Eating Junk Food During Pregnancy

We all know junk food is crap (hence the name). It increases body fat, it fills us up when we should be eating broccoli, and some of it contains chemicals that researchers aren't entirely sure what they do to lab rats, let alone humans.

But the scrutiny gets stepped up a notch when pregnant women are involved, and that doesn't seem entirely fair. Yes, there's a baby involved, but I'm not convinced the adamant holier-than-thou stance is called for.

Just so we’re clear, junk foods are typically ready to eat convenience foods containing high levels of saturated fats, salt, or sugar; with little or no fruit, vegetables, or dietary fibre – or what I like to refer to as, “delicious”.

The standard warnings about junk food during pregnancy:

• You will gain too much weight which you, no doubt, will not be able to take off and therefore run the risk of heart and high blood pressure problems after your pregnancy.
• You will gain too much weight and develop gestational diabetes and preeclampsia during your pregnancy.
• You will eat junk food in the place of nutritional food and you and your baby won’t get the vitamins or protein you need.
• You will increase the overweight/obesity risk of your child.
• You will be increasing your exposure to chemicals, preservatives and dyes that will be passed along to your child, even though they’re not quite sure what that does.

The missing perspective

Now, let’s say, I dunno, you feel like an entire bag of chips after you’ve had your chicken breast and steamed vegetables for dinner.

And let’s say that you’re on track with weight gain and you weren’t obese before you got pregnant.

And let’s just say they’re organic chips that were whittled by singing hippies and have nothing but good old, wholesome potatoes, salt and oil. Could I find anything about that? Nope.

Should you eat junk food? No. Should any of us? No.

Should your diet be exclusive to cheesies and Junior Mints for your entire pregnancy? I doubt it.

Should you hammer back an entire tub of Häagen-Dazs while you dust the chips crumbs off your belly because you feel like a beached whale anyway and you’re hungry dammit? I’m going to go ahead and give that a resounding “Hell yeah, bitch”. I probably shouldn’t but I’m eating jelly beans and typing with one hand so screw it.

Also check out: Low Carb Diets During Pregnancy