By: Dr. Kinga Babicki-Farrugia Hons. BSc, ND.

Healthy eating whether in pregnancy or not doesn’t have to be complicated! A well balanced diet is pretty important to good health but even more so when you are pregnant.

Colour

First things first, lets focus on colour! I encourage you all to self assess your diet. How much colour do you see? Whenever I ask this question, or I ask for a 24 hour recall of someone’s diet, we find a lot of beige! As tasty as some of those beige foods can be, they usually don’t provide very much nutrition.

Start ensuring you see a rainbow of colours throughout the day on your plate. Including lots of veggies and fruits will help you achieve this! Jam packed full of vitamins and minerals you and your baby need. Aim for 5-10 servings a day. These food groups have been shown to reduce our risk for many different health issues. So add some fruit to breakfast, veggies with lunch and dinner and have a fruit or veggie with your snack.

It could be as simple as adding berries to your oatmeal, adding a salad to lunch, and grilled veggies at dinner. Snacks can be a bit trickier but if you keep a fruit in your bag or a bag full of cut up veggies you’re all set! Add some nuts and seeds and you’re not going to feel hungry 10 minutes after eating your snack! Sometimes if I’m in a big rush, I’ll grab one of my youngest son’s Love child fruit/veg pouch and have that with some nuts. Its not hard to to make your meals more nutritious and using the rule of colour makes it fun and easy!

And if you’re in your first trimester, as much as you may want to eat well, the reality is you might only be able to stomach certain foods. And that’s OK. You can and will make up for this in the weeks to come!

What is/was your favourite fruit or vegetable in pregnancy? I absolutely loved eating a mixed greens salad with berries and nuts/seeds. Feel free to share in the comments below!

Need some help with navigating your diet in pregnancy? Send us a message, I’d be glad to help!