Avoiding Anemia Through A Careful Diet During Pregnancy

Anemia is a condition which can oftentimes arise during the course of the pregnancy of a female, and the reason for this is fairly self-evident and straightforward: the fetus which she is carrying in her womb will require a substantial amount of the mineral, iron. Therefore, if the level of iron in the blood should fall below the required level needed by either the mother or the fetus, then anemia will arise and occur.

It should be noted that there is something of an automatic safety feature included with pregnancy in that the fetus will its iron requirement and so it will take as much iron as is possible to satisfy this requirement, even if this done to the detriment of the mother.

A crucial factor that many pregnant women are woefully unaware of is that the issue of anemia arising during the course of a pregnancy is not a case of merely being a notable lack of iron in the blood. Specifically, it is entirely possible for a pregnant female to have enough iron in her diet….but the fetus is not getting the amounts required.

I eat plenty of iron rich foods. Why do I still have anemia?

Part of the problem with morning sickness is that the very act of vomiting means that food that would otherwise have been digested and then absorbed, is removed from the body before the body process of digestion can take place, thereby meaning that the mother is denied the iron.

The diet of the mother also plays a crucial role, and the reason for this is that there are a number of food stuffs that will interfere with the rate and ease at which the female will be able to absorb the iron.  Tea and coffee have a very rich content of polyphenols and these have been scientifically proven to have an inhibiting effect on the ability of the human body to be able to absorb iron from the food that has been ingested. Therefore, it is essential that the mother reduces the amount of such items in her diet to avoid such an eventuality.