe that their way of eating can make their body fitter and healthier. How about pregnant women? Is there are vegetarian diet affect to the fetus?
In the pregnancy period, the need of nutrition will increase, includes the protein that beneficial of the growth and development of fetus. Pregnant women also need 300 calories addition every day.
“As long as they get enough protein, pregnant women can be a vegetarian. The main requirement is they must eat many kinds of foods, so the foods can complete each other.
He added that many of his patients decide to stay on vegetarian diet, but still undergo healthy pregnancy. “The most important thing is to make a plan, so the body will not suffer from lack of nutrition. People should understand that body has its own process, if there is a lack of nutrition, the fetus will take it from the mother,” he explained.
One of the nutrition that very important for pregnancy is protein, because it plays crucial role on the forming of blood cells, albumin, enzyme, hormone, cells replacement, and many more.
Compare with vegetable protein, according to dietician dr Fiastuti Witjaksono, the animal protein has complete amino acid. For pregnant women who are vegan vegetarian or don’t consume any kind of meat and egg, include the processed egg products, she suggested that they should replace the amino acid from animal protein with many kinds of foods.
“The replacement foods can be obtained from nuts and seeds. This requirement must be fulfilled every day because if it is not, it can affect the growth and development of fetus,” she said.
Meanwhile, calcium can be obtained from foods that made of soybean, green vegetables or soy milk. Nevertheless, if the mother feels unsure about the health of her fetus, dr Fiastuti suggested that vegan vegetarian change the diet, so they still can consume milk, egg and fish.
