Singer Jessica Simpson acknowledges that she gained 50 pounds when she was pregnant with her daughter Maxwell in 2012. Years later, while going through old photos of her pregnant self, she recalls asking her husband, “Babe, why didn’t you tell me to put the brownie down?”
So what should you do if you’re pregnant and overweight or obese? We know being overweight increases your risk for gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, sleep apnea, miscarriage and birth defects, but a 2015 metastudy published in PLOS One concluded that if overweight or obese women lose weight while pregnant, it increases the risk of complications and may harm the fetus. Instead, the focus should be on getting top-notch nutrition by eating a plant-based diet that eliminates highly processed foods, red meats and added sugars, and on enjoying daily physical activity. Remember: Consult your doc about nutrition and doing physical activity before making changes to your lifestyle.
Your goal is to gain about 2 to 4 pounds during your first three months of pregnancy and 1 pound a week for the remainder of the pregnancy -- perhaps less if you’re overweight.
The best plan, however, is to lose weight before you become pregnant. Work with your doctor to determine how much weight you need to lose for maximum health and then how long -- losing 1 pound a week -- you need to achieve that goal. Once you hit that mark and maintain it for a couple of months, then you’re ready to move on to the next great event in your lives!
The science behind cruciferous veggies’ life-saving powers
The English language is full of eccentric words that start with the letter C: cahoots (conspiring together secretly) and callipygian (a well-shaped backside) are two examples. But in our book, “cruciferous” tops the list. This word, used to group together several nutrition-packed vegetables, comes from a Latin term that describes their cross-shaped flowers and provides no clue about which veggies fall into the category.
Now, a study in the British Journal of Nutrition adds to the evidence that what’s in this hard-to-pronounce and harder-to-spell category can save your life. So, first the list (we bet there are some surprises), then the benefits.
All cruciferous vegetables: arugula, bok choy, broccoli, broccoli rabe, broccoli Romanesco, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese broccoli, Chinese cabbage, collard greens, daikon, garden cress, horseradish, kale, kohlrabi, komatsuna, land cress, mizuna, mustard seeds and leaves, radish, rutabaga, tatsoi, turnips roots and greens, wasabi and watercress.
What they can do for you: The researchers found that older women (median age 74) who’ve been eating the equivalent of 10.5 ounces of cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage or broccoli weekly (2 1/2 ounces more than one serving) have a 46% reduction in their risk of abdominal aortic calcification compared with women eating only 3 1/2 ounces of those veggies weekly. AAC is an indicator of blood flow to your lower extremities and a predictor of serious coronary events -- aka heart attack and peripheral artery disease. But now you know which veggies pack this powerful benefit, you can make sure you get your weekly servings.
