Strawberries during pregnancy: benefits and harms

The words "strawberry" and "ball" have much in common: the fact is that the berry got its name precisely for its resemblance to the ball - a ball. It was round only at the very beginning of its journey. Today, breeders have produced cone-shaped and elongated, cylinder-like, and flattened varieties. But all these are strawberries. Or rather, garden strawberries - that's their scientific name. Its roots came from the natural strawberry, which was brought to gardens and cultivated.

Botanists note another inconsistency with regard to strawberries. The fact is that the berry, which is considered one of the most beloved by the people, in fact, is not a berry at all. It would be more correct to classify it as the fruit of a nut, but not a simple one, but a complex one, where the nuts are small strawberry kernels on the juicy red body of the sprawling peduncle.

There is a popular belief: when an expectant mother constantly wants to eat strawberries, she will give birth to a daughter. Whether this is true or not, is not known for certain, but there are a lot of benefits for pregnant women from the consumption of this berry.

Is it possible to eat strawberries during pregnancy

Strawberries for pregnant women are not only not prohibited, but even recommended. This useful berry will bring pleasure with its taste, will improve the mood, will help to overcome stress and relieve depression, into which future mothers sometimes fall. It will remove harmful substances from the body and strengthen it, protecting it from various health problems. Especially strawberries will benefit if you add them to cottage cheese, ice cream, milk yogurt or ryazhenka.

But it is not worth recklessly and uncontrollably for women in the position to eat strawberries, so as not to harm either yourself, or the unborn child.

The early term

In the first three months of pregnancy, strawberries will be most useful for the expectant mother. It will help to alleviate feelings and significantly reduce the frequency and intensity of nausea attacks and other manifestations of toxicity.

The first trimester is the period of formation of organs and systems of the baby, so vitamins and other useful substances contained in the sweet berry will be very timely for him. Especially important for this is folic acid, which is quite abundant in strawberries.

Such a component of the berry as ascorbic acid (or vitamin C) will also protect the woman herself by strengthening her immunity. It is enough to eat as few as 100 grams of strawberries a day, and the body will get the necessary amount of ascorbic acid. And strong health of the mother will certainly be the key to the future child's health.

Due to iron, which is also part of strawberries, you can prevent the development of complications, which often accompany pregnancy - anemia.

However, you must keep in mind that overeating strawberries presents a risk of increased uterine tone, and this is especially important in early pregnancy. To avoid the threat of miscarriage, you should limit yourself to 200-250 grams of berries a day.

In addition, strawberries can give allergic reactions: rashes, diarrhea, heartburn will appear on the skin. In this case, you should forget about the berry until the mother stops breastfeeding the child.

The 2nd trimester

Even if the expectant mother, eating strawberries, does not experience any discomfort in the intestines and she does not have any problems in the form of skin rashes, the use of berries should be kept to a minimum and eat them not more than 200 grams per day. The thing is that in the second trimester, from the 22nd week of pregnancy, the baby may have allergies.

The 3rd trimester

In the final trimester the risk of increasing the uterine muscle tone increases again, so to prevent labor from starting prematurely, you have to reduce the amount of berries eaten to 100 g per day and only twice a week. Closer to the expected date of delivery and such a norm becomes undesirable, in the last weeks it is better to use only one to three berries no more than once every 7-10 days.

You should not refuse strawberries at this term, because they have a lot of benefits for the expectant mother. Thus, vitamin E contained in the juicy berries supports the health of hair, nails, teeth and skin. Ascorbic acid at this stage is important as a means of preventing placental detachment and varicose veins, helps to maintain the elasticity of blood vessels and strengthen their walls. Thus, blood circulation between the mother and the baby is improved, which prevents fetal hypoxia. Thanks to vitamin C, the skin also remains soft and well stretchable, thereby preventing the appearance of stretch marks on the abdomen.

In addition, thanks to their diuretic properties, strawberries help women get rid of edema, which are not uncommon near the end of pregnancy, thereby also regulating blood pressure, surges which are also possible in this period.

Can pregnant women eat strawberries

A small bowl of fresh strawberries from your own garden plot is, of course, the best option for the expectant mother. But not always and not everyone is pregnant at a time when the berries are ripe and quite available. If it is not in season, you will have to make do with what you have - that is, compote, jam, frozen berries. The product is better not to buy in the store, but to make your own at home. This is the only way to guarantee that it will be of good enough quality.

Frozen strawberries

Today you can buy fresh strawberries at any time of the year - even when it's freezing outside. Those berries, which are sold in supermarkets in winter, look amazing - large, smooth - one to one. But the smell and taste of them has little resemblance to the real summer strawberries, and they are not very useful, but more harmful: nobody knows in what conditions the out-of-season harvest grew, what kind of fertilizers "spurred" its ripening.

It is better to eat frozen berries from your own garden, they are much more suitable for the future mother. If it is properly frozen, perfectly preserved all the useful substances, and the taste and smell really please.

Therefore, in the midst of the strawberry season, you need to wash well selected the best and undamaged berries, while removing their green "cup" of leaves. Then dry the strawberries on a spreading towel, then place them one by one on a flat plate or tray so they don't touch each other, and put them in the freezer with the "quick freeze" function on. When the berries are frozen, put them in a container or bag and put them in the freezer for storage.

In winter, you can defrost the berries and enjoy, but do not forget about the norm allowed in this or that trimester of pregnancy: overeating frozen strawberries is as harmful as fresh ones, the side effect will be similar.

Frozen fruits are used to make compotes, and in winter it is better to drink them warm.

Strawberry jam

Self-brewed jam or homemade jam from strawberries are allowed to pregnant women. It is best either added to cottage cheese or other dairy products, or eaten in a snack with tea, watching the amount eaten and how it reacts to the body.

Based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), doctors say that the allowable amount of sugar for pregnant women per day is no more than six teaspoons. This includes not only the sugar in jam, but also that which is put in porridge, with which you cook a compote. On this basis, you need to count the amount of jam. As a rule, a spoonful of jam contains exactly one spoonful of sugar.

In addition, strawberry jam can cause allergies - just like fresh berries. If after tea drinking it appeared on your skin rash, you should give up jam.

But still, if you are not allergic to the product, it is better to try not jam, but grated strawberries with sugar. Such preparations are not subjected to heat treatment, so the vitamins in them are preserved in the amount that is in the fresh berries. When making such desserts, it is better to use brown cane sugar instead of the usual white beet sugar, it is much healthier.

Strawberry compote

Strawberry compote is useful for pregnancy. If the berries are not overcooked, they will retain all the vitamins and nutrients, so boil them for no more than three minutes.

It is not recommended to buy ready-made compote in the store, they are usually over-sweetened, in addition, they add preservatives. It's better to make a drink from the strawberries from your garden or, in a pinch, from a purchased from friends.

Aromatic drink is good both warm and cool. You can drink it in small sips, when suffering from toxicity - so it will be easier to survive the unpleasant symptoms. Chilled compote on a hot summer day and will save from thirst, and deliver pleasure and replenish the body with vitamins. But do not forcefully cool drink - icy liquid can provoke a cold or sore throat.

If the mother-to-be drinks this drink regularly, her blood hemoglobin levels will improve, reducing the risk of anemia, which is important for the health of the baby. However, it is necessary to control the blood sugar reading, because as a rule, granulated sugar is added when the compote is boiled. If it is not additionally sweetened, blood control may not be very scrupulous. If the blood glucose level rises, the compote should be discarded.

Another danger - possible allergies. If the first signs of it appear, you should not drink the compote.

In strawberry compote you can add other fruits or berries, such as apples. In this case, they are first boiled in boiling water for three or four minutes, then add strawberries and cook some more.

It is desirable to drink cooked compote during the day. With longer storage, the vitamins in it are destroyed, and the product itself begins to spoil.

If a pregnant woman, especially in the last terms, will drink a lot of flavored drink, she may get edema. How much compote to drink can be told exactly by the doctor who leads the pregnancy. He will calculate the amount that is acceptable, based on the data on the weight of the expectant mother, the term of pregnancy and the results of tests.

Dried strawberries

Surprisingly, such unpleasant consequences of pregnancy as morning sickness, heartburn, constipation and edema can be eliminated with the help of dried strawberries.

Since dried berries are dried at the temperature not higher than 40-45 degrees, they have all the advantages of fresh strawberries - they have no less vitamins and minerals.

Dried strawberries can be used for making compote, or you can add them to tea when brewing or eat 1-2 pieces in a snack during the tea party.

Care must be taken with dried strawberries, however, because the evaporation of water makes the pulp more concentrated. The amount of sugar per unit weight increases, and allergic properties increase. Therefore, the rate of eaten dried strawberries can not exceed two pieces per day twice a week. This will be quite enough to replenish the body with vitamins and other useful substances, improve blood hemoglobin levels, increase the elasticity of blood vessels and strengthen their walls.

Compote from dried strawberries is also not recommended to drink more than twice a week. Thanks to its diuretic effect, you can reduce edema in a pregnant woman. In addition, this fragrant drink has a beneficial effect on the nervous system of the future mother and helps to calmly survive stressful situations, eliminate overstimulation and psycho-emotional tension.

What is the right way to consume strawberries

Delicious fragrant strawberries are sure to benefit the pregnant woman and her baby, if not abused. Select the freshest, most beautiful and ripe berries, and wash them well before using. First, strawberries usually have grains of sand on them, which will be unpleasant to grind on your teeth if you do not get rid of them. Secondly, since berries usually ripen while lying on the ground, there is a danger of contracting helminth eggs.

It is best to eat berries with fermented foods. This will help to avoid a decrease in calcium levels in the body, because the acids in strawberries begin to interact with the calcium from the "dairy," rather than from the body. Strawberries are most "friendly" with sour cream, cream, plain milk yogurt, cottage cheese and ryazhenka.

It is important to remember that the most suitable strawberries - the ones that have grown in the area where the pregnant woman lives, in the present strawberry season. Greenhouse winter strawberries or brought out of season from far away, from several seas, are usually impregnated with substances which allow the berries to be better preserved during long transport, but are harmful to the delicate body of the baby.

How much you can eat a day

The benefits during pregnancy will not bring a huge bowl of strawberries eaten in one sitting, but a daily extremely limited use of them. In such a daily regime, during the whole berry season, you can eat 2-3 pieces, no more. With the average size of berries it is about 70-80 grams. When you want to eat more, you can allow yourself 5-6 pieces, but then you'll have to sacrifice the frequency of consumption - no more than 2-3 times a week. Too large a dose may cause a miscarriage at early terms, at later terms - premature birth.

You may eat strawberries at bedtime and on an empty stomach.

Eating strawberries on an empty stomach is not a good idea. The fact is that the organic acids in the composition of the berry act irritatingly on the mucous membrane lining the stomach, especially if it is still empty. Therefore, in order not to provoke gastritis, it is better not to add berries to cottage cheese, which is planned to eat for breakfast, it is better to postpone them until noon or eat them as a dessert for lunch.

Strawberries are also not recommended before going to bed, for three reasons. The first lies in the action of organic acids: if a mother-to-be eats berries and takes a horizontal position in bed, because of the berry acids in the stomach, she will suffer from heartburn. Especially great is its probability in the late stages of pregnancy. The second reason is the diuretic effect of strawberries. After its evening use will have to get up to go to the toilet not once a night, and sleep will be guaranteed to be ruined. And the third reason: when the berries will be digested at night and actively cleanse the intestines, there may be flatulence and bubbles, and this, of course, is uncomfortable.

The benefits of strawberries during pregnancy

Strawberries owe their red color to the pigment pelargonidin. In fact, they are anthocyanins, the name given to a group of natural dyes that help improve retinal health and normalize eye pressure. In addition, anthocyanins have the property of stopping blood.

Some scientists talk about strawberries as a vitamin bomb - so much in these beautiful fragrant and delicious berries of substances that are useful and necessary for everyone, and pregnant - especially. Vitamins in the fruit are no less than in the popular complexes developed by the pharmaceutical industry and sold at the pharmacy for a lot of money.

Scientists have long noted that strawberries are among the leading products for the number of amino acids and vitamins they contain. They left behind citrus fruits, and for the presence of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) they are in second place - after the black currant. It is enough to eat just a handful of red berries to get a full daily dose of this vitamin.

Ascorbic acid provides pregnant women a stronger immune system, which is especially valuable during the period of childbirth, since most medications are prohibited at this time. In addition, vitamin C is involved in the absorption of iron, and therefore stimulates the production of hemoglobin.

Folic acid, or vitamin B9, is essential for the formation and development of all organs of the child, especially in the early stages of pregnancy, when his neural tube is laid. Folic acid from strawberries in the body of the future mother is absorbed much better than synthetic pharmaceutical analogues. The daily norm of vitamin B9 is contained in a handful of berries.

Vitamin B1, or thiamine, is that valuable substance that helps the mother-to-be to relieve symptoms of toxicity. He also improves blood flow in her body, especially in the pelvis, due to which the blood supply to the fetus through the placenta becomes more full and of high quality. In addition, thiamine deficiency usually causes carbohydrate metabolism disorders.

Another B vitamin called riboflavin (or B2) is responsible for the synthesis of enzymes that help absorb nutrients from food. In addition, it is noted that riboflavin is a necessary participant in the formation of bones, muscles of the fetus and its nerve cells. Lack of vitamin B2 can cause problems in the development of the embryo.

Another component of strawberries - beta-carotene - helps pregnant women to keep their eyesight in order, is responsible for its sharpness, and also participates in the formation of the retina of the baby.

The cardiovascular system of the future mother is always working with great overload. Nicotinic acid (or vitamin PP), which is part of the berry, helps to prevent serious heart problems. It takes part in improving the capillary blood supply and in the breakdown of carbohydrates.

Pyridoxine helps the absorption of amino acids, and is an indispensable participant in the process of hematopoiesis. If a pregnant woman lacks it, she will experience a decrease in hemoglobin, as well as increased unpleasant symptoms of toxicity.

There is a lot of tocopherol (or vitamin E) in strawberries, widely known for its antioxidant abilities. But it has another function - it is an analogue of the pregnancy hormone - progesterone, the lack of which in a woman's body can cause uterine hypertension and subsequent miscarriage.

Along with vitamins, strawberries contain a vast complex of sugars, macro-and micronutrients, omega-fatty acids, which are very useful for future mothers, and are necessary to ensure that the fetus develops normally, and the child is born healthy. These include iodine, which protects the embryo from malformations of the nervous system and subsequent mental disorder.

If a pregnant woman lacks calcium, which is also part of strawberries, it is possible abnormal skeletal development of the fetus and abnormal formation of its heart muscle. And on the state of the mother herself, the deficiency of this substance affects very negatively: her teeth, hair and nails begin to suffer.

Iron is an important element involved in the synthesis of hemoglobin and prevents anemia. In combination with ascorbic acid, iron creates an excellent barrier that protects pregnant women from colds, SARS and acute respiratory infections.

Thanks to magnesium, the mother manages to normalize her nerves, as well as keep her muscles and blood pressure toned. When magnesium is not enough, a pregnant woman begins to have serious problems sleeping, disturbed behavior, tears and tantrums appear, it can come to the appearance of muscle cramps and uterine hypertonicity.

Potassium is responsible for the normal state of water-salt metabolism, and its presence helps fight swelling. But this substance has another, more profound task: potassium regulates intracellular metabolism, which helps maintain a stable pH environment, an even heart rhythm and normal transmission of nerve signals.

Copper, which is a component of the chemical composition of strawberries, increases the formation of collagen, so just 2-3 berries a day will help the mother-to-be maintain beautiful, healthy, clean and elastic skin.

Flavonoids, which are components of strawberries, help fight the spread of inflammation and reduce fever. In combination with organic acids, flavonoids are involved in the process of breaking down and eliminating fats, salts, toxins, uric acid. And a flavonoid called fisetin inhibits the aging of brain cells and is good for preserving memory.

Recent studies have confirmed medical speculation that flavonoids in the berries may prevent the development of diabetes by restoring the body's sensitivity to insulin.

Nutritionists appreciate strawberries for their high fiber content, so they help pregnant women normalize digestion and gently eliminate constipation.

The presence of these nutrients makes strawberries a useful product, not only during pregnancy, but also at a time when it is still planned. Systematically eating delicious ripe berries, expectant mothers can eliminate nausea during toxemia in early pregnancy, and thanks to the diuretic effect to remove edema, and lower blood pressure in its late terms.

When a pregnant woman always has strawberries or strawberry products in her menu, it is possible to improve appetite, strengthen blood vessels, including those in the placenta and rectum: the first will prevent fetal hypoxia, the second - the appearance of hemorrhoids in the last terms of pregnancy and in the postpartum period.

Needless to say, if a future mother eats strawberries, her heart, liver and kidneys will function normally, without failures, she will be in a good mood, and consequently, she will look good. By the way, to improve the appearance and remove age spots, which often appear in the pregnancy, women have learned to use strawberries - it is enough to rub the berries several times darkened skin so that it becomes lighter.

Can strawberries harm the future mother?

Of course, strawberries, as well as any other product, should not be eaten without restrictions - otherwise you can get a "bouquet" of health problems. Exceeding reasonable norms can cause an increase in muscle tone, if a woman has a disposition to it. If the uterine muscles are significantly strained, strawberries should not be consumed at all.

Among other cases when these berries are not recommended are digestive diseases associated with increased acidity of gastric juices and the appearance of ulcers. The acids in their composition can aggravate the situation.

Careful attention should be given to expectant mothers who suffer from tooth decay. Teeth should be treated in any case, in order not to harm the child, and the gynecologist will definitely tell you about it. But you should not eat strawberries with untreated tooth decay either - the acids in the berries may accelerate tooth decay.

There are women who are allergic to strawberries. They will have to refuse its use, as there is a high probability of harming not only themselves, but also the future baby.

How to choose quality berries when buying

The best choice for pregnant women will be seasonal strawberries. They are not dosed with drugs to enhance growth and accelerate ripening, so there will be no unnecessary and harmful substances for the mother's body and her baby. In the middle part of Russia, strawberries begin to ripen in June, and in southern Russia, a little earlier. They can be bought at the market already in May, and it will be a good quality product grown in natural conditions.

When buying berries, you should choose ripe, bright red fruits, unless of course we are talking about species with pink color - such as the dessert variety Pineapple. Do not neglect these strawberries, it is very sweet and contains little acid. True, it stores worse than red varieties.

A good quality strawberry should be moderately hard and firm, without excessive secretion of juice. You should avoid berries, on which there are light or even white spots, because they are a little bit unripe. You should not take strawberries slightly mashed, especially if you find traces of rottenness on them. Such a product can poison the mother herself, and harm the child.

It is impossible to walk past a delicious strawberry, as it spreads a strawberry aroma all around, which is also considered a sign of quality.

And if the strawberries on the counter are of an even size, shiny and incredibly beautiful, but they do not smell at all, then it is better to refuse to buy them. For sure, these berries were grown with nitrates or other stimulants. Strawberries, which are clean from chemicals, usually have different sizes, so called raznokalibernaya, sometimes there are crooked berries.