I see so many women who still believe in the old wives tale that you're eating for two. That was a popular saying back decades and decades ago when obesity was not the issue. That it is now in Australia today we have so many issues with overweight women and in fact one in three women who are pregnant are overweight before conceiving. And 50% of Australian women gain too much weight throughout their pregnancy. And this is a real issue so instead of eating for two in terms of quantity you actually need to just be focusing on a nutritious diet without increasing your kilojoule intake too much.
The current research is telling us that when a woman gains too much weight throughout pregnancy she's more likely to have pregnancy complications such as Terry and gestational diabetes. But also it impacts upon the epigenetics of her baby and that means that her baby is more likely to develop obesity in the future. And now we've got a huge obesity epidemic in children and in fact one in four children are really struggling with weight in Australia. So it's a big issue and the key thing that needs to be done is women need to be aware of how much weight they're gaining during pregnancy.
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