Study: You Are What Mom Eats

You've heard the saying. "You are what you eat," but maybe it's more, "You are what your mother eats."

Proper nutrition during pregnancy is vital to the development of a healthy child, and new research is the latest showing it.

CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton discussed a U.K. study that found an implanted mouse embryo growing with a low-protein diet during pregnancy had severe disadvantages during and after pregnancy, such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular dysfunction, abnormal growth patterns and behavioral abnormalities.

Ashton said on "The Early Show" Wednesday this study is yet another piece of evidence showing women that how you eat during pregnancy is vital, because it can have long-term consequences for you and your child.

But what should you be eating when you're pregnant?

Ashton recommended 60 grams of protein a day of foods, such as eggs, low-mercury fish, chicken or cottage cheese.

You should also take a prenatal vitamin, Ashton said, and get vitamins from your foods.

Folic acid, she said, is especially important -- even if you're just trying to get pregnant.

"You want to get that folic acid in your blood as much as three months before conception," she said. "If you're trying to get pregnant, you want to get 0.4 milligrams of folic acid pretty much every day. It's very important in the first trimester."

Additional sources of vitamins, such as Vitamin D for a healthy immune system and brain function, she said, can be gleaned from foods like fortified cereals and beans.

However, too many vitamins is also a concern. She said, for example, over 10,000 units a day of vitamin A can be especially harmful.

But in a stressful, and sometimes confusing, time for women, Ashton said pregnant women should remember to take their vitamins, and eat a well-balanced nutritious diet with plenty of calcium, protein and iron.

"You don't want to live your life in a plastic bubble," she said. "If you overeat in pregnancy -- and there's a lot of sabotage, everyone tries to feed us -- you will pay the consequences, if not in your pregnancy, then later on in life."

One of those post-natal concerns for the mother is weight gain.

Ashton said women will lose 10 to 12 pounds in the delivery room, and then 10 pounds in the immediate post-partum period. After that, she said, the extra weight is yours to keep.

"Lose this 'you're eating for two' philosophy," she said. "You only need an extra 100 to 200 calories a day when you're pregnant, which is nothing."