Choose and goal for a nutritious healthy snack!
Knowing how to choose a healthy snack is important for pregnant moms. A nutrient-packed snack can complement your small appetite and replenish your extra nutritional needs when you experienced nausea, vomiting or stomach fullness. If you gain too much weight, you should choose a healthy snack to replace snack with high fat or sugar content in order to limit the calories intake.
Examples of nutrient-packed snack:
- Steamed sweet potato or corn (suggested serving: 2 to 3 sweet potatoes of a size like chicken egg or 1/2 bowl of corn kernels)
Sweet potato and corn are rich in fibre, which increase satiety and relieve constipation. They contain different phytochemicals, for example, orange or yellow sweet potato contains beta-carotene; corn contains zeaxanthin; purple potato contains anthocyanidin. There are some evidences that they are good for health.
- Wholemeal bread or multi-grain bread (suggested serving: 1 slice)
Whole grains are rich in vitamin Bs, fibre and iron. If you prefer sweet taste, you can add banana, strawberries or blueberries as sandwich filling. You can also serve with some protein-rich filling, such as low-fat cheese or egg. Low fat cheese is rich in calcium, while eggs provide you some extra iodine, iron and vitamin D, which are all nutrients needed to support baby's development.
- Low sugar breakfast cereals (suggested serving: 1/2 bowl)
Most breakfast cereals are fortified with folic acid, iron, calcium and various vitamins. Choose the products with lower sugar levels. Those made with whole grains contains more dietary fibre. Breakfast cereal is crunchy. You can boost the calcium intake by serving the breakfast cereal with low fat milk, calcium-fortified soy milk or low fat yoghurt.
- Assorted fruits (suggested serving: 1 fruit of a size of a lady's fist or 1/2 bowl)
Fruits are rich in dietary fibre that help relieve constipation. Orange or yellow fruits, such as cantaloupe, mango, papaya, etc. are rich in beta-carotene and lycopene. Vitamin C rich foods, such as kiwi fruits, strawberries, citrus fruits like oranges or pomelo, helps our body to absorb iron. All fruits are rich in potassium which stabilises blood pressure.
- Plain roasted nuts (suggested serving: 1 heaped tablespoon)
Nuts are rich in iron, calcium, zinc, vitamin E, protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids. With their crunchy texture, you can choose nuts to replace biscuits or chips. Control the portion size as it is easy to overeat.
- Tofu pudding (suggested serving: 1 bowl)
Traditional tofu pudding is set with gypsum powder and therefore is rich in calcium. You can serve tofu pudding with some fruits to give a sweet taste instead of adding lots of sugars.
- Boiled egg (suggested serving: 1 piece)
Egg is rich in protein, iron, iodine, vitamin A and D. Boiled egg has less fat than scrambled or fried ones to help us control energy intake.
- Boiled edamame (suggested serving: 6-8 tablespoons)
Besides edamame, you can choose dried beans in soup, like black eye beans, lentils as snack. They are rich in protein, iron, folate and dietary fibre.
- Low fat/skimmed milk or milk alternatives (suggested serving: 1 cup)
Milk is rich in calcium, which helps to strengthen our bones and teeth. It also contains protein, iodine, vitamin B2 and B12. If you cannot drink milk, you can choose low- fat cheese, low-fat yoghurt or calcium-fortified low sugar soy milk as alternatives to replenish calcium.