Foods to choose often 
Follow your MyPyramid Plan for Moms and eat the amount it recommends for each food group. Choose the foods listed below often. They are the best sources of some nutrients you need when you are pregnant or breastfeeding.
| Grain Group |
- Fortified ready-to-eat cereals
- Fortified cooked cereals
- Wheat germ
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| Vegetable Group (choose fresh, frozen, canned, or dried) |
- Carrots
- Sweet potatoes
- Pumpkin
- Spinach
- Cooked greens (such as kale, collards, turnip greens, and beet greens)
- Winter squash
- Tomatoes and tomato sauces
- Red sweet pepper
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| Fruit Group (choose fresh, frozen, canned, or dried) |
- Cantaloupe
- Honeydew melon
- Mangoes
- Prunes or prune juice
- Bananas
- Apricots
- Oranges and orange juice
- Red or pink grapefruit
- Avocado
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| Milk Group |
- Fat-free or low-fat yogurt
- Fat-free milk (skim milk)
- Low-fat milk (1% milk)
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| Meat & Beans Group |
- Cooked dry beans and peas (such as pinto beans, soybeans, white beans, lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas)
- Nuts and seeds (such as sunflower seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, peanuts, and peanut butter)
- Lean beef, lamb, and pork
- Shrimp, clams, oysters, and crab
- Halibut, cod, rainbow trout, herring, sardines, rockfish, and yellowfin tuna
Avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish when you are pregnant or breastfeeding. They contain high levels of mercury (Click here for more information about the safety of eating fish during pregnancy.)
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The foods on this list are the best sources of one or more of the following nutrients: vitamin A, vitamin E, potassium, and iron. Food sources of these nutrients are included because when choosing a typical mix of food choices in each food group, the intake patterns may not meet dietary standards for pregnant and/or breastfeeding women for these nutrients.
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This page was last updated on
September 11, 2008 02:07 PM
