Small changes to your diet can make a big difference

Changing what you eat can feel daunting, especially during pregnancy when you may not feel your best or might be craving very sweet, bland or salty foods. The swaps below might help you to find some changes that work for you.

MealCurrent ChoiceTry Instead
BreakfastWhite toast with jamGranary toast or 50/50 bread with a teaspoon peanut butter
Fruit juiceA piece of fruit or bowl of berries
SnackBar of chocolate1 chocolate biscuit or 1-2 plain biscuits
LunchSausage roll, crisps, fruit juiceWholemeal ham sandwich, plain or salted popcorn, piece of fruit
SnackCrispsPalmful of nuts
Carrots and hummus
Crackers or oatcakes with soft cheese
Evening mealSpaghetti Bolognese with garlic breadDrain fat from mince
Add vegetables to the sauce
Have a side salad with a few crunchy croutons instead of garlic bread
Bigger swap: Try half mince, half lentils, chickpeas or Quorn
Evening mealFish fingers, chips and baked beansOven bake or grill fish fingers
Oven-baked or air-fried skin-on chips or wedges
No added sugar baked beans
Swap baked beans for peas
Bigger swap: Jacket potato with tuna and salad
Ice creamHandful of fresh or frozen fruit with Greek yoghurt or small amount of custard made with sweetener
Evening snackSugar frosted cereal with milkWeetabix, Shredded Wheat, Bran Flakes or other high fibre cereal with milk or a small yoghurt
DrinksSugary drinksSugar free drinks

More Healthy Living Advice

Weight in Pregnancy

Read More

Eating Well

Read More

Fruit, Vegetables and Fibre

Read More

Understanding Food Labels

Read More

Vegetarian and Vegan Diets

Read More

Gestational Diabetes

Read More

Eating and Drinking with Pregnancy Sickness

Read More

Accessibility Tools

Your choices will be saved as a non-identifying cookie. This means that each time you load a webpage from this website, your chosen accessibility options will be applied. These cookies will last for 28 days before resetting.

Text To Speech

When text to speech is active, you can click the play button to hear the whole sites content read aloud. You can also highlight a section of text and press play, to hear only the highlighted text.

Settings

1
1

Translate

Choose a language from the Google provided selector below.

Screen Mask

A screen mask is a reading tool which follows your cursor. It allows you to remove distractions from around the page and gives a clear area of focus.

Text Size

Use these icons to increase, decrease or reset the size of the text throughout the site.

Contrast

Change the colour of text and the background of the site with the selectors below. This removes images and makes the content across the site easier to read.