Mummy's entry - Yikes!

Received this from my cousin the other day "You are what your pregnant mother ate". Read briefly through it and my first thought was "No wonder" and it also validated my assumptions all this while. That is, why Rye Li's eating habits are also like mine. :D

Some of the things that they have to say (taken from http://www.gulfnews.com)/...

Children whose mothers eat junk food during pregnancy and breastfeeding are more likely to overeat, choose an unhealthy diet and grow obese later in life, according to research using rats published yesterday.

In the study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, researchers took two group of pregnant rats and gave one a diet of junk food such as doughnuts, muffins and sweets and fed the other nutritional pellets. When the young rats were weaned the team found that the animals whose mothers ate junk food put on weight more quickly, had a taste for unhealthy food and gorged.

"It indicates there is a fetal programming for overeating," said Neil Stickland, a researcher at the Royal Veterinary College in London;

"The foetuses are getting used to this junk food during gestation,"

"We can show a direct link to what the mothers eat and how it affects the children."

You can read more from here.

On my eating habits when Rye Li was in my tummy, I tried my best not to eat junk food at all. In fact, anything with MSG was a big no-no (of course I couldn't guarantee this when we were eating out) but those crisps that are loaded with MSG, I totally avoided them. After reading pregnancy books and stuff, I also avoided canned foods and processed meat.

As for alcohol consumption (I do love those occasional social drinks), I avoided them totally when I found out I was pregnant till the end of my third trimester (it was the festive season - xmas and all!). But I only limited myself to sips, if not less than a glass.

I have to admit that I cannot say "no" to ice creams, so when I had the craving and ice cream was within reach, I totally indulged myself. I never like fries that much but somehow my pregnancy made my eating habits just so weird (my favourites were no longer favourites except for ice cream and my not so favourities became my frequent choice of food) and I had quite alot of fries towards the end of my pregnancy.The fries and choc sundae from McD's became the no. 1 snack then (no wonder the hefty weight gain of a whopping 21kgs!)

When I was breastfeeding, I no longer became so conscious in what I really ate other than alcohol comsumption (which was none in the first 6 months and after that very limited as well). I didn't exactly snack on junk food all the time but there were several occasions that I did. Hah!

So how's Rye Li's eating habits? Well, hubby complaints she takes after me, the junk food queen. So she's known as the junk food princess. She snacks more than eating on proper food (this is very me too!). But ever since she was born, our junk food supply at home has been very limited. Yes, there is the occasional ice cream (and as I speak, there are some ice cream in the freezer but we eat them behind Rye Li's back...haha).

We try to make sure she eats proper before we allow her to snack on biscuits or on cheese or raisins. When we first introduced her to fries after she turned 1, she didn't like it. I was elated but it was short-lived. Several months later, she took a liking to it and now she can even ask for it. And as for ice cream, she totally loves it! So, I guess that clip is so very true. Another fact to validate it, my mom loves petai (a vegetable that you either hate it or love it) and she consumed it the day she delivered me and she always reminded me that I was born with that smell. I love petai to this day and my sister and brother too! :D