Nutrition
Eat right for a healthy baby!
Good nutrition during pregnancy is important for your health and the health of your baby. Eating well and often during pregnancy can help you avoid acid reflux, heartburn, and nausea. The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program can provide more information on eating right and making healthy food choices for you and your baby. They can also provide financial support for buying groceries and breastfeeding support after your baby is born. Call 1-800-WIC-4030 (1-800-942-4030, toll free) to learn more!
Make healthy food choices
- Eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables. Try to make them take up half your plate at each meal!
- Eat whole grains instead of refined grains (e.g., whole wheat bread instead of white bread). Aim for eating twice as many whole grains as refined grains.
- Choose fat free or low fat milk and milk products. Switch to skim or 1% milk and look for lower fat options of other dairy products such as cheese and yogurt.
- Eat a variety of protein. Good options are lean meat and poultry, eggs, certain types of seafood, beans, soy products, and unsalted nuts and seeds.
- Avoid “empty” calories. These are found in candy, desserts, fried foods, ice cream, sweetened cereals, and sweetened drinks.
- Remember to take your prenatal vitamin!
Get a daily meal plan for moms designed just for you.
Daily nutrition table
| Food Group | 1st Trimester | 2nd and 3rd Trimesters | What counts as 1 cup or 1 ounce? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vegetables | 2½ cups | 3 cups | 1 cup raw or cooked vegetables or 100% juice 2 cups raw leafy vegetables |
| Fruits | 2 cups | 2 cups | 1 cup fruit or 100% juice ½ cup dried fruit |
| Grains | 6 ounces | 8 ounces | 1 slice whole grain bread 1 ounce ready-to-eat cereal ½ cup cooked whole grain pasta, rice, or cereal |
| Dairy | 3 cups | 3 cups | 1 cup milk 8 ounces yogurt 1½ ounces natural cheese 2 ounces processed cheese |
| Protein Foods | 5½ ounces | 6½ ounces | 1 ounce lean meat, poultry, or seafood 1 egg ¼ cup cooked beans ½ ounce nuts 1 tablespoon peanut butter |
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Seafood can be part of a healthy diet
Omega-3 fats in seafood have important health benefits for you and your unborn child. Salmon, sardines, and trout are some choices higher in omega-3 fats and lower in pollutants such as mercury.
- Eat 8 – 12 ounces of seafood each week.
- Eat all types of tuna, but limit white (albacore) tuna to 6 ounces each week.
- Do not eat tilefish, shark, swordfish, and king mackerel as they have high levels of mercury. Mercury can be harmful to the brain and nervous system of any person exposed to too much of it over time.
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
And, of course, Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, so if you like to fish, you can add some of the following Minnesota-caught fish to your diet:
| Sunfish | Bass |
| Crappie | Catfish |
| Yellow perch | Walleye |
| Bullheads | Northern pike |
| Other Minnesota gamefish |
Important note: Before eating fish caught locally, be sure to visit the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Fish Consumption Guidance web page. This page includes guidelines for which fish are safe to eat and how often you can eat them. Fish from some Minnesota lakes and rivers have been found to have higher levels of chemicals like mercury, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These are not good for anyone, but they are especially bad for pregnant women and unborn babies. The MDH web page also has a list of lakes and rivers that have higher levels of these chemicals.
Source: Minnesota Department of Health (MDH)
PW_07-17_261
DHS_Approved_10/07/2022
Updated_10/10/2022
