Pregnancy Diet Plan Chart – What To Eat During Pregnancy [Updated]

To deal with pregnancy challenges, it is crucial for you to visit a nutritionist and plan a healthy, balanced, and nutritious pregnancy diet plan or chart trimester-wise.

What To Include in Your Pregnancy Diet Plan?

You must include the necessary vitamins, calcium, folic acids, etc as an essential part of your pregnancy diet. Here is how you can introduce the above:

Introducing Folate or Folic Acid Into Your Pregnancy Meal Plan

Well! You can get folate or folic acid from leafy greens, citrus fruits, lentils, etc during your pregnancy. Including enough folate in your diet shall prevent your baby from developing some major brain as well as spine-related birth defects. Therefore, it is necessary for you to have at least 600 to 1000mg of folate or folic acid during pregnancy.

Introducing Calcium Into Your Pregnancy Meal Plan

Calcium and pregnancy have a very close relationship with each other. It does not just help in developing your musculoskeletal and nervous systems, but it also passes down to the developing baby inside you and helps in forming the nerves, the heart, and the baby’s hormones. Therefore, take in 1000 mg of calcium from milk and milk products, dates, almonds and other fruits, fortified orange juice as well as oats or oatmeal every day.

Introducing Iron Into Your Pregnancy Meal Plan

If you do not consume iron in sufficient amounts during your pregnancy, there are chances that you will develop anaemia. As a result of anaemia during your pregnancy, you might be at increased risk of postpartum depression, and premature birth as well as a low birth weight baby. Therefore, it is essential that you consume cereal, meat, spinach, beans, etc.

What To Include In The Early Pregnancy Diet Chart (4 to 13 Weeks)?

As you step into the first trimester of your pregnancy, the soaring pregnancy hormones may give rise to nausea or morning sickness, and trigger constipation and acid reflux. Well! Having some salty crackers, toast, and high-protein foods like eggs and fish during your pregnancy can help.

First-Trimester Pregnancy Diet Plan

Start your day with some wholewheat toast or oats biscuit and tea. Tea with a dash of ginger would be great for you.

Wheat or oats will keep you energised, provide you with fibre, and will certainly keep your constipation at bay. Ginger might improve your nausea and vomiting.

As you proceed with the day, you can make yourself some sprouts or mixed dal, or dry fruit salad. 

• Pulses are good sources of protein, but dry fruits are rich sources of zinc, magnesium, and potassium. 

For lunch, you can try out some vegetable khichdi along with onion, mint, cucumber raita, and roasted papad.

• Vegetables are healthy for your digestive system. Also, the fibre in veggies can manage cholesterol levels. 

• Onion detoxifies your body, boosts your immunity, treats constipation, and keeps blood pressure regulated.

• Cucumbers can prevent obesity, reduce swelling, and keep you hydrated.

• Curd is a probiotic and is wholesome for you.

Well! For dinner, you can have some Daliya or uttapam with some paneer.

What to Include in the Second-trimester Pregnancy Diet Plan Chart (13 Weeks To The End of the 26^th Week)?

As you move forward with your pregnancy and enter the second trimester, the discomforts of the first trimester have already passed. This is the time when the baby’s organs develop inside you. Therefore, making the right choice of food is necessary.

Second-Trimester Pregnancy Diet Plan

• Make yourself some wheat cereal, and add some milk and sliced naturally fresh and sweet fruit salad for your breakfast. Wheat cereal has a good amount of folic acid and high fibre in it. From milk, you will get the right amount of calcium and you can stay hydrated from fresh fruits.
• As the day proceeds make a snack with 2 hard-boiled eggs, some sliced carrots, and cucumber. While eggs are a good source of proteins and provide amino acids for your baby’s development, carrots are rich in vitamin C which helps in preventing anaemia.
• Make some lentil soup with sunflower seeds and salad for lunch. Lentils are after all a good source of folic acid.
• Have some fresh fruit juice or a smoothie for your evening meal.
• For dinner, you might have some baked potatoes, some butter, and some steamed broccoli.

What To Include In The Third-trimester Pregnancy Diet Plan Chart (32 to 42 Weeks)?

The moment you enter the third trimester of your pregnancy, your skin and ligaments continue to stretch to accommodate your developing baby. Along with this, you can get tired easily, your sleeping becomes very difficult and your heartburn and breathlessness might even grow.  Moreover, in the last stage of your pregnancy, you might even feel worried about labour and childbirth. Therefore, you must include food in your diet during the third trimester that will give you energy, fibre, folic acid, iron, and calcium. 

Third-Trimester Pregnancy Diet Plan

• Start your day with oats porridge, and some fresh fruit smoothie.
• As the day proceeds you can have some veggie wrap or egg paratha for energy and protein contributions both for you and your baby.
• You can have some methi/fenugreek rice or pulao, rajma, stir-fried or grilled green vegetables, and pudina raita for lunch.
• Well! For dinner, you can have some chicken salad, multigrain roti, and some light soup.

Remember to try to limit the intake of caffeine (like coffee, tea, and aerated drinks) and sugar. If in case, you need to change a specific diet, consult your nutritionist immediately. Along with the pregnancy diet, if you need some more information on pregnancy, postpartum, baby care and the benefits of cord blood banking, follow our blog page.