What are the best foods to eat during pregnancy?

Everything you eat and drink when you’re pregnant is absorbed by your gut and transported through the fetal circulation system to your baby’s developing organs.

Ideally, the food should be rich in essential nutrients such as healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, which will ensure your baby has all it needs to grow strong and healthy. Basically, if you are healthy, baby will be too!

Here are some basic guidelines to help you choose foods are best for your unborn baby.

Eat from the five food groups

During pregnancy, both you and your growing baby need extra nutrients, so eating healthy foods from the 5 food groups is important. These include:

1. Vegetables

Enjoy plenty of different types and colours of vegetables.

2. Fruit

Enjoy a variety of fruit in different types and colours.

3. Grain (cereal) foods

Eat mostly wholegrain and/or high cereal fibre varieties, such as breads, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles, polenta, couscous, oats, quinoa and barley. Complex carbohydrates, found in these foods, provide essential nutrients and sustained energy.

4. Lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, legumes and beans

5. Milk, yoghurt, cheese and/or their alternatives, mostly reduced fat varieties

And don’t forget to drink plenty of water to remain hydrated and healthy.

Folic acid (folate)

The B vitamin folate is important during pregnancy because it’s one of the few nutrients known to prevent neural tube birth defects like spina bifida. The National Health and Medical Research Council recommend that:

Women who are thinking about pregnancy or are in the first trimester, should take a supplement of 400 µg of folic acid a day
Women who are in their second or third trimester, should take a supplement of 600 µg of folic acid a day
Women who are lactating, should take a supplement of 500 µg of folic acid a day

You should also try and eat plenty of folate-rich foods, including:

Fresh green leafy vegetables
Chickpeas and dried beans
Asparagus and broccoli
Foods with added folic acid, including some breakfast cereals, bread and juices

Vitamin B9 (folate) is also required for numerous body functions including DNA synthesis and repair, cell division, and cell growth.

Iodine

Iodine is an important mineral needed for the production of the thyroid hormone, which assists with your baby’s growth and development. Inadequate iodine intake during pregnancy can increase the risk of mental impairment in newborn babies.

Foods that are good sources of iodine include:

Seafood and seaweed (including nori and kelp)
Eggs (well cooked), meat and dairy products
Iodised salt (although you should avoid adding salt at the table or in cooking)
Commercially sold bread, with the exception of organic and unleavened bread

Iron

During pregnancy, a woman’s iron requirements increase because the developing foetus draws iron from its mother to last it through the first five or six months after birth.

Iron-rich foods include: