Pregnant women need magnesium as magnesium helps to repair and build the body’s tissues
Women who are severely deficient during pregnancy may experience pre-eclampsia. Other complications include retarded fetal growth and possibly even the death of the fetus. Women should therefore ensure that take enough magnesium while they are pregnant.
Minerals work in conjunction with each other and in the case of magnesium, calcium is the mineral of choice
Calcium will stimulate the muscles and magnesium gets the muscles to relax. sufficient amounts of magnesium are necessary to help the uterus to not contact too early.
Other benefits of magnesium include keeping the teeth and bones strong
Certain enzyme functions are possible due to magnesium and the mineral also helps to regulate insulin and sugar levels. Further research has revealed that it is helpful in controlling cholesterol and the heart beat. If a pregnant woman has muscle cramps she will notice that this is relieved when taking magnesium.
Women who are pregnant need about 350 mg of magnesium every day
This is a ball park figure and can vary slightly depending on the age of the woman. Sometimes it is difficult to get these amounts on a daily basis and it is therefore okay to get an average amount over a few days or a week.
While there are many foods that supply magnesium it is wise to take a supplement. Some of the food types include meat, yogurt, beans, peanut butter and baked potatoes with the skin on. Black beans, Swiss chard, soybeans, cashews and spinach are other sources of this very useful mineral. If these foods do not grab your fancy then try roasted almonds, boiled Chinese long beans,salmon, halibut, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.
It is not easy to meet the daily requirement that you need in terms of magnesium for a variety of reasons
The main reason is that the foods are not as rich in magnesium as they were years ago. Commercialism has caused farmers to use less than mineral rich soil to plant the food in. This means that the food that is produced is not as rich in magnesium as might have been the case 50-60 years ago.
Although pregnancy is not an illness it is an event that women’s bodies have to endure and in some cases the body can go through some changes that are distressing and debilitating. Women should do everything in their power to make sure that they are healthy so that the unborn fetus has the best chance of making it into the world and in fact living a health life thereafter.
Pregnant women will be very conscious of what they consume during their pregnancy. Pregnant women should not take the responsibility of bringing another human being into this world lightly. For this reason it is important to know what foods and supplements are okay and which of them should be avoided.
Pregnant women often allow nature to take its course and this is not all together the right way to go. In the early stages a fetus’s cells divide and multiply at a rapid rate. Thereafter, everything else that will make up the baby is formed and this is why nutrition is so very important. Expecting mothers need to know that what every they consume will have an effect on the fetus. The repercussions of this can never be understated.
Pregnant women need to follow a health diet the moment they discover that they are pregnant. It is even better to address dietary issues even before falling pregnant. Planning around four months before conception is a good idea and this is when the dietary changes should take place. Magnesium will be beneficial and pregnant women should discuss this with a suitably qualified person.