Soon after discovering their pregnancy, most women adopt healthier lifestyle, especially on their diets. Most of them will give up packed foods and instead, start to consume natural foods, or the foods they can process at home themselves. Is sugar really that harmful for your unborn baby, and are you allowed to consume sugar while pregnant?

What Foods are high in Sugar?

Sugar is a sub-form of carbohydrate found in various kind of our diets. Massive consumption of sugar may lead to diabetes and obesity. Our body indeed need sugar to be transformed into energy. However, all kinds of sugar needed for body cycle can be found in grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits. Unfortunately, we tend to consume foods with refined sugar which is not really good for our health. The packed foods, instant pasta, bottled juices, even garnished bread are containing processed sugar and increase the risk of diabetes as well as lead to obesity. Some of the foods with the highest sugar level are sweetened powdered drinks, soft drinks, candies, dried fruits, cookies, jams, cereals, canned fruits, and ice cream. We are surrounded by those sugary foods and it is ourselves to choose our own diet to define our destiny. You are allowed to consume these foods, of course, in wise manner and not in daily basis.

How does Sugar affect Pregnancy?

Pregnancy is closely related to morning sickness. As for morning sickness, it makes women crave for foods to ease the feeling of nausea and appetite loss. You may find yourself crave for chocolate cookies, sugar crackers, strawberry ice cream, or vanilla milk shakes to calm your stomach from morning sickness. However, those kinds of diet contain incredibly high level of sugar. Sugar can lead to several chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension, and obesity. To be specific with the soon-to-be moms, sugar can cause excessive weight gain, difficulty in losing weight after delivery, and high sugar level in blood. This, no doubt, will affect the unborn baby just the same. Before giving up sweeteners, almost 3 out of 5 pregnant moms were diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Seeing the major effect of sugar to your unborn baby, you might want to try cravings a lot healthier treats to fight morning sickness.

Is is OK to eat Sugar while Pregnant?

Seeing how sugar affect your body especially while pregnant, it is really important to replace sugary foods with healthier ones. You should avoid high-level of sugar contained in mentioned foods before, and consume only the natural sugary foods. Some things should be your consideration.

1. Eat sugar only in adequate level

You should tell yourself to eat sugar only to make your pregnancy healthy. Do not eat sugary diets every time you want it. Be wise to only consume them when you need them for energy boost after vomiting caused by severe morning sickness.

2. Replace your sugary treats with more natural ones

Sweeteners are bad and harmful. Therefore, during (and maybe after) pregnancy, you should consider cutting them off. Start replacing your sweet snacks with nuts or green smoothies to gain less sugar level. You can also gain energy from grains rather than from cookies and sugary treats.

3. Fruits are OK, but avoid high-sugar fruits

Fruits contain natural sugar in the form of carbohydrate that will be processed in your body. However, some fruits contain higher sugar level than the others. You might want to avoid bananas, mangos, and pears during your pregnancy. Instead, you can consume berries—high in vitamin C, but less sugar or vegetables.

4. Cook your own diets

Should you have energy to cook your own diets, you should start making healthy sugar free treats for yourself. When cooking your own foods, you can control the ingredients you want and do not want to go inside your body.

Giving up sugar during pregnancy is not needed. However, you need wisdom to choose what kind of sugar and how much sugar you would want to consume. You need some energy from sugar, yet you might want to get it from natural sources rather than packed ones. Do not pick the foods you cannot process in the kitchen yourself.