A woman’s diet during pregnancy can have an impact on not only her health, but her baby’s future health.
“What a mother, a pregnant woman, eats during her pregnancy can very much influence her offspring, her child,” said Dr. Linda Van Horn, professor emeritus of preventive medicine and nutrition at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
After studying the diets of pregnant women, Dr. Van Horn advocates for a plant-based diet during pregnancy that continues into early childhood and beyond to help protect your heart.
“Let's remember hypertension is the single biggest contributor to the global burden of disease,” Van Horn said. “High blood pressure, which often goes undetected and results in a much higher risk for stroke, is a problem that has nutritionally-related roots as well.”
“The dietary fiber, the vitamins, the minerals, the phytochemicals that are contributed by our plant-based diet, can't be achieved anywhere else,” Van Horn added.
Van Horn recommends eating a wide array of colorful fruits and vegetables.
“Think fruits - you know, purple plums, and red cherries, and red raspberries, and blueberries,” Van Horn said.
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She also recommends including at least one fruit and one vegetable at every meal, a rule she had instituted in her own home while raising two children.
Her advice stands for people of all ages, from infancy through adulthood.
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“It's never too late to initiate a healthy diet,” Van Horn said.
It’s something Heather Bardeleben, 50, was forced to do after she suffered two heart attacks and six cardiac arrests during three months from August to November 2020.
“I wouldn't wish anybody to go through anything like I did,” Bardeleben said.
All that physical trauma left the Hanover Park wife and mother with broken heart syndrome, also known as stress cardiomyopathy, and coronary artery spasm, conditions that put her at risk for more problems.
“The doctor, after I was diagnosed, he said, 'This is the only time you'll ever have a doctor tell you you can't exercise,' because if I raised my heart rate, it could trigger a spasm that could then trigger an heart attack,” Bardeleben said.
Despite not being able to exercise, the doctor wanted Bardeleben to lose weight to ease the strain on her heart.
Weighing 170 pounds at 5 feet tall, Bardeleben started paying attention to portion sizes. She started measuring out snacks and would weigh chicken and lean meats on a kitchen scale. She focused on the nutrition labels more and added more of the fruits and vegetables she likes.
By cutting calories through portion control, Bardeleben and her husband have each lost 60 pounds last year, weight she wishes she had never gained in the first place.
“We've gotten rid of all of our old clothes, because we're never gonna go back. This is our commitment to ourselves, to our daughter. I can't imagine not being here for my daughter in five, 10, 15 years,” Bardeleben said.
