Is Keto Safe During Pregnancy?

Eating healthy lies at the core of staying fit. We become what we eat and most of us don’t consider healthy food until reality hits us, and we get fat and sick. The whole healthy eating thing revolves around your diet.

Pregnancy is one of the crucial stages of a woman’s life. And woman and health is a way bigger issue. Pregnancy is tough for every woman and for obese women, it gets tougher. During pregnancy, women need to eat for two. They need to eat colorful foods for all-round development of the baby and maintain their own health.

There is a recent trend of low-carb diets, especially the keto diet and you may wonder if it is safe for pregnant women to go for a ketogenic diet. Pregnant women always require wholesome nutrition and what about the keto diet? Can a keto diet suffice for pregnant women?

Before answering the question, it’s important to know more about the ketogenic diet. In the following sections of the article, you will learn about the keto diet and is a keto diet safe during pregnancy? Should you consider the keto diet during pregnancy?

The Ketogenic Diet

The Ketogenic diet or keto diet, for short, is a recent dietary regime advertised as a “miraculous diet”. Everyone is curious about the keto diet. Fitness lovers are getting crazy with amazing transformations and other health benefits of a ketogenic diet.

A ketogenic diet is a low-carb dietary lifestyle with acclaimed health benefits apart from weight loss. It has been proven by most, if not all, researches to fix various chronic weight-related conditions like Diabetes Type 2, PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), epilepsy, and whatnot!

Millions are taking on the keto journey every day and you are here for the same good reason. The ketogenic diet is a very low-carb, moderate protein, and high-fat diet, that kicks your body into a metabolic state called ketosis, that helps you lose those extra kilos, giving you other great benefits on the way.

The word Keto comes from the word ketogenesis, the name of a metabolic process in the human body. Keto Diets are a class of low-carbohydrate diets and are executed by lowering the intake of carbohydrates. Typically, it is advised to reduce the total carbohydrate intake to 50 grams per day and net carbohydrate intake to 20-30 grams per day to be on a ketogenic diet.

The ketogenic diet is a restrictive diet and different people react to the diet based on their body type. Some people on a keto diet, complain about certain symptoms and allergies. These allergies go away with time. 

The keto diet, therefore, as such is not a great deal for everyone but a different variant of the same maybe. The ketogenic diet should be adopted taking into consideration the health conditions, body type, goals, and allergies if any.

Keto Diet For Pregnant Woman

Even if you are not pregnant, following a keto diet is a tough job. Most people give up on a keto diet for its restrictive nature.People on a keto diet often claim a lack of some essential nutrients on a keto diet. The focus on fat and carbs is so extensive that sometimes, people following a ketogenic diet fail to get enough macros.

Most fruits and vegetables are a big no-no on a keto diet owing to natural sugars and carbs. Having too much of any can get you kicked out of ketosis.In contrast, pregnant women need more colorful fruits and veggies, and other foods rich in minerals and vitamins- to nourish themselves and their baby. A dose of fiber from fruits and veggies that keto diet lacks is really good to prevent constipation during pregnancy.

Pregnant women on a keto diet also lack Vitamins A, C, E, D, and B. These are essential for healthy bones, muscles, blood, and nerves. People on a keto diet usually eat unhealthy in pursuit of getting too many fats. This shouldn’t be the case. Unhealthy fats will only hamper your ketosis and give you other related problems.

Pregnant women should also consider the common symptoms and after-effects of a keto diet before going keto. People on a keto diet often experience symptoms like fatigue, dizziness, headaches, nausea, etc. 

Keto Diet Benefits For Pregnant Women

The symptoms people, including pregnant women, experience on a keto diet go away with time. In rare cases, they don’t and there is a need to consult the doctor. Nonetheless, a ketogenic diet has potential benefits to offer for pregnant women. Here are some:

Gestational Diabetes:

Pregnant women get high on sugar levels during conception and usually, this causes diabetes that lasts as long as the baby is born. In some cases, this diabetes increases the chances of Type 2 Diabetes in the later stages of the life of a newborn. Researchers have suggested that a ketogenic diet can potentially reverse the symptoms of diabetes, in the case of pregnant women too.

Fertility: 

Many studies claim that keto diet improves the chances of pregnancy by helping women lose weight and getting fit. However, there is no direct established relation between keto diet and fertility. If you aren’t getting enough macros on keto, you might actually worsen things up.

Important Pointers

Women may start the Keto Diet 2-3 months before trying to conceive. The Keto Diet meal should list items such as unsweetened nut butter on vegetables like celery, cucumber or cauliflower, as well as nuts, eggs in all forms, meats, canned and fresh fish, cheeses, avocado, unflavoured pork rinds, butter, full-fat cream.

Doctors suggest that if the mother consumes low carb, high-fat food every two hours from the time she wakes up decreases the rates of miscarriage, Preeclampsia, Gestational diabetes, and Morning Sickness.Hence, it is completely safe for women to be eating a ketogenic diet in pregnancy as long as they are eating certain foods for proper nutrition.

If you want to know more about the keto diet, you should read our other articles too. We have curated articles for everyone. Our answers to your questions are honest and straight.