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John Anthony Alvan Nichols
a book bubble about
An Introduction to Nutritional Medicine
Health, Fitness & Dieting
Author Insight
Folic acid and what else?
In this section of the book, I considered what nutritional supplements women should take to prepare for pregnancy. There is absolutely no doubt that all women should bump up their folate status by taking folic acid. Folate deficiency is common in young women and this can have dire consequences. there is also a good case for improving intake of vitamin D, iodine, iron, selenium and zinc but all of these could be achieved by improving dietary intake. For iodine, I would advise everyone to only buy and use iodised salt. For the rest, a diet including meat, fish, five-a-day fruit and vegetables and dairy products should be good enough. Therefore vegetarians and the 20% of the population who never eat fish have a problem and perhaps only a supplement like Pregnacare plus is the answer. Keeping to this sort of diet can be impossible in early pregnancy due to nausea and vomiting of pregnancy which reinforces the argument for getting good nutritional intake established in preparation for pregnancy. But why on earth do pregnant women feel nauseous and sick? Well, I have attempted to explain this later on in this chapter.
Book Excerpt
An Introduction to Nutritional Medicine
Unsurprisingly, folate has the highest star rating for preconception supplementation and this is due to the evidence already outlined but also because the diet of 30% of UK women is below the recommended daily intake. Note, however, that selenium, iodine and zinc also have relatively high star ratings for preconception intake and iron and calcium have an equally high star rating in pregnancy. Does this mean that these micronutrients should all be taken in a preconception supplement and that this should be continued into pregnancy?
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