Is the Keto diet safe for pregnant women?
In the past few years, the keto diet became one of the most popular diets. If you live on Earth, you must have heard about it, even nearby planets and galaxies heard about it. Many celebrities have shared their success stories, with this diet. Pregnant women, wonder if this diet is safe during pregnancy, find out more in this article.
What is the Ketogenic diet?
It is a weight loss regimen that restricts all types of carbs, simple and complex, even carbs from vegetables are not allowed when you follow this diet. Keto diet followers can’t have any type of sugar from any source even from fruit, their fruit is limited to berries as they contain minimal amounts of sugar.
The keto diet contains mostly proteins and different types of fats, in addition to only 45 grams of carbs.
How does keto work?
Carbs and sugars are accessible energy sources for your body, but when you don’t consume them, your body will burn fat to produce energy, and you will lose weight. This process is called ketosis, and this is basically how keto works.
Is this diet efficient?
Many statistics that people are more likely to lose weight while on keto, than on other diets. The early days of keto was a treatment option for people with epilepsy, a century ago. It was effective back then and is still used by some medical professionals until this day.
Is the Keto diet safe for pregnant women?
- Doctors don’t recommend that pregnant women follow any weight loss diet, to protect the health of the fetus and the pregnancy.
- As mentioned above the essence of Keto is ketosis which is not an easy process that can take a toll on the expecting mother.
- The fact that this diet restricts carbs consumption even from vegetables will deprive the pregnant woman of necessary nutrients and elements such as iron, and folic acid which are essential for the fetus’s wellbeing.
- In addition to these elements following keto can cause a deficiency in Magnesium, B vitamins, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin D.
- Taking supplements will not compensate for these deficiencies.
- Being on a high-fat diet is not a healthy option for a pregnant woman.
- Suffering from common keto diet side effects such as:
- Fatigue.
- Dizziness.
- Nausea.
- Constipation.
- Dehydration.
- Bloating.
- Foul breath.
- High cholesterol.
- Diarrhea.
Some research done on mice showed that mice who consumed keto foods while pregnant their babies were born with enlarged hearts and shrunken brains.
Gestational diabetes
The Keto diet can lower blood sugar significantly as proven by several studies. Expecting moms with gestational diabetes become excited about such news and would want to follow the keto diet. But you can significantly lower your blood sugar by following a healthy low-carb diet that is free from processed sugars.
Keto and fertility
Some sources claim that following the ketogenic diet increases fertility, citing some people who conceived after following the keto diet. Their success is mainly due to weight loss, which is an important factor when attempting to conceive. The ketogenic may play a role in risking infertility by depriving your body of so many important nutrients.
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