Eating well is important for a healthy pregnancy.
Making healthy food choices will:
- Help your baby grow and develop.
- Give you more energy.
- Help you gain a healthy amount of weight.
Tips for eating well during pregnancy:
- Enjoy a variety of foods from Canada's Food Guide.
- Use the Eat Well Plate to help you follow Canada’s Food Guide when planning and serving meals.
- Eat two food guide servings (150 grams) of fish per week. Choose fish that are low in mercury(PDF, 4.18 MB). Examples include salmon, tilapia, sole, herring, trout and canned light tuna.
- Drink water regularly when you are thirsty. Limit sugary drinks such as pop, fruit drinks, iced tea, sports drinks and flavoured coffee or tea drinks.
- Learn about foods to avoid and how to prepare foods safely from Health Canada.
Take multivitamin containing folic acid and iron
Pregnant women need to take a multivitamin containing folic acid and iron every day. Talk to your health care provider about which multivitamin is right for you.
Weight gain is a natural part of pregnancy
- Healthy weight gain helps your baby grow and develop and can lower the risk of health problems for you and your baby.
- The amount of weight you should gain depends on how much you weighed before you became pregnant.
- Use the Pregnancy Weight Gain Calculator to find out what a healthy weight gain is for you.
- Visit UnlockFood.ca for tips on healthy weight gain during pregnancy.
- Talk to your health care provider about your weight gain during pregnancy.
Where to get more information or help