Eating Yams during Pregnancy – Benefits and Side Effects

When it comes to choosing a proper pregnancy diet, yams become more of a controversial food choice. Typically, yams are ranked high as a healthy food choice. They are regularly recommended as a top notch health food choice. Eating yams has a lot of health benefits to offer. It is nutrient dense, filled with dietary fiber to improve digestion, collagen to keep your skin firm and elastic, and beta-carotene to improve your hair growth. But as beneficial as yams can be, they are not always great for pregnant women.

How Yams Affect Pregnant Women

Yams are definitely good to eat during pregnancy, but wild yams are not, they can be harmful to expecting mothers. Your typical yam is low in fat and sodium while being rich in antioxidants, dietary fiber, and potassium. Just make sure that you are always eating fresh yams while pregnant, as leftover yams that are refrigerated can cultivate bacteria. Digesting bad bacteria can result in food poisoning during pregnancy.

Health Benefits of Eating Yams While Pregnant

You want to include yams in your diet for more than just the taste. They actually have a lot of health benefits that are great for pregnant women:

1. Prevent low birth weights
   When you consume yams regularly, the vitamin B6 content will help to prevent your child from being born underweight.
2. Cures morning sickness
   The B complex vitamins contained in yams also helps to treat morning sickness and reduce emesis.
3. Filed with Antioxidants
   The beta-carotene and vitamin C content of yams helps expecting mothers to resist the development of cancer and combats oxidative stress.
4. Regulates blood pressure
   The potassium contained in yams is perfect for helping your body to regulate blood pressure.