Why You Should Avoid Eating Sugar During Pregnancy

As a pregnant woman, you get a free pass to almost everything. And when it comes to food, you’ll have whatever you want to eat. However, there are consequences to eating sugar during pregnancy.

You may be tempted to follow your sweet tooth’s wishes, but your unborn child may suffer forever from your actions.

Eating sugar while pregnant is no different than eating it in your normal life. In fact, it may be more dangerous as the life of your baby is at risk.

I am here to give you a few reasons why you shouldn’t eat too much sugar as an expecting mother.

So, here they are:

1. Higher Pregnancy Weight Gain

This one is very obvious. Sugar is one of the main reason you would gain weight when you aren’t expecting. Therefore, when you are pregnant, excess sugar will only make you (feel) heavier. Many studies have proven that eating less sugar or more contributes to losing or gaining weight accordingly.

2. Sugar Leads to Gestational Diabetes

It has been proven many, many times that excess sugar is one of the leading causes of diabetes around the world. You may not have symptoms of the disease, but you may suffer from gestational diabetes while pregnant. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that you are 100% safe from such as health problem. But the risks are lower when you are following a healthy diet.

3. High Risks of Asthma and Diabetes

You aren’t only putting yourself in harm’s way, but your baby as well. Research has linked thousands of asthma and diabetes cases in children to high sugar diets while mothers were pregnant. You may argue that the numbers aren’t conclusive, but the risk is definitely not worth it.

4. Excess Sugar Linked to Preterm delivery

Preterm delivery is the cause of many both short and long-term health issues in the life of a newborn baby. According to LiveScience, many research has been done on the subject, and the results are clear. Mothers whose diets have fewer sugary drinks and foods have a lower percentage of preterm delivery.

5. Poor Metabolic Control

In a study done on mice, researchers have found that diets that are high in fat and sugar led to obesity both in the mothers and their newborn babies. Of course, obesity, itself, is the cause of many other health issues that I bet you don’t want your child suffering from. Therefore, as the study suggests, avoiding excess fat and sugar is mandatory.

6. Risk of Preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is a serious health problem that you may encounter in your late pregnancy stages. Although there is no conclusive scientific evidence to explain the causes of such a problem, doctors often suggest low fat and sugar diets as a preventive measure. As of writing this, we don’t know what causes preeclampsia and no idea how to cure it.

7. Pregnancy Symptoms Aggravation

Symptoms of pregnancy alone are an annoyance. However, if you don’t control your sugar intake while pregnant, you’re going to make matters worse. Vomiting, nausea and other pregnancy symptoms will be even more frustrating due to a high sugar diet.

8. Fatigue During Pregnancy

Usually, you would think that eating sweet foods and drinks when feeling tired is a safe way to regain energy. However, if you can’t be in full control of your sugar intake, you will feel more exhausted. Excess in sugar as you are expecting a baby is going to make you even more tired than you should be. While fatigue is common for expecting mothers, you shouldn’t make it even harder to deal with than it already is.

9. High Blood Sugar in The Future

As it turns out, many doctors have found that high blood sugar both in mothers and/or their children is highly linked to their high sugar diets when they were expecting. This ties in with our previous points about gestational diabetes and obesity. I can only emphasize that these are serious health issues that are best avoided at all costs.

10. Risk of Miscarriage

As the risk of diabetes increases so does the risk of having a miscarriage. Diabetes is a well-known cause of miscarriage, and many doctors encourage patients to inform their partners so they won’t be shocked if the pregnancy fails. However, if you don’t have diabetes, you increase the risks as you increase your sugar intake.

11. You Love Your Baby

All of the 10 reasons above have some scientific data and research to support them. However, the main reason you should avoid eating excess sugar when you are pregnant is that you love your baby. The cons outweigh to pros by a big margin, and one bite of sweetness is not worth risking your baby’s life.

Conclusion:

Expecting mother should try to avoid eating sugar during pregnancy as that is dangerous to both the mother’s and the baby’s health. Sweet food can be enjoyed when the diet is moderated. That way, you can be sure that your baby will be born as healthy as it can be.

Do you know more reasons why pregnant women should avoid eating sugar? Let us know in the comments down below!