Pregnancy Nausea and Eating Well

Pregnancy Nausea and Eating Well: Foods to Make You Less Nauseous and Nourish You and Your Baby.

By: Morgan Stout

Congratulations! You are pregnant! Almost immediately following that positive pregnancy test, you probably started to feel nauseous and generally pretty tired. For many pregnant people, that first trimester is the hardest part of pregnancy. You are trying to navigate food, both from what you can eat and what your body lets you eat and somehow stay hydrated too. Today I am going to share some tips for managing nausea, fitting in foods that are good for you and your baby, and what to do if cooking makes you nauseous.

There are a few things that experts have found that can help with nausea and hydration.

·      Drink ice water. Ice water can help release chemicals in your brain that can help manage nausea.1

·      Add lemon, lemonade powders, or other flavors add ins to help change the taste of the water.

·      Drink your water through a straw.

Experts have also found that ginger, lemon, and spearmint specifically can help with mild to moderate nausea.2 You can try chewing candied ginger or sucking some lemon or mint flavored drops. There is also research that Vitamin B6 can be helpful for managing nausea, especially when it lasts for a long time.2 Talk to your health care provider before taking any vitamins or supplements.

Eating well during the first trimester can also help manage your nausea, but eating well can also be hard when nothing sounds good or you don’t feel well. Our tip here is to add nourishing foods to what you ARE able to eat.

·      Add fruit to cereal, yogurt or cottage cheese for breakfast.

·      Add veggies to pasta sauce.

·      Carry nuts with you as a snack.

·      Top an apple with peanut or nut butter.

·      Buy a veggie tray from the store to have a quick and healthy snack ready to go.

·      Try whole grain crackers if you wake up not feeling well.

Adding more fruits and veggies throughout the day can make you feel better and add to your daily fiber.3 You can add nourishing foods anything that sounds good.

If you find that cooking makes you nauseous, ask for help in preparing or cooking food from the people in your life. There are also some restaurants that have something called a “family meal.” That family meal might help ease some of the work to prepare food.

Finally, if there are times where you are less nauseous, use those times to prepare food for when you do not feel your best. You can also use those less nauseous times to eat nourishing foods that just don’t sound good at other times.

I hope this helps you navigate the wonderful and hard time of your first trimester!

About the Author: Morgan Stout is a graduate student in the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department at Colorado State University, studying to be a registered dietician. She is also a mom to a wild little toddler and is passionate about evidence based, but also realistic nutrition information.

References:

1. Juartika W. The effect of drinking cold water on nausea and vomiting among patient with post-chemotherapy breast cancer. The Journal of Palembang Nursing Studies. 2022;1(3):74-85. doi:10.55048/jpns.v1i3.15

2. Khorasani F, Aryan H, Sobhi A, et al. A systematic review of the efficacy of alternative medicine in the treatment of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 2020;40(1):10-19. doi:10.1080/01443615.2019.1587392

3. Anderson JW, Baird P, Davis RH Jr, et al. Health benefits of dietary fiber. Nutrition Reviews. 2009;67(4):188-205. doi:10.1111/j.1753-4887.2009.00189.x