[Nutrition during pregnancy. A continuous challenge]

An increasingly greater number of discoveries convince us that the mother's diet can affect foetus body composition, thus modulating aspects of the child's health ant development in the early years and even in adulthood. Pregnancy is a physiological period in a woman's life and, therefore, should be treated as such. However, nutritional needs increase in order to meet growth requirements. Such needs can be met by maintaining a balanced diet. It should not, however, be assumed that pregnant woman always have correct nourishment prior to pregnancy. The body experiences metabolic changes in order to face the changes that pregnancy entails, though each organism adapts differently to these changes, which makes it difficult to standardise the recommendations for women as a whole. Despite this, there are International Organisations that assume the task of establishing the dietary guidelines considered optimum for pregnancy. A rich and varied diet meets the requirements of pregnancy and lactation, but the needs increase in a different manner for each nutrient and the increase of intake should be selective. There should be particular control of proteins, essential fatty acids and certain vitamins (folic acid specially) and some minerals (such as calcium, phosphors, iron and zinc). Consequently, pregnancies with a risk of suffering nutritional alterations should be ruled out, the diet should be watched and, if necessary, specific dietary supplements should be used.