What Chips Are Ok to Eat When Pregnant
Becoming a mother is one of the extraordinary privileges that a woman can attain in her lifetime. However, it is not an easy task and it comes with a great responsibility as you bear and carry a wonderful being inside your temple. As the baby continues to grow, a woman will start to notice changes and strange, sudden food cravings like chips. As we all know, chips are a type of snack that you can always see in your retail stores and grocery malls. You can simply grab a pack or two when you will crave it.
But chips contain certain chemicals that can be harmful to your health. Regardless, can you still eat some while you're pregnant? How about you ask yourself first these questions – "can I eat chips while pregnant?", "is eating chips safe for me and my baby?" before picking up your favorite bag of chips? Read on to find out why.
Food Cravings – Why Is It More Prominent During Pregnancy?
First, let us talk about food cravings and why is it more noticeable and intense during pregnancy. According to certain studies, food cravings during pregnancy may be driven by biochemical needs or cultural influence. Pregnancy tends to modify the woman's body including their physical, nutritional, emotional needs. With this, attention and control should be given more to suffice that their body is asking, together with what their hormones and sensory are requiring. To meet these challenging requirements, pregnant women tend to crave different types of foods.
Can I Eat Chips While Pregnant? – What Are The Reasons?
So, can you eat chips while pregnant? Be it a potato or corn type of chips, they are still called and categorized under processed food and we know that eating any processed foods in excessive amounts offers adverse effects on health that may associate with complications and several fatal illnesses.
Chips are simply an unhealthy snack. The process and the ingredients put together to make chips are the major causes of classifying it as unhealthy. Chips are too oily and contain saturated fat that increases the risk of having bad cholesterol, thus also increasing the risk of stroke and heart ailments. The same goes for the salt content of chips, it can impose a risk on blood pressure and blood circulation as too much salt disrupts the regular system of the minerals in the body.
Now that we've already mentioned some points for childbearing, can the baby get the harmful effects as well? – the answer is yes. Eating chips during the first trimester of pregnancy is best to be avoided as this stage is very risky and crucial for the baby; it is where the woman will see and feel a lot of intense changes. Complications may happen during conceiving, such as disruption of the child's developmental factors, birth defects, and abnormal behavioral conditions later on. Hence, it is very important to impose strict restrictions and control on unhealthy food cravings like chips.
What Are the Other Foods to Avoid during Pregnancy?
Pro tip: the best way to easily remember the foods to avoid during pregnancy is to understand where and how to do pathogens, harmful bacteria, and viruses grow. With this, you will be able to identify and distinguish which foods should you not be eating especially in the critical trimester of pregnancy. Below are the major causes of complications are the following:
- E. coli – this bacteria can be found on several uncooked foods including meat. Digesting certain strains of E. coli can cause moderate to severe stomach cramps. For pregnant women, the worst-case scenario is that it can cause miscarriage.
Foods that could contain this bacteria:uncooked and undercooked meat, unpasteurized milk, and other dairy products
- Salmonella – a harmful bacteria that causes salmonellosis and can be found usually on raw and eggs. Salmonellosis causes intestinal disorders and related. During pregnancy, this can be transferred to the baby and may lead to worse complications such as infection of amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby in the mother's womb.
Foods that could contain this bacteria: raw eggs, unpasteurized juices, and soft dairies, uncooked meats
- Listeria – pregnant women are more vulnerable to these bacteria. It can cause several complications during pregnancy that may lead to serious cases like miscarriage and stillbirth. Listeria can survive on refrigerator temperatures, thus can be found on foods inside your fridge.
Foods that could contain this bacteria: unpasteurized dairies and juices, uncooked and raw meats
Additionally, do not forget to add alcohol to this list. This not only affects your baby's developmental features but also causes you to have a miscarriage.
Still Craving Potato Chips during Pregnancy?
As per studies, salt and fat play a major role in our cravings. It feeds a specific type of hormone called dopamine that is responsible for our pleasure feeling. So how can we ease our food cravings especially from eating potato chips?
An important factor is a person's willingness to stay away from temptation. But a good start would be making your healthy chips – like banana chips. You can easily make it at home and add specific healthy ingredients to make sure you are getting the most out of it. Also, banana is a good source of potassium and magnesium that benefits muscle relaxation. Ideally, for pregnant women, this will not only prevent you from craving potato chips during pregnancy but it will redound to the benefit over-all!
Conclusion
A pregnant woman carries another human being inside her body, making her more sensitive to various external and internal factors such as foods. While craving foods is a normal occurrence during this stage, it is still important to take restrictions and control.
Potato chips are undeniably a person's oftentimes to-go snack at any time of the day, but this should change especially for pregnant women. Chips contain no nutritional benefits; they are just another unhealthy snack that only adds harmful effects on the body; such as different heart ailments, hypertension, diabetes, and can even trigger some allergies. This junk will also just be affecting the baby's developmental factors when born or in the long run.
Therefore, the answer to the question – "can I eat chips while pregnant?" is no. Hence, start changing your lifestyle, switch to healthy options, and always be mindful of the foods you are eating. Also, do not forget to take caution on the foods to avoid during pregnancy. Be wise and be selective for the sake of your and the baby's health.
What Chips Are Ok to Eat When Pregnant
Source: https://www.simple30.com/food/can-i-eat-chips-while-pregnant/