When you’re gonna be eating for two, it’s important that you stay healthy as these are some of the most important meals of your and your child’s life. In this article, we’ll be going through some of the best foods you should eat when you’re going through a pregnancy, how they help you, and how much of it you should eat. Here are the Top 10 foods for when you’re pregnant:
1. Legumes
Legumes aren’t one type of food but a whole category of foods such as lentils, chickpeas, beans, soybeans, and other food items like these. There’s no shortage of types you can try, and while they all have wildly different tastes, they all have one thing in common, they’re absolutely delicious. While they might not look to be the most appetizing food, lentils are a traditional cuisine in dozens of countries across the world, and there are just so many different ways and recipes to prepare them and you’re bound to enjoy one of them. Legumes can be a great source of fiber, iron, protein, and folate, which are all essential when it comes to pregnancies, especially iron as pregnant women need about twice the normal recommended amount of iron for an adult woman.
2. Yogurt
While dairy products aren’t exactly the best for most people’s health, some dairy products, especially yogurt, can be quite nutritious with very few health drawbacks at all. When you’re pregnant, you need a reliable source of calcium not just to protect your own bones, but also to help grow and strengthen your baby’s bones. That’s why yogurt is the perfect supplement, or even a snack on its own for your daily need for calcium. If you go with Greek yogurt, you’d be getting a much more concentrated dose of calcium with each spoon, and you’d be also improving your and your baby’s digestive health because of the active probiotic bacteria in them, which is something most people seem to overlook during pregnancy, but it can be something that your child (or pediatrician) will thank you for in the future.
3. Broccoli
Broccoli isn’t exactly something you crave during a pregnancy (and if you do, that’s great), but broccoli in and of itself can be one of the most important foods during it. So many of the nutrients a mother and her child needs are present in just one head of broccoli. Essential vitamins like vitamin C, vitamin K, and vitamin A are all present in large amounts in broccoli. Aside from those, broccoli is also very dense in iron, which is one of the most important components of a pregnant woman’s diet, and to top it all of, broccoli is very fibrous, which will help improve your and your child’s digestive health. There’s so many different ways to prepare broccoli, with plenty of recipes all over the internet to choose from. You can even mask the broccoli’s taste if you’re not a fan of it, but we highly recommend you introduce broccoli to your diet if you’re pregnant.
4. Eggs
Eggs are the perfect addition for a pregnant person, especially if you’re a picky eater. Eggs are a staple in most people’s diets already, and including more eggs into your diet (to make up for the extra stomach you need to feed) can be an excellent way to be healthier during a pregnancy. Eggs are important as they carry just about every nutrient you could possibly need. From almost every vitamin we’ve mentioned so far, to a concentrated amount of protein, carbs, and fats, eggs are a sort of a mega food. The most amazing thing is that all these nutrients are just packed into an average of 80 calories if you’re eating a large egg, so you don’t have to worry about going all out. Whether you boil them, fry them, or poach them, you can never go wrong with adding more eggs into your diet whether you are or aren’t pregnant.
5. Nuts
If you have a tendency to snack and go all out of pregnancy cravings, is there really an option that’s both as healthy and tasty as nuts? If you’re pregnant, one of our best pieces of advice is to always have an assortment of different kinds of nuts in your house with easy access, as you never know when the cravings might kick in and nuts are the perfect food to kick those unhealthy cravings during a pregnancy. Nuts are some of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet. If you’re pregnant, you’ll probably need to increase your calorie intake as well, but most calorie dense foods are quite unhealthy, when it comes to nuts, they’re both calorie dense and healthy. Nuts are some of the healthiest sources of fat you can get, and you should definitely use nuts to increase your fat intake. Different types of nuts have different vitamins and benefits, but they all have at least something special about them.
6. Spinach
Spinach is the second “green” we’ve mentioned on our list, and it takes the edge over broccoli, despite having many of the same nutritional benefits, simply because it can be its own meal and is probably the most versatile green you can add to your diet overall. Spinach is extremely dense in iron and is considered one of the most iron-dense foods in the world. It also has high amounts of folate in it, which is a vitamin that actively counters birth defects and is a requirement for healthy fetal growth and development. There are thousands of ways to cook spinach and we couldn’t possibly list all of them down, but it should be quite simple to prepare spinach in a way that would be palatable to you, as almost every culture in the world has its own way of preparing spinach and they’re all very different.
7. Lean Meat
While mentioning all the other vegan and vegetarian foods on our list, we forgot one entry for the meat lovers, and that’s lean meat. Lean meat is meat that has a very low fat content, such as skinless chicken or turkey, pork chops, and many other kinds of meat. They’re one of the easiest essentials to simply pick up and start cooking, as you should find no trouble looking for a recipe in which you can incorporate these meats. Lean meats will usually be your most important source of protein, if you’re a meat eater, and it can also be an important source of iron during your pregnancy. So for your pregnancy, you should try to avoid other types of meat, and go for lean cuts.
8. Avocados
Avocados are truly one of the superfoods that we all know and love today, and not just a food fad that comes and goes. One of the best things about the recent popularity of avocados is how much more options it has given to pregnant women. There are many different ways to prepare avocados, such as a guacamole, a spread on toast, or simply on its own. The cherry on top of this delicious food is how nutrient dense it is. Avocados are packed with folate, which, as we’ve already mentioned, is an extremely important vitamin when it comes to fetal growth and development. They’re also a great source of fat that you can snack on instead of the already-mentioned nuts, if you have a nut allergy. Overall, adding avocados to your diet if you’re pregnant is definitely a good idea.
8. Wild Salmon
Wild salmon can be rare, seasonal, and very expensive, but if you manage to get your hands on one of them, your pregnancy might go much more smoothly. Salmon in and of itself is great for you whether it’s wild or farm raised, but wild salmon has very special vitamins that you can only get from it. First of all, wild salmon is heavily concentrated with DHA omega-3s, which is a pregnancy essential that the human body can’t even produce on its own and wild salmon is one of the only foods that actually does have it. Aside from that, wild salmon is rich in protein, fiber, iron, and healthy fats.
10. Shellfish
Barring any allergies or dietary restrictions, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t incorporate shellfish into your diet if you’re pregnant. If you haven’t already, you should do it as soon as possible. Shellfish are the most iron rich food group in the world, however, you should avoid all kinds of raw shellfish and only consume shellfish that has been cooked properly. Shellfish can contain many of the most important nutrients you need during a pregnancy. The iron in shellfish is also much easier for your body to absorb than the iron found in regular plants. In moderation, you should definitely try to incorporate cooked shellfish into your pregnancy diet.
