Pineapple juice can be a healthy addition to a pregnancy diet, especially since it contains vital nutrients that your developing baby needs to remain healthy. While some pregnant women worry about the safety of pineapple juice during pregnancy, these fears are mostly based on misconceptions about the effect of the pineapple component bromelain on the cervix.
Pineapple Juice
Pineapple juice is extracted from fresh pineapples, a fruit native to South America. Pineapple is high in vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid. Vitamin C is an essential nutrient that helps build bones, skin, cartilage and tendons in your developing baby. Pregnant women need at least 85mg of vitamin C each day, and pineapple juice contains 25mg per cup. Pineapple juice also provides plenty of other nutrients, including vitamins A and B-6, folate, niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, iron, magnesium, potassium and manganese. Fresh pineapple might be healthier than pineapple juice, however, since it also contains dietary fiber.
Safety
Pineapple was traditionally used to induce miscarriage in early pregnancy, but there is no evidence that drinking pineapple juice causes pregnancy loss. Drinking pineapple juice provides plenty of beneficial nutrients and calories you need to help your baby grow, so it is generally considered safe and healthy for a pregnancy diet when consumed in moderate amounts. The acidity of pineapple juice could cause heartburn in some pregnant women. According to Drugs.com, if you consume fresh juice from an unripe pineapple it may have a severe laxative effect.
Pineapple and Labor
Some old wives tales recommend consuming pineapple or pineapple juice as a way to induce labor in the last month of pregnancy. The reasoning behind this claim is that pineapple contains a compound called bromelain, which could stimulate the cervix to dilate and thin out. However, the amounts of bromelain found in fresh pineapple are too small to have a noticeable effect on the cervix and much of the bromelain content of pineapples is lost during juicing anyway.
Gestational Diabetes
Women with gestational diabetes, a form of high blood sugar that develops during pregnancy, might need to be careful about their consumption of pineapple or other juices. Fruit juices are a more concentrated source of natural sugars than whole fruits and could cause blood sugar to spike if consumed alone in large amounts. If you have gestational diabetes, you can still drink pineapple juice as a small part of a meal containing protein or fiber, since these mitigate blood sugar response. Talk to your doctor about how to include pineapple juice or other juices into your diet if you are on a gestational diabetes pregnancy diet.
www.livestrong.com
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