Table of Contents
Foods to avoid during pregnancy!
Foods to avoid for your baby.
CONTENTLists of foods to avoid. |
There are some foods you should not eat when you’re pregnant because they might make you ill or harm your baby. Make sure you know the important facts about which foods you should avoid or take extra care with when you’re pregnant. The best foods to eat are freshly cooked or freshly prepared food.
Foods to avoid for your baby
(1) Meats
- Cold cuts, deli meats, hot dogs, and other ready-to-eat meats. (You can safely eat these if they are heated to steaming and served hot.)
- Pre-stuffed, fresh, turkey or chicken
- Steak tartare or any raw meat
- Rare cuts of meat and undercooked meats
- Refrigerated pates or meat spreads. (Canned and shelf-safe meat spreads are OK.
(2) Fish
- Locally caught bluefish, pike, salmon, striped bass, trout, and walleye
- King mackerel, shark, swordfish, and tilefish, which have high levels of mercury
- Smoked cod, smoked salmon or lox, smoked mackerel, smoked trout, smoked tuna, smoked whitefish, or other smoked fish
- Sushi or any raw fish or raw shellfish (oysters, clams, mussels)
(3) Eggs
- Raw eggs
- Raw cookie dough. (It has raw eggs in it.)
- Caesar salad dressing, bearnaise sauce, hollandaise sauce, mayonnaise, and any homemade dressings and sauces made with raw eggs
- Mousse, meringue, tiramisu, and any homemade desserts made with raw eggs
(4) Milk and Cheese
- Unpasteurized milk
- Any cheese made from unpasteurized milk. (Very few kinds of cheese made from raw milk are sold in the U.S. But some are, so always check the labels. Soft cheeses such as brie, blue cheese, feta, panela, queso blanco, and queso fresco are more likely than hard cheeses to be made from raw milk.)
(5) Fruits and Veggies
- Store-bought fresh-squeezed or any unpasteurized juice
- Unwashed fruits and vegetables
- Raw sprouts
- Unripe papaya
Things to avoid in pregnancy
Foods you must include in your diet during pregnancy: All 5 food groups
Fruit and vegetables
Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables because these provide vitamins and minerals, as well as fibre, which helps digestion and prevents constipation. Eat a variety of fruit and vegetables a day — these can be fresh, frozen, canned, dried or juiced. Always wash them carefully. Cook vegetables lightly in a little water, or eat them raw but well washed, to get the benefit of the nutrients they contain.
Starchy foods (carbohydrates)
Starchy foods are an important source of vitamins and fibre, and are satisfying without containing too many calories. They include bread, potatoes, breakfast cereals, rice, pasta, noodles, maize, millet, oats, sweet potatoes, yams and cornmeal. These foods should be the main part of every meal. Eat wholemeal instead of processed (white) varieties when you can.
Protein
Foods containing protein help the baby grow. Sources of protein include meat (but avoid liver), fish (however, avoid fish that is high in mercury such as shark/flake, marlin or broadbill/ swordfish), poultry, eggs, beans, legumes/beans and nuts. Eat some protein every day. Choose lean meat, remove the skin from poultry, and cook it using only a little fat.
Make sure eggs, 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 2 portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily fish such as sardines or mackerel.
Dairy
Dairy foods such as milk, cheese and yoghurt are important because they contain calcium and other nutrients that your baby needs. Choose reduced-fat varieties wherever possible. There are some cheeses that should be avoided — see Foods to avoid.
Healthy snacks
If you get hungry between meals, don’t eat snacks that are high in fat and/or sugar, such as sweets, biscuits, crisps or chocolate. Instead, choose from the following nutritious snacks:
- sandwiches or pitta bread filled with grated cheese, grilled chicken, mashed tuna, salmon or sardines and salad
- salad vegetables, such as carrot, celery or cucumber
- low-fat yoghurt hummus with bread or vegetable sticks
- ready-to-eat apricots, figs or prunes
- vegetable and bean soups
- unsweetened breakfast cereals, or porridge, with milk
- milky drinks or unsweetened fruit juices
- fresh fruit
- baked beans on toast or a baked potato
