"Red house, white tent, inside lives a white fatty man," this is the well-known riddle for peanuts. Peanuts are nutritious, promote brain development, and enhance memory. Peanuts also offer many benefits for pregnant women.
Is it good for pregnant women to eat peanuts?
Pregnant women can eat peanuts because the peanut skin contains hemostatic components that can counteract fibrinolysis, enhance the bone marrow's function of producing platelets, shorten bleeding time, increase platelet count, improve platelet quality, and strengthen the contraction function of capillaries, making it the best choice for pregnant women to prevent and treat aplastic anemia.
The nutritional value of peanuts is higher than that of grains and can be compared with some animal foods such as eggs, milk, and meat. It contains a large amount of protein and fat, especially a high content of unsaturated fatty acids. According to research, 60% of the dry matter of brain cells is composed of phospholipids made of unsaturated fatty acids, and 35% protein is the primary nutrient for the fetal baby's brain development.
What are the benefits of pregnant women eating peanuts for the fetus?
1. Stabilizing Blood Sugar
I believe many mothers are not unfamiliar with a common disease during pregnancy: gestational diabetes. If a pregnant mother accidentally develops this condition, it can easily lead to macrosomia, fetal malformations, neonatal jaundice, and even increase the risk of fetal death. Therefore, it is very necessary to actively prevent gestational diabetes. In daily life, to avoid the occurrence of gestational diabetes, mothers must have a balanced diet, eat small meals frequently, and avoid overeating. In addition to three meals a day, mothers can eat some peanuts, which can not only strengthen the body and promote the fetal baby's brain development but also effectively stabilize blood sugar.
Research has found that peanuts slow down the absorption of carbohydrates. If mothers replace one serving of red meat in their diet with peanuts, the risk of developing diabetes can be reduced by 21%. If you eat some peanuts in the morning, your blood sugar will not be too high throughout the day.
2. Helps Reduce Salt Intake
For mothers who prefer a heavy diet, a low-salt diet during pregnancy is undoubtedly a very painful thing. If too much salt is consumed, the more water will be retained in the body, worsening the swelling of the pregnant mother's body and causing edema during pregnancy. In addition, a long-term high-salt diet can also affect the heart and cardiovascular health of pregnant women. Generally speaking, the daily salt intake of pregnant women should be slightly lower than that of normal people, between 3-5 grams.
In addition to three meals a day, mothers will more or less eat some snacks. However, many snacks on the market are high-salt foods. So, how should smart mothers make a choice?
Here, the editor recommends a small snack for mothers who love salty food: salted peanuts. Because the salt content of salted peanuts is less than that of sliced bread or frozen waffles of the same weight. Therefore, salted peanuts can not only satisfy the pregnant mothers' craving for salty food but are also less likely to lead to excessive salt intake.
Tips: Even though the salt content of salted peanuts is relatively low, mothers must eat them in moderation to avoid excessive salt intake.
3. Controlling AppetiteDuring the second trimester of pregnancy, many mothers often have an unusually good appetite. When big fish and meat are served on the table, they think that eating and drinking like this can help the baby get more nutrients. In fact, overweight mothers during pregnancy can not only cause many complications but also lead to a large fetal baby causing dystocia, and it is also easy to give birth to a baby with defects or even cause fetal death.
Research has proven that peanuts are "high satiety" foods that can make mothers feel fuller or feel full for a longer time. The high satiety of peanuts is not only due to the content of fat, dietary fiber, and protein, but the result of the synergistic effect of all these factors. For pregnant mothers with a good appetite, eating some peanuts or peanut butter for breakfast can reduce the amount of food consumed throughout the day, and they do not have to bear the risk of excessive weight gain during pregnancy.
4. Maintaining Heart Health
During pregnancy, the mother's body undergoes a series of adaptive changes in various systems, and the cardiovascular system is no exception. This can be handled by normal pregnant women, but for pregnant women with heart disease, it is often not manageable, so mothers with heart disease often bear more risks during childbirth.
Research indicates that people who eat the most peanuts can reduce their risk of heart disease by 35%. Researchers believe that the fatty acid composition of peanuts, combined with the effects of other components, can reduce the content of low-density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol) and make the heart healthier.