I did read a lot about preeclampsia and GD as soon as I found out I was preggy. I am guilty of eating some foods that are high GI at times, however I have basically endeavoured to snack over a 24 hour period mostly, and especially in the first trimester with morning sickness. So although not especially low GI - I was having biscuits or a piece of toast at 3am sometimes.
Through avoiding Listeria I have eaten a lot of cheese which again is not the best as it's salty but apparently lots of calcium is good for preeclampsia.
Low to Medium GI things I eat though are things like Basmati Rice, eggs, plain yoghurt, cheese, meats, fish (little tins of salmon), milk?, vegetables I am not sure but I basically am snacking no matter what.
It's a mystery to me why GP's and/or hospitals don't look at diet earlier in the pregnancy. The only booklet I received mentions eating more carbohydrates and more fruit and veges, when this is not necessarily the right diet for everyone.
When I went to the ABA breastfeeding class, the lady there also gave us a handout about new research to do with the mother's diet and colic. It mentions that it is better to eat a lot of good fats, rather than eating more carbs and fruit.
A good book and/or wesbite is "The New Glucose revolution" by professor Jennie Brand-Miller. The website is glycemicindex yada yada........ that will give you so much good info and put you onto some good books you can either buy at most bookstores or get from the local library. For recipes you cn't go past grabbing a copy of the Diabetic Living magazine that is published once every two months, you can grab a copy from the newsagents and it has literally heaps of yummy recipes to try.......
emc2, forgive my ignorance but is there a link between GD & preeclampsia? I only ask because, while I didn't have GD with DS, I did end up with PE at the end of the pg with him (he was also a big bub & had issues with BSL's in the 1st week).
Melbel, thanks for the website recommendation, I'm off to check it out now
This is all very confusing though, one of the websites I looked at earlier stated to stay clear of saturated fats (found in dairy). MrsS, in the meal plans, do they recommend low fat dairy?
There is a higher risk of pre eclampsia with diabetes of any type but you can minimise the risk with diet and even medication. If you had PE with our last pregnancy and your baby had BSL issues it is possible that you had borderline or later onset GD that the testing didn't pick up. I am assuming your doctors/medical team are monitoring you because of your PE last pregnancy? It is not a given you will get it this time. You might like to discuss with them the use of low dose aspirin as a preventative measure. I am type 1 diabetic and my obstetrician had me on low dose aspirin until a few weeks before I was due to deliver as some research has shown it can be helpful in preventing PE...if it worries you talk to your doctors about it hun....
Saturated fats are only a problem because a certain amount is converted to glucose by the body and can cause delayed blood sugar spikes quite a while after a meal, it is a hard one to balance because you need a certain amount of fats for the baby's development. Personally i wouldn't/didn't worry to much about the fat issue, more the glycemic index of the food, aiming for low GI foods as much as possible.
I had GD with DS a few years ago and am dreading being tested this time. I think all the main points have been covered, but some things that really helped keep my sugar low were:
- eat regularly, don't let your sugar fall then rise too high
- don't eat fruit on it's own - add some yoghurt or have something else that has a bit of fat in it
- food with fat tends to be lower GI because the fat helps to slow down the processing of it. That's why toasted muesli is low GI and natural muesli is medium GI
- regular exercise - even just a quick walk or something makes a massive difference
- if you need to indulge in something sugary, do it WITH a meal or straight after rather than on it's own
- If you have a really low GI meal, it can help lower the GI of the next meal... so, if you know you are going to have, say, a cake for morning tea, or whatever, then have a really saintly brekky to help slow it down.
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