Protein Requirements In Pregnancy

An article by Kaycie Rosen Grigel in the August 2015 edition of the Natural Medicine Journal looks at protein requirements during pregnancy.  The article looks at a study by Stephens et al. that was published in the September 2014 edition of The Journal of Nutrition.  
The study involved 29 pregnant women who were assessed for optimal dietary protein intake (as measured by Indicator Amino Acid Oxidation (IAAO) technique).  Some of participants did early gestation dietary testing only, some did late gestation dietary testing only, and some did both.  
Through the IAAO technique, it was found that the optimal protein intake during early gestation was 1.22 g/kg per day and the optimal protein intake during late gestation was 1.52 g/kg per day.  
The authors of the study note that the current Estimated Average Requirement for protein in pregnancy is .88 g/kg per day and that the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) is 1.1 g/kg per day - both of these are lower than what the study found, especially during later pregnancy.  Protein intake has a huge impact on both healthy pregnancy and baby's long term health and the information from this study provides excellent updated guidelines on what women could be aiming for, protein intake wise, both in early and later pregnancy.