🥑 Nausea, cravings, and eating well: a dietitian’s take

Pregnancy nutrition advice can feel like a minefield of rules. As a dietitian, my actual advice is simpler than most of what you’ll read online.

If nausea is running the show

Perfect nutrition is not the goal in weeks where toast is the only thing staying down. Bland, carb-heavy, and boring is a completely valid strategy short-term. Small, frequent meals beat three big ones. Ginger (tea, chews, or crystallised) has real evidence behind it for mild nausea.

The few nutrients worth prioritising

Folate (or methylfolate), iron, and choline are the three most commonly under-consumed in pregnancy. A prenatal vitamin covers gaps on the days a full diet isn’t possible — it’s a backup plan, not a replacement for eating.

On cravings

Craving something isn’t your body "telling you what it needs" in any precise sense — but craving isn’t something to fight either. Working with cravings (a version with a bit more protein or fibre alongside) is usually more sustainable than banning them outright.

Foods to actually avoid

Unpasteurised soft cheeses, raw/undercooked eggs and meat, high-mercury fish (like swordfish and king mackerel), unwashed produce, and alcohol. That’s a shorter list than most people assume.

A note from Maya

The goal isn’t a perfect pregnancy diet — it’s consistency you can actually sustain for nine months. Good enough, repeated daily, beats perfect for one week and abandoned.