Nutritional Requirements During Pregnancy and Lactation

Supplementation of Diets with Proteins and Amino Acids

“…Enough is known about the importance of protein in pregnancy to conclude that mothers, and even more their offspring, will be much better off if they receive high-efficiency rather than lowefficiency protein in their diets. 7 Low-efficiency proteins, in addition to being poor nitrogen sources for growth and development, are also inferior for the maintenance of a vigorous state of health in the adult. Our bodies are made up for the most part of rather stable proteins, for example, the structural proteins of muscle, bone and connective tissue, whose rate of breakdown and replacement is rather slow.…”

Nutrition during Growth and Development

“…274 One study involved 2x6 maternity patients at the Boston Lying-In Hospital, who were watched closely and examined periodically from the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy to term. Stuart and Burke found that women who had optimum dietaries prior to and during pregnancy, according to the standards established by the United States Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council (11), delivered the healthiest babies, and that women who had only fair or very poor dietaries had a higher incidence of premature births, stillbirths, and babies with congenital abnormalities (3). A statistically significant relationship was found to exist between the prenatal dietary rating and the condition of the infant.…”