What should you eat?

A healthy diet and lifestyle can help you to keep well during pregnancy and give
your baby the best possible start in life. This chapter explains some of the things
you can do to stay healthy.

What should you eat?

A healthy diet is very important if you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant. You don’t need to go on a special diet, but make sure that you eat a variety of different foods every day in order to get the right balance of nutrients that you and your baby need.

The guide below shows how much of each type of food you need to have for a healthy and well-balanced diet.

Fruit and vegetables

As well as vitamins and minerals, fruit and vegetables provide fibre, which helps digestion and prevents constipation. Eat at least five portions of fresh, frozen, canned, dried or juiced fruit and vegetables each day. Always wash them carefully. To get the most
out of vegetables, don’t over cook them.

Potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and other starchy carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are satisfying without containing too many calories, and are an important source of vitamins and fibre.
They include bread, potatoes, breakfast cereals, pasta, rice, oats, noodles, maize, millet, yams, cornmeal and sweet potatoes. These foods should be the main part of every meal. Eat wholegrain varieties when you can as these add extra fibre to our diet.

Foods high in fat, salt and sugars

This includes products such as chocolate, cakes, biscuits, full-sugar soft drinks, butter and ice-cream.
These foods are not needed in the diet and so, if included, should only be done infrequently and in small amounts. If you consume these foods and drinks often, try to limit their consumption so you have them less often and in smaller amounts. Food and drinks high in fat and sugar contain lots of energy, particularly when you have large servings.

Beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins

Good sources of protein include beans, pulses, fish, eggs and meat. These foods are also good sources of essential vitamins and minerals. Eat moderate amounts each day.
Choose lean meat, remove the skin from poultry and cook using only a little fat. You should try to limit the amount of red meat or processed meat (for example sausages, bacon, cured meats) to no more than 90g per day.
Make sure poultry, pork, burgers and sausages are cooked all the way through. Check that there is no pink meat and that juices have no pink or red in them.

Try to eat two portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily fish.

Oils and spreads

This food group includes all unsaturated oils including vegetable oil, rapeseed oil, olive oil sunflower oil and soft spreads made from unsaturated oils. Butters are not included in this section as these are high in saturated fat and should be eaten less often and in small amounts. Although some fat in the diet is essential, generally we are eating too much saturated fat and need to reduce our consumption.

Unsaturated fats are healthier fats that are usually from plant sources and in liquid form as oil, for example vegetable oil, rapeseed oil and olive oil. Swapping to unsaturated fats will help to reduce cholesterol in the blood, therefore it is important to get most of our fat from unsaturated oils.

Choosing lower fat spreads, as opposed to butter, is a good way to reduce your saturated fat intake. Remember that all types of fat are high in energy and should be limited in the diet.

Dairy and alternatives

Milk and dairy foods (or dairy alternatives) like cheese, fromage frais, soya drinks and yogurts (choose unsweetened calcium fortified milk alternatives) are important because they contain protein, calcium and other nutrients that your baby needs. Eat two or three portions a day, using low-fat varieties whenever you can – for example, semi-skimmed or skimmed milk, low-fat yogurt and half-fat hard cheese.

Hydration

Aim to drink 6-8 glasses of fluid every day. Water, lower fat milk and sugar-free drinks including tea and coffee all count. Fruit juice and smoothies also count towards your fluid consumption, although they are a source of free sugars and so you should limit consumption to no more than a combined total of 150ml per day.