Question

Tina is taking a prenatal supplement but is curious about whether her diet alone can meet her nutrient needs. She analyzes her diet and finds that she is meeting her needs for all nutrients except iron. Her current diet provides only 13.5 mg of iron – significantly less that the RDA of 27 mg for pregnant women. Q: Using NutriCal to find foods that Tina could add to her diet to increase her iron intake by 13.5 mg/day. How many calories would your suggestions add?

Answer 1

A pregnant women is required to add the dietary nutrients to her diet as she is in higher prone of getting deficiency of such nutrients. It is present in all the pregnant women because the foetus or a new human being is being developed or is growing inside her body and is taking all the required nutrition for its growth from the mother's body and the nutrients taken by her. Hence, it is very much common for the mother or pregnant women to get deficit of certain nutrient in her body during her pregnancy.

The major nutrient which is increasingly used or utilized by the growing foetus inside the mother's womb is iron which is necessary for the production of the red blood cells. Although the mother takes the iron in the same quantity which she had been taking from before there will be deficit shown for it because the blood cells production are facilitated by the mother's body in the foetus. The RDA of iron in pregnant women is 27 mg/ DL Time has only 13.5 mg/ dl. She is recommended to increase her supplement of iron by providing supplement from the diet.

The diet that she should include to increase iron are:

- spinach

- pomegranate

- beetroot

- drumsticks and its leaves which includes various rich nutrients

- shellfish

- liver and other organs

- legumes

- quinoa etc.

The calories that need to be increased by a pregnant lady is by 500 GM per day.