Greening your Diet...

EVERY MOM WANTS TO deliver a healthy, happy, full-term baby and most realize that eating well throughout pregnancy is part of making sure this happens. You may be taking great care to eat healthy foods, take daily vitamins and get the proper amount of rest. Some of you may have even committed to going green for your pregnancy — good for you - but let’s face it most of us simply can't afford to make the full switch to organic food. Here are six tips to help you green-up your diet without emptying out your bank account.

Tip - Remember to eat five servings of fruit and veg a day...1.‘WHOLE'—SOME Pregnancy Diet

Make the switch from refined, white bread to wholegrain breads. Refined carbs such as white flour or anything containing added sugar don’t provide any nutrition. They are merely empty calories and deplete your body of essential B vitamins. Wholegrain have lots of fiber and essential nutrients that boost immunity that white breads lack. The fibre that they provide sustains your energy longer than refined grains, and helps to prevent constipation.2. FILTERED WATER

There is a lot of debate about what is best for you: drinking tap, filtered or bottle water. The bottom line is that you need to drink at least eight glasses of water a day especially during pregnancy. Paying for bottled water can acid up and in some areas tap Water may still contain potentially harmful toxins — so invest in a water filter. The more costly are those that are fixed onto your kitchen taps, but there are much more affordable kinds available at supermarkets, that come with a jug and a replaceable filter.3. WASH `N PEEL

A quick and easy way of making your fruit and veg intake greener, without having to shop for organic produce, is to wash it all thoroughly. Not just a rinse under the tap, but a good wash lo make sure that all pesticides and toxins are removed - some health food shops and supermarkets stock specialized fruit and veg 'soaps' Nutritional therapist, Marie Petrellis, recommends removing the peels from all fruit and veg as this is where most of the toxins can be found.4. SAY NO TO PROCESSED FOOD

Try to eat foods that are minimally processed and contain few or no additives, preservatives, pesticides. hormones or other chemicals. When you eat untainted foods, you’re getting 100 percent of the food’s nutrition. Processed foods are canned, packaged or pre-prepared meals. During the processing of some foods, nutrients may be reduced or destroyed. Fresh vegetables and fruit are filled with more nutritional goodness than tinned peaches for example. Diet drinks and sweeteners should also be avoided as studies cannot show categorically that their consumption has no effect on your developing baby.5. SELL-BY DATE

Most food sold from reputable shops will be packaged with a 'sell-by-date’ and a ’best before date'. These are indications of how long a food can be stored on a shelf or eaten before it starts to go bad. Depending on the food the sell-by-date is usually a few days before the best before date to give consumers a chance to take the food home and eat it. However during your pregnancy, be om the safe side and only eat foods within their sell-by-dates. This way you can be sure that the feed is still fresh and safe to eat.6. ORGANIC FOODS

Dr Alan Greene in his book, Raising Baby Green, suggests that if you can’t make the full switch to organic foods, you can at least focus on these six foods:

BEEF The meat from grass-fed, organically raised cattle tends to be leaner overall and has about five times the omega-3s of its conventional counterpart, and is not pumped with hormones.

MILK from organic, pasture-fed cows is produced without antibiotics, artificial hormones, and pesticides, and can also provide extra omega-3s and beta-carotene.

POTATOES conventionally farmed white potatoes also have one of the highest levels of pesticide contamination. So by switching to organic, you can lower your exposure to chemical pesticides.

And you can then eat the peels as they contain high levels of potassium and Vitamin C.

APPLES organically grown apples tend to have higher nutrient levels and taste better than the conventional variety. Research has found that conventionally grown apples are one ot the most pesticide-contaminated fruits.

SOY lt is hard to avoid soy as it is found in so many processed foods you eat these days, from soup to nuts. So be sure to check the label before you buy and try to make sure that the processed foods you purchase are organic. That way you’ll know that any soy you're eating wasn’t genetically altered, and wasn’t grown with pesticides.

You don’t need to radically change the way you eat, but by making a few smaller changes you can make a big difference to your diet.