Garlic - and this is no secret to anyone - is a useful and valuable vegetable crop. It is considered to be an excellent aromatic condiment that gives a richer flavor to dishes and also has numerous medicinal properties. Can women eat garlic during pregnancy? This article will tell you.
Benefits for pregnant women
As a plant, garlic has been known for a long time, however, for many centuries it was not eaten, using only as a medicinal plant. India, where the product comes from, with all the love of the population for aromatic spices, considered its smell too pungent to eat this plant. Garlic was lovingly grown in ancient Egypt, and it was necessarily included in the diet of those who had to work hard, for example, the workers who built the legendary pyramids. Once workers were not given garlic, and this was the cause of a major state riot. Garlic was placed in the tombs of the pharaohs, it is mentioned in the Bible and the Koran.
Today garlic is a favorite seasoning of many peoples. Both plant heads and arrows, which are also salted and pickled, stewed and boiled, are eaten. And young leaves are fried and added to salads.
Do not lag behind the chefs and doctors. They gave garlic a big name - Bulbus Allii Sativi, but they have not yet included it in the register of medicinal plants. However, separate raw materials are sometimes used in the manufacture of medicines, and garlic already occupies an absolutely indisputable place of honor in folk medicine.
Garlic juice has a pronounced antimalarial effect, has activity against fungi, parasites, and is also considered an antiviral and anti-inflammatory agent. The product contains special substances related to antibiotics that can kill pathogenic bacteria, and this fact has been proven absolutely officially - it was established and convincingly proved by the doctor Louis Pasteur.
Garlic improves bowel function and regulates digestive processes, it boosts immunity, which is very useful for pregnant women with colds and for its prevention. Several plant components are able to activate the movement of phagocytes, lymphocytes and macrophages. And with increased gas production, which women "in position" suffer quite often, this dish can be used as a direct medicine - the composition of garlic suppresses fermentation processes, gases become less, and the intestines cease to bother the expectant mother.
Official medicine knows for sure that garlic can effectively disinfect wounds and abrasions. It is also assumed that he can perform a means of preventing cancer, but this version is still being tested.
Garlic contains a lot of allicin, there are sulfonic acids, and this makes the vegetable crop an excellent natural antioxidant. The use of the product helps to lower cholesterol, strengthen blood vessels, and lower blood pressure. Allicin particles are able to react with erythrocytes, and hydrogen sulfide is formed at the exit of the reaction, which is very useful for the walls of blood vessels.
Especially pregnant women who have problems with blood coagulation and high risks of thrombosis and atherosclerosis should pay attention to garlic. Garlic does an excellent job of thinning the blood.
Among the vitamins and minerals that are part of the product, it is worth noting folic acid, magnesium, zinc, iron. The composition of special antifungal agents makes garlic an excellent remedy for thrush, since candida fungi are quickly killed by contact with garlic.
You don't have to eat garlic, you can just breathe it. Such "inhalations" are believed to be able to protect the expectant mother from dangerous flu and SARS, and will also be a salvation from attacks during toxicosis, if a woman is sick in the morning.
Pregnant women can and should eat garlic, but in moderation. Like everything useful, garlic can show its negative sides if a woman exceeds the allowable amount of the product in the diet.
Harm and contraindications
Not as often as some other spices and seasonings, but it is still possible that garlic can cause allergies in the expectant mother. Pregnant women should be especially attentive to this warning. with a burdened allergic history.
Excessive consumption of garlic is an irritating factor in the effect on the mucous membranes of the esophagus and stomach, and therefore, when overeating, an increase in heartburn, belching, and unpleasant sensations in the epigastric region is possible.
You can't eat a lot of garlic before the upcoming surgical interventionsas it thins the blood and poses an increased risk of bleeding. If you are about to give birth by caesarean section, you should completely stop eating garlic in the final third trimester, especially if the blood is already thick enough.
Garlic is contraindicated in women with epilepsy and some forms of cardiovascular disease. In any case, if you are unbearably drawn to spicy garlic, you should consult your doctor, before the decision is made to introduce vegetable crops into your daily diet.
Basic rules of consumption
You cannot tell in two words about how much product and in what form to use. Given the strong effect, in different trimesters the allowable amount of the product will be different, there will be separate recommendations for use.
First trimester
The nutrition of a woman at the beginning of pregnancy is not so critical for the development of the fetus, because at this time embryogenesis is taking place - all the internal organs and systems of the crumb are formed. But certain substances that enter the mother's blood from food can support the baby or harm.
You should not eat garlic in the early stages if there is a threat of termination of pregnancy. In this case, blood thinning with drugs from the pharmacy and green garlic from the garden will be a separate risk factor. If there is no threat of spontaneous abortion, then a woman can eat the product in the first trimester, limiting the daily dose to just a couple of small cloves.
Second trimester
In the second trimester, the baby is already protected by the placenta and even small shifts in the mother's hemostasis will not have a significant effect on him. Therefore, a woman can increase the amount of garlic if she has no contraindications and she wants this particular product. But don't be too zealous - excess vegetable crops can cause heartburn, and more than half of all expectant mothers already suffer from it from the second half of the second trimester, and some even earlier.
The maximum amount of product per day should be limited to 2-3 clovesif the woman is not prescribed special medications to thin the blood by the doctor. Simultaneous intake of the product with anticoagulants will contribute to a more intense and more dangerous, in terms of the likelihood of bleeding, the process of reducing blood viscosity.
Third trimester
In the later stages of the third trimester, it is recommended to reduce the amount of garlic to a minimum or completely eliminate it. The exception is cases when a doctor has recommended blood thinning to a woman due to the high risk of thrombosis. Be careful - in such cases, anticoagulant drugs are usually prescribed, and they do not imply the presence of garlic in your diet.
What does medicine think
Garlic in the diet of a pregnant woman is not dangerous if its amount is low. On the other hand, have you seen a lot of people who are able to eat a couple of kilograms of spicy vegetable crops, and therefore it is quite difficult to overeat.
If you are wondering if doctors approve of the presence of garlic, then there is no consensus on this matter. Some experts urge to reduce or abandon the product due to its high allergenicity and irritating effect, which can cause heartburn. Others are sure that in the absence of intolerance, garlic is an excellent product for a pregnant woman's table.
Which point of view to support is up to you. But first, make sure that you do not have the strict contraindications listed above.
There is a completely official medical opinion that from about the beginning of the second trimester, babies in the womb, as their taste buds develop, begin to taste the amniotic fluid. And if the mother eats sweets, the children really like it, while the mother's addiction to garlic is unlikely to be received with delight by the baby. The baby will signal about his displeasure in the second half of pregnancy by a change in the nature of his movements. However, you can get used to this taste.
You can be sure that children, who even in utero got acquainted with the taste of garlic, after birth, in preschool and school age, will treat this useful and necessary vegetable crop with greater sympathy.
For the benefits and dangers of garlic, see the next video.
