Can Pregnant Woman eat Snow Crab Legs?

Sometimes when you are pregnant, you crave so much for certain foods. It can be anything. Some soon-to-be moms often get trapped in confusion about whether or not their cravings safe for the pregnancy. When you are pregnant and craving for tasty seafood, like those snow crab legs, you might want to make sure they are safe to eat before you feed yourself and the baby in your womb.

Are Snow Crab Legs Healthy?

Seafood is known for being high in calories and low in fat. It also tastes delicious and can be cooked into various menu. As one of seafood kinds, snow crab legs contain similar nutrition with other kinds of seafood. They are loaded with calories and protein which are important for metabolism. Your body also needs fat for protecting the organs and helping nutrient absorption. Snow crab legs contain only little fat, which is enough and sufficient for your body daily need. As long as you cook the crab legs with healthy toppings, you will get sufficient amount of fat for your health. Crab legs are also loaded with vitamin B5, which helps your body to absorb protein. It also enriches with sodium and other beneficial minerals.The way you cook the snow crab legs also define its nutrient balance. Snow crab legs that is steamed or boiled maintain well-balanced nutrients than the fried ones.

Is Pregnant Woman allowed to eat Snow Crab Legs?

Snow crab legs are good nutrient sources. It is enriched with various nutrients, including folate. Folate is really important for your pregnancy as it helps baby physical development and avoid baby defects. When in early pregnancy, you are advised to consume sufficient amount of folate to strengthen your pregnancy. Folate can also be found in other foods, such as spinach, green beans, and broccoli. However, snow crab legs also contain high amount of sodium that will be harmful if consumed excessively. Sodium may cause hypertension and the risk of coronary heart disease when consumed over the daily limit. When pregnant, you have to be wise to decide what foods to eat to make sure those foods give you and your baby the advantages, instead of causing unexpected disease. As for eating the delicious snow crab legs, pregnant woman might want to consider several important cautions.

1. Make sure you buy the snow crab legs in trusted market or sellers. Choose fresh crab legs with bright color and white flesh. It should smell like fresh saltwater as a sign that it has good quality inside-meat. You can, of course buy the frozen snow crab legs at the supermarket, but you also need to pay attention to the packing and expire date to make sure it has not been kept in the freezer too long.
2. When eating any kinds of seafood and to be specific, snow crab legs during pregnancy, you need to make sure that they are fully cooked. You can cook it by boiling, steaming, frying, or barbequing, as long as they are not raw or half-cooked. Fully cooking them will eliminate possible bacteria they may contain.
3. Do not consume snow crab legs or other seafood every day. You do not want to consume excessive amount of sodium that might increase your risk of getting elevated blood pressure during pregnancy. Crabs contain low level of mercury, yet it can harm your body when you consume a great number of crabs frequently. Be wise to only satisfy your cravings, not your hunger. When pregnant, moderation is your key of eating every single kind of allowed diet.
4. When you are eating crab legs and feel any symptoms of allergy, immediately stop eating, because it is possible that your baby might have the same allergy as yours.
5. Choose healthy toppings when eating your crab legs. Vegetables, such as carrots or broccoli are the prefect choices. They are perfect sources of folate and taste delicious with crab legs meat.

It is indeed not easy to define what to eat when pregnant. Different people might have different opinions about various dishes. As long as you pay attention to the nutrients balance, you do not need to drop everything you used to eat because of your pregnancy.