There are so many things now that pregnant women are told not to eat or drink that the mind boggles. One of the first ones that we give the elbow to is caffeine. This is often very difficult as we are well used to our daily consumption of coffee. It’s the feat of causing damage to our unborn child that keeps us focused and able to give it up.
The key question is; how much caffeine is safe to consume on a daily basis? Well, the experts tell us that anything under 300mg a day is fine. This roughly equates to an 8 ounce cup.
Consume more that 300 mg a day and your baby could be at risk. Drink over the recommended amount during your first trimester and the risk of miscarriage is slightly raised.
The first trimester is the time when you have to be extra careful anyway, and more than 300 milligrams of caffeine can further increase the risk of suffering carriage.
Good nutrition is more important than ever during pregnancy, and as caffeine has no nutritional values whatsoever, that is another good reason to give it the boot. There are many more reasons why caffeine should be eradicated from your diet during pregnancy.
All of us have drank coffee at some time or another to keep us awake, as it is a stimulant. The side effects of this, however, are a raised heart rate, headaches and insomnia.
To sum it up, cutting out caffeine altogether is highly recommended, but if you feel that you still need your coffee, keep to guidelines of 300mg per day or less.
There is a great misconception regarding decaf. Although the amount is greatly reduced, it does still contain caffeine. So by changing you can have an extra cup or two, but don’t drink it in the quantity that you used to or you will go way over your 300mg without even realizing it.
Aside from Caffeine, this author also regularly gives advice regarding Rancilio espresso machine and commercial coffee espresso machines.