By Dr. V. Krishna Deepika Sr. clinical nutritionist & lactation counselor Apollo Cradle & Children’s Hospital, Kondapur, Hyderabad.

Summer season is a wonderful time to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. Here are a few diet tips by the nutritionist for expecting moms to add to their diet in this hot summer. To stay hydrated include 8-10 glasses of water. Apart from water add mint lemonade, fruit smoothies, jeera buttermilk, tender coconut water, and sugarcane juice to meet electrolytes and nutrients along with hydration.

Add leafy vegetables to your dals, soups, and parathas to meet iron, folic acid, and calcium. Include more vitamin C-rich fruits & vegetables like guava, oranges, mangoes, kiwi, capsicum, tomatoes, and lemon to absorb iron from your diet.

Avoid caffeine-rich foods like coffee which may obstruct the absorption of iron in your body. Summer season brings a lot of hydrating fruits and vegetables like watermelons, cucumbers, and water apples, ice apples which are rich in water, vitamins, nutrients, and fiber.

Milk and milk products like paneer, curd are good sources of calcium. Curd is a good source of probiotics to help for better digestion. Make your plate more colorful by adding salads, boiled vegetables, carrots, beet, and colored capsicum which are good sources of antioxidants that help to boost immunity.

Grab some healthy snack nuts like Greek yogurt with fruit, chia seeds pudding, hummus with carrot sticks, almonds, walnuts, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds to meet magnesium, zinc, B complex vitamins, and vitamin E. Salads like baby carrots, cucumber and boiled sweetcorn helps to provide enough fiber to avoid constipation.

Expecting mothers are advised to include complex carbohydrates like whole grains, oats, whole wheat, millets, and single-polish rice to reduce gestational diabetes and to avoid constipation. Stay away from acidity-causing fried, oily, greasy foods like pizzas, burgers, chips, and French fries. Limit eating spicy gravy curries, chilies, and sour foods to avoid acidity and gastric problems. One of the best healthy tip in summer is to reduce or avoid eating red meat, or organic meats.

Include more frequent small meals rather than eating large meals at a time. Method of cooking like boiling, steaming, steaming, pressure cooking, shallow frying, and sautéing helps to avoid adding additional fat to your diet. Healthy fats like walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseeds, almonds, fish, and olive oil give omega-3 3&6 fatty acids for a baby’s brain development.

Protein is the essential macronutrient required for baby growth and development, boiled eggs are a good source of protein and easy to prepare, and fish, lean chicken, paneer, and legumes are the best protein sources. Avoid stress eating, before you start eating something, just think once about your feeling bored, emotional, lonely, or anxious. This will help you to avoid eating junk and prevent overeating. Make sure that junk foods are not handy like sugar candies, ice-creams in the fridge, cool drinks, packed chips, and ready-to-eat foods.

Foods within your eyesight and premises may attract you and increase your cravings to eat junk even when you are not feeling hungry. Practice mindful eating and maintain a regular eating meal pattern like three big meals and small snacks in between. By following the above tips in your diet this summer, you can improve your health and baby’s health too. Stay hydrated and stay safe.