Lifestyle: How to improve food digestion during pregnancy

You may be having the time of your life being pregnant and eager to welcome a new life to this world. While all the good things are happening around, you may still be having problems understanding your own body.

One of the bodily functions that change quickly during pregnancy is digestion.

Due to pregnancy hormones, the muscles and intestinal walls start relaxing which results in slowed digestion. While it is an obvious change that takes place in your body during pregnancy, you can go through some serious problems if your digestion gets imbalanced.

Regardless, you do not need to worry as Jumia Food, Nigeria's no 1 food ordering platform, shares interesting ways to improve food digestion during pregnancy.

Drink plenty of water

Although it is quite a basic tip for your daily life, this can be of great help to reduce indigestion during pregnancy. While you are pregnant, try and make drinking several glasses of water your daily consumption. Also, make sure that the water you drink is clean and germ-free so that you don’t drink contaminated water.

Eat foods high in fibre

Eating high fibre diet can be a good option to speed up your metabolism at any time. When you are pregnant, make sure that you eat fibre-rich food such as peas, vegetables, fruits, beans and more. This helps to keep food moving inside your digestive tract resulting in prevention of constipation.

Regular exercise

Keep moving during your pregnancy as it can be very helpful for your digestive system. Even if you take twenty minutes a day to exercise, you can always feel the difference. When you engage in regular exercise, food will not get stuck in your digestive tract as your body movement will quicken metabolism.

Eat on a schedule

While pregnant, you need to take care of your diet in a proper way as better diet can help you throughout your pregnancy period, during delivery and beyond. The scheduled eating habits can train your system to digest food in an easier way. So, try to sit down for breakfast, lunch and dinner at around the same time as you did the day before.

Eat in small proportions

Eating your food in small portions can let your digestive tract have some time to digest the food and maintain space for the next portion. While it takes a lot of time and effort for your digestive system to digest a large portion of food, eating small portions from time to time can easily fasten your digestion.

Avoid smoking and drinking alcohol

Smoking and drinking during pregnancy can lead to digestive infections and ulcers while also affecting negatively the mental and physical development of your baby during pregnancy. So, it is better to skip these bad habits during your nine months to have a healthy and happy pregnancy, free of any digestive problems. Instead, drink a lot of water.