How to control high blood pressure during pregnancy

During pregnancy, no matter what problems the mother encounters, it will affect the child's development to a certain extent, especially for some pregnant women with high blood pressure. If the blood pressure is not controlled in time, it is likely to affect the child's blood pressure. Generally speaking, the ways for pregnant women to control high blood pressure include: controlling calories and weight, reducing saturated fat intake, preventing insufficient protein intake, ensuring calcium intake, moderate salt intake, and a rich diet with vegetables and fruits.

1. Controlling heat and weight

Excessive energy intake during pregnancy can easily lead to obesity, which is an important risk factor for gestational hypertension. Therefore, the amount of food should be properly controlled during pregnancy. It is not an uncontrolled eating of "as much as you can eat" but the amount of food should be adjusted based on the normal weight gain during pregnancy. Especially for pregnant mothers who are overweight before pregnancy, try to eat less or no candy, snacks, sweet drinks, fried foods and high-fat foods. It is advisable for pregnant mothers to not exceed 12 kilograms during the entire pregnancy.

2. Reduce saturated fat intake

The energy ratio of dietary fat should be controlled at around 25%, and should not exceed 30% at most. In addition, the intake of saturated fat should be reduced, and the intake of unsaturated fat should be increased accordingly. That is, eat less animal fat and replace it with vegetable oil, using about 20 grams of cooking oil per day. This not only provides the fetus with the essential fatty acids needed for growth and development, but also increases prostaglandin synthesis, which helps eliminate excess fat.

3. Prevent insufficient protein intake

Poultry and fish protein can regulate or lower blood pressure, and soybean protein can protect the cardiovascular system. Therefore, eating more fish, poultry and soy products can improve blood pressure during pregnancy. However, pregnant mothers with abnormal renal function must control their protein intake to avoid increasing the burden on their kidneys.

4. Ensure calcium intake

The Chinese Nutrition Society recommends that the daily calcium intake during early, middle and late pregnancy, as well as during lactation, is 800 mg, 1000 mg, 1200 mg and 1200 mg respectively. Pregnant mothers should ensure that they drink milk every day. Milk and dairy products are rich in easily absorbed calcium and are good foods for calcium supplementation. Low-fat or skimmed dairy products are preferred. Studies have shown that increasing dairy product intake during pregnancy can reduce the incidence of pregnancy-induced hypertension. Pregnant mothers should also eat more soybeans, soybean products, seafood, etc. Soybeans and soybean products are not only high-quality proteins, but also foods rich in calcium and should be consumed every day.

5. Salt intake should be moderate

If you consume too much salt, it will easily lead to water and sodium retention, which will increase the blood pressure of pregnant mothers, so you must control your salt intake.

It is generally recommended that pregnant mothers should consume less than 5 grams of salt per day, which helps prevent pregnancy-induced hypertension. Don't consume too much soy sauce. 6 ml of soy sauce is approximately equal to 1 gram of salt. If you are accustomed to salty tastes, you can use some potassium salt instead of sodium salt, which can improve the taste of low-salt cooking to a certain extent. You can also use onions, ginger, garlic and other ingredients to season the food.

Pregnant mothers should also not eat pickled meat, pickled vegetables, pickled eggs, pickled fish, ham, mustard tuber, pickles, etc. However, because pregnant mothers have too much stomach acid, they can consume leavened foods, soda crackers, baking wrap, crackers and other foods when necessary to reduce the discomfort caused by excessive stomach acid.

6. Paired with plenty of vegetables and fruits

Make sure to consume more than 500 grams of vegetables and 200-400 grams of fruits every day, and eat a variety of vegetables and fruits together. Because vegetables and fruits can increase the intake of food fiber, they are beneficial for preventing constipation and lowering blood lipids. They can also supplement a variety of vitamins and minerals, which is beneficial for the prevention and treatment of pregnancy-induced hypertension.