NUTRITIONAL GUIDE FOR WOMEN

 Nutrition plays a key role in maintaining good health.

Proper nutrition can help prevent diseases, maintain a healthy weight, and support overall well-being. Having a balanced diet that includes all the essential nutrients to support daily needs is important.💯

 Generally, to ensure that you get all the nutrients you need, try to aim for a diet rich in fruit, vegetables, quality protein, healthy fats, and low in processed, fried and sugary foods.🍉

Women have unique nutritional needs, as our bodies go through physical and hormonal changes (pregnancy, menstruation, menopause) that require that our diets evolve with our bodies’ needs. These changes place women at a higher risk of anemia, osteoporosis (porous bones), and as such would require a higher intake of nutrients such as iron, calcium, vitamin b9 (folic acid), vitamin D and magnesium.

Here are some essential nutrients required in a woman’s diet:

Calcium and vitamin D: Calcium and Vitamin D are important in building and maintaining healthy and strong bones and teeth, ensuring the proper functioning of the nervous system, and regulating heart beat. Inadequate amounts of calcium in the diet can cause your body to take the calcium from your bones to ensure normal body function. This can cause weakened bones or osteoporosis. Vitamin D is crucial to the proper use of calcium in the body. As women are at a higher risk of developing osteoporosis (a condition that causes weakened bones and makes them prone to fracture) than men, it is essential to get plenty of calcium to support bone health. Good sources of calcium include leafy green vegetables like ugwu, bitter leaf and spinach; cucumber; soy beans; and dairy products like yoghurt and milk.🥬🥦🥛

Vitamin B9 (Folate): Folate is an essential nutrient for women, especially for pregnant women and women of child bearing age as it helps to prevent birth defects of the brain and spine in the developing fetus. Every woman of childbearing age should include foods rich in folate in their diets. Examples of these foods are green leafy veggies, avocado (It’s avocado season; indulge!), liver, nuts and various fruits. The synthetic form of Vitamin B9, folic acid, is a supplement that is usually recommended for pregnant women by doctors.🥑🥜🍒

Iron: As women lose blood every month due to menstruation, it is necessary that the iron we lose durin menstruation is replenished in our diet. Iron deficiency can leave one feeling weak and without energy, cause iron deficiency anemia, and can cause depression-like symptoms. Sometimes, examining your diet and noticing the nutrients that are lacking could be a good way to boost energy and increase productivity. Foods rich in iron include liver, organ meats, spinach and beans.🥩🥬

Stay hydrated.

It is important that as you are making consciuos effort to include certain nutrients in your diet, you should also reduce the intake of certain foods.

High salt intake can increase blood pressure, cause hypertension and cause bloating. Reduce salt intake and processed foods as they contain a high amount of sodium in them.🍶

Alcohol worsens premenstrual syndrome and causes defects in the developing fetus, so it is important that during menstruation and pregnancy alcohol consumption is totally avoided.

In conclusion, always remember to pay attention to your nutritional needs at different stages of life, such as during pregnancy and menopause. In additon to how and what you eat, your lifestyle choices, exercise and other factors play an essential role to your overall health. So, stay hydrated, eat right following the guidelines above, stay physically active, and your body will thank you for it.

With love from BWHF.💚