Sucralose and Pregnancy

Now that you're pregnant, it seems everyone you know is adding something new onto that mile-long No-No List. Take, for instance, chocolate. For goodness sake! Unless she's allergic to it, what woman can possibly live without chocolate? Then there's soda. You can't drink regular soda because it's full of caffeine, sugar, empty calories and has no nutritional value.

Alcohol causes mental and physical birth defects in a developing fetus. A glass of wine at dinner or a mug of beer out with friends may seem harmless, but consumption of large quantities of alcohol leads to various fetal abnormalities and other pregnancy problems. Hence, it is better to avoid drinking during the pregnancy time rather having unwanted pregnancy risk and complications.

Some of the artificial sweeteners have a sordid past. Take Sucralose, perhaps better known as Splenda. It can cause a shrunken thymus gland (some shrink as much as 40%), atrophy of the lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus, enlarged liver and kidneys, hyperplasia of the pelvis, decreased red blood cell count, diarrhea, low fetal birth weight and placental weight, and other problems with pregnancy.

Low carb diets have become quite popular in the past couple of years. You may be wondering if low carb diets like Atkins or south beach are ok during pregnancy. So far there haven't been any studies on the effects of a low carb diet during pregnancy. So, the actual effects it would have on a fetus are unknown. A low carb approach is one only used when you are trying to lose weight.

Aside from the usual issues of weight gain, tooth decay, and rapid increases in blood sugar, sugar poses an entirely different set of problems in pregnant women. During pregnancy, sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream more rapidly than when a woman is not pregnant, which causes the pancreas to kick in and create more insulin. This can cause a vicious cycle of elevated blood sugar levels while the pancreas tries to catch up. This state can lead to gestational diabetes.

If you have just found out you're pregnant and have a strong addiction to caffeine thanks to coffee, tea, or sodas-relax. You don't have to break your addictions by going off caffeine cold-turkey. In fact, most physicians advise against doing so, because the detox can be extremely difficult on your body and can make you feel quite ill.

Under normal circumstances, we are in favor of only using raw milk products. The raw milk provides enzymes that aid in digestion, and ensure better nutritional value for the drinker. Unfortunately, raw milk can also contain listeria, a bacterium that can lead to miscarriage.

Calcium: aim for 1,000mg of calcium per day (if you are a teenager, aim for 1,300mg). To calculate calcium, look at the bottom of a nutrition label and find the calcium percentage. It's easy to convert a percentage into milligrams by just adding a zero (ex. 30% calcium = 300mg).