Gestational Diabetes Diet Menu - The 3 Most Common Mistakes Women Make (Is This You?)

A gestational diabetes diet menu helps you to plan what you need eat throughout the day to meet your calorie and protein needs. By using a diet menu, you can rest assured that you have eaten the right amount of food to have a healthy baby yet, keep your diabetes under control. This is a guide to some of the most common mistakes that women make when on a gestational diabetes diet.

Gestational Diabetes Diet Menu Mistake # 1 - Not measuring your food and knowing the serving sizes for the food you eat. Portion sizes can be confusing for you and packaging may contain several servings. A good example of this the fact that 1 pint of ice cream usually equals 4 servings.

What to do instead: plan out what you want to eat throughout the day, and portion it out. While this might take a little time at the beginning of the week, it is an excellent way to make sure you're eating just what you need. For example, my gestational diabetes meal plan contains patterns and meal listings for an entire day so you don't have to spend so much time figuring out what to eat.

Gestational Diabetes Diet Menu Mistake # 2 - Not eating throughout the day and skipping meals. Most women think that they need to limit their intake to make sure that their blood sugars don't get too high. Often they avoid foods that are really okay to eat if they knew the correct amount.

What to do instead: get a meal pattern for an entire day that shows the amount of calories and carbohydrates that you need. This will allow you to plan your day and eat snacks and smaller meals. It's important that you eat enough calories to make sure your baby grows properly. You also need to eat the right kinds of calories to control your blood sugar.

Gestational Diabetes Diet Menu Mistake # 3 - Not having a plan for the day. You can end up eating too much carbohydrates or too little calories which affects your blood sugar and your baby. If you take medication to control your diabetes, you need to be able to plan out your day to avoid high and low blood sugars.

What to do instead: use a meal pattern and planner for the day, like the kind that we provide as part of our gestational diabetes meal plan. You should get something with a breakfast, lunch, snacks, and daily planner that is based on the number of calories that you need for the day during your pregnancy.

Fixing these 3 mistakes can be an important part of controlling your gestational diabetes. As you work with your doctor or diabetes educator, be sure to understand how you should eat throughout the day to make the most of your pregnancy.

What if you just can't follow a gestational diabetes diet? I know it can be hard to try and make your own meal plan with recipes that are right for your diet. If you really want to succeed at your goals of having a healthy pregnancy you will need to follow a method that works amazingly well. This method is simple to pick up and it doesn't take much work, you can learn more about a gestational diabetes diet plan on our website. Don't give up hope, it's NOT impossible. Learn how to follow a gestational diabetes diet plan by going to our website now.

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Gestational Diabetes is Becoming a More Common Diagnosis Amongst Pregnant Women!

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a temporary form of diabetes that is becoming a common diagnosis among pregnant women. When handled properly, however, it does not need to ruin a pregnancy; treatment using a gestational diabetes diet plan combined with a sensible amount of exercise can often control the symptoms without the need for medication.

Gestational diabetes is caused by an imbalance of hormones leading to insulin resistance which is characteristic of type 2 diabetes. These hormones block the effectiveness of the naturally occurring insulin causing a temporary diabetic condition.

The most common risk factors include:

a family history of diabetes or gestational diabetes
having GDM in a previous pregnancy
obesity and/or high blood pressure
having previously delivered a baby 9 pounds or higher

Other risk factors for gestational diabetes include frequent miscarriages, recurring urinary tract infections, a history of toxemia, and unexplained stillbirths.

Women over thirty are more likely to have gestational diabetes, and the chances of occurrence among those with two or more risk factors increases with each additional pregnancy.

The obvious symptoms of gestational diabetes are so mild they often go unnoticed. These symptoms, such as rapid weight gain, excessive thirst and hunger through to vaginal infections, may be attributed to the pregnancy itself.

Gestational diabetes is usually confirmed between the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy. If the pregnant mother is at a high risk for gestational diabetes, testing for impaired blood sugar levels will be carried out earlier... sometimes as soon as the pregnancy is confirmed or around 13 weeks. In high risk cases, the test will be repeated at the usual time if the first test is negative.

Diet and exercise often controls gestational diabetes but in some cases additional methods of control such as insulin injections may be needed.

Most women who develop this condition find it goes away after the baby's birth, and experience no more symptoms... although it is likely to return, and maybe worsen, through subsequent pregnancies. A small number of women continue on to have full-blown type 2 diabetes.

Risks to the child are usually minimal if the diabetes is controlled throughout the pregnancy.

You can reduce your long-term risk of type 2 diabetes by making changes to your lifestyle. If you can lose weight so that you are in the "ideal weight range" this will help, as will a regular program of exercise, such as walking, jogging or even swimming. Both losing weight and exercising will reduce your insulin resistance and the extra strain on your pancreas to produce insulin.

Would you like more information about alternative ways to handle your type 2 diabetes?

To download your free copy of my E-Book, click here now: Answers to Your Questions... its based on questions many diabetics have asked me over recent months.

Beverleigh Piepers is a registered nurse who would like to help you understand how to live easily and happily with your type 2 diabetes.
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Beverleigh Piepers is the author of this article. This article can be used for reprint on your website provided all the links in the article are complete and active. Copyright (c) 2010 - All Rights Reserved Worldwide

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