There are so many dos and don'ts to keep in mind when you are pregnant. You have to pay special attention to clothes you wear, medications you take, products you use, and of course, the stuff you eat. For women with a sweet tooth, it is often quite difficult to stay away from eating sugar even when they are pregnant. While you can certainly enjoy sweet stuff in pregnancy, you need to avoid eating too much sugar while pregnant.

Can You Eat Sugar While Pregnant?

Yes, you can. There is nothing wrong in eating sugar during pregnancy. What you should bear in mind is that foods containing high amounts of refined sugar usually offer no nutritional benefits. This is quite true in case of cakes, candy, soft drinks, and cookies. You may have to deal with certain complications when you replace these foods with healthy items such as veggies, fruits, and while grains. This way, you are not going to provide enough nutrients for your baby to grow properly.

What it implies is that you can eat sugar during pregnancy, but you should avoid eating too much of it. What counts as too much really varies from person to person – your particular medication condition also plays a role in determining how much you can safely consume. Therefore, it is actually better to limit the amount of sugar as much as you can and keep your focus more on healthier items.

What Happens If You Eat Too Much Sugar While Pregnant?

Eating too much sugar while pregnant can cause several complications. Of course, this deprives you of nutrients you need to complete your pregnancy in a healthy way, but it also gives you empty calories that can cause serious problems. Here are some other reasons why it makes sense to limit your intake of sugar while pregnant.

1. It Aggravates Pregnancy Symptoms

Not limiting your sugar intake during pregnancy can be harmful because it aggravates your pregnancy symptoms, such as heartburn, vomiting, and mood swings. These symptoms are already quite annoying and make you frustrated, but you will only be making them worse by eating too much sugar. Be sure to eat only small amounts of sugar during pregnancy.

2. It Causes Nutritional Deficiency

It is quite natural to develop a craving for some specific foods after you conceive. Some women would love ice creams, while others may develop a craving for burgers, pickles, and so on. You should be careful about eating anything that contains extra sugar and fat because they have zero nutritional value. Eating too much of these foods can cause serious problems for you and your baby.

3. It Makes You Feel Tired

It is quite natural to feel tired during pregnancy, but you feel worse when you eat foods laden with sugar. These foods offer empty calories and do nothing to provide you with any energy. When you consume sugar foods or drinks that contain sucrose, they increase your blood glucose level temporarily. You feel lethargic when the blood glucose levels fall again.

4. It Makes Your Baby Crave for Sugar

Eating too much sugar while pregnant may even make your baby crave for sugar as they grow up. If that happens, your baby may even have to deal with obesity and many related ailments, including diabetes and more.

5. It Makes You Gain Weight

Excessive intake of sugar during pregnancy leads to weight gain. You are naturally going to gain some weight during pregnancy, but sugar can make this situation worse by adding extra pounds. Not only are you going to gain more weight, you are also going to have a hard time losing it after childbirth.

How to Control Your Sugar Intake While Pregnant

Now that you know how important it is to limit your sugar intake, you may also want to know how you can resist the temptation to eat more. Here are some suggestions:

• Avoid sugar snacks and foods as much as possible. The best thing is to stop eating sugar altogether to curb cravings. At least, you should stop eating cakes, pastries, sweet snacks, and ice creams to keep things under control.
• Eat sweet fruits as much as you can. Whenever you develop a craving for sugar, go eat sweet fruits like strawberry, mango, and pineapple. While they contain sugar, they also provide you with loads of minerals and vitamins. Fruit juices are also good but you should avoid adding any extra sugar.
• Do not opt for artificial sweeteners. These sweeteners can cause serious problems even after pregnancy. Look for better alternatives, such as honey or coconut sugar.
• Set a realistic goal and do your best to achieve it. When you cannot eliminate sugar completely from your diet, you can set smaller goals like eating less than 20g a day. Keep it to 10g a day if you have any digestive issue.

• Pay special attention to labels on packaged foods like peanut butter, breakfast cereal, or spaghetti sauce to know how much sugar they contain. Opt for the ones with lowest sugar content to avoid eating too much sugar while pregnant.
• Keep a limited number of sweets around for young kids or else you may also feel tempted to have a few. It is actually better to avoid getting them started on sugar. A bowl of strawberries or a juicy apply is always a better choice.
• Do not keep candy, cookies, or ice cream at home. Do purchase a single item when you really want to eat something sweet.
• Opt for high quality unsweetened chocolate if you really want to have some. You can even use it to make your own candy bar.
• Make a conscious effort to limit your sugar intake. Think twice before going for extra sugar. Avoid tons of jam on toast, take one teaspoon of sugar in your coffee instead of two, and limit ice cream as much as you can.