It is very important for pregnant women to eat a balanced diet because what you eat is what your babies get as well. What the mothers eat is the main source of their baby’s nutrients. However, many pregnant women don’t get enough of the vitamins and minerals needed for their pregnancy through the food they eat. One of those is iron - that is why it is important for pregnant women to consume more foods that are rich in iron. We all know the importance of iron to our bodies. It helps transmit oxygen from the blood to different parts of the body. Good sources of iron include lean red meat, dried beans, and peas.
Today, we have rice fortification with vitamins and minerals- as part of the Food fortification program of the Department of Health. Study shows that it has potentially increased nutrition in countries with rice-consuming where micronutrient deficiencies exist like here in the Philippines. Rice is the dominant staple food around the world. And approximately 490 million metric tons of rice are consumed annually providing 50-60% of our daily energy and protein intake, and it is cultivated in almost all countries and can grow in widely range soil and environmental conditions.
So why is iron important to pregnant women? Iron plays an important role in brain function, resistance to infection, and growth deficiency which results in an increased risk of low birth weight, and maternal and perinatal mortality during pregnancy. Lack or insufficient intake of iron also adversely affects the cognitive and motor development of children which results in poor academic performance and decreased work capacity and productivity which all contribute to the country’s economic burden due to malnutrition.
When you don’t get enough iron into your body, you can develop anemia – the most common blood condition to develop for pregnant women. It can put the mother and the baby at risk for several complications, including pre-term birth and low birth weight for the baby.
The National Nutrition Council conceptualized an initiative program dubbed “Tutok Kainan” - for Dietary supplementation in the first 1000 days in order to prevent low birth weight and stunting wherein one of its targets is nutritionally at-risk pregnant women.
Fortification of rice with iron alone or in combination with other micronutrients may or may not make difference in the risk of having anemia but will surely reduce the risk of iron deficiency and increase hemoglobin concentrations in the body. It is always advisable for pregnant women to eat a variety of healthy foods in order to get the essential nutrients needed for them and their babies during pregnancy.
PDO I Ayesa Gay A. Bejerano, RND
References:
Supplements During Pregnancy: What’s Safe and What’s Not
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/supplements-during-pregnancy
Fortification of rice with vitamins and minerals for addressing micronutrient malnutrition
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6814158/
Food Fortification Program - DOH
https://doh.gov.ph/food-fortification-program
NNC GB RESOLUTION NO. 1 S 2019_RICE FORTIFICATION.pdf
