50+ Healthy Pregnancy Snacks

Eating well during pregnancy can be SO daunting for so many reasons, but this list of healthy pregnancy snacks will help you nourish your body… even when you don’t feel your best. With homemade and store-bought options!

Healthy Pregnancy Snacks

One of the hardest things for so many women to handle during pregnancy is figuring out how to feel their best with the increased demands on their body. For me, this was particularly true in my most recent third pregnancy when nausea stayed with me for nearly the entire duration of growing the baby.

Food wasn’t always appealing, but not eating made me feel worse. These healthy pregnancy snacks were the foods that I turned to again and again.

It can help to eat smaller meals and snacks throughout the day to avoid a completely empty stomach, which can make nausea worse.

(You may also like my Pregnancy Smoothie and satisfying Yogurt Muffins.)

Good Foods for Pregnancy

The answer to this may depend on which trimester that you’re in and which symptoms in particular are causing you trouble, if any! Just like when you’re not expecting, we want to eat a range of healthy foods during pregnancy including:

• Whole Grains: for long lasting energy and fiber.
• Healthy Fats: to help stabilize blood sugar and provide energy.
• Protein: to ensure your body has the fuel it needs to grow another person.
• Produce: for vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, and hydration.
• Fiber: to help keep things moving along the digestive tract (which has a tendency to slow down during pregnancy).
• Water: to help you feel your best, stay hydrated, and avoid constipation.
• Iron: to help avoid iron deficiency known as anemia, which can cause fatigue and complications for the baby.

TIP: It’s important to eat all of these foods throughout the day, especially protein and fat, to help keep energy levels balanced. (And it can also reduce nausea.)

Healthy Snacks for the First Trimester

During the first trimester of pregnancy, eating well can seem like climbing a mountain, what with all of the morning sickness! Here are some of my favorite bland snacks for the first trimester that still provide some nutrition.

And while I know that carbs are often the only thing that’s appealing, adding in a little protein and/or fat can help you feel a little better between meals. Do the best you can on any given day!

1. Whole grain cereal with nondairy milk (banana optional!)
2. Whole grain toast with scrambled eggs or hard-boiled eggs
3. Whole grain toast with nut butter or cottage cheese
4. Whole grain toast with butter
5. Whole grain crackers with nut butter and jam
6. Pretzels with nut butter or cheese
7. Plainer flavors of Larabar like Cashew Cookie or Apple Pie
8. Dry whole grain cereal (like Kashi Heart to Heart)
9. Bean and cheese burritos
10. Bagel and cream cheese
11. Pasta with butter and Parmesan
12. Chia pudding with granola (find the recipe at the bottom of this post)
13. Avocado toast
14. Simple granola bars
15. Healthy Breakfast Bar

How to Choose Healthy Snacks for Pregnancy Cravings

I know that often times when a pregnancy craving strikes, you really just need to eat that food or no food at all! So I’m not going to tell you to ignore your cravings (ha! Like you could anyway!), but here are some suggestions on how to make sure that it’s not all French fries, all the time.

• Add a side salad or side of fruit to fried foods.
• Choose a whole grain version of a food for more fiber.
• Indulge in the food you really want, but pay attention while eating it so you can stop when you’re full and eat as much as you really need. (It’s totally okay to eat the food you really want.)
• Think about why you might want that food. I know that I often wanted Pad Thai just because it sounded better than anything else, but it’s also possible that you’re seeking comfort because you’re tired or anxious. Just pay attention to potential underlying feelings so you can deal with them too—and enjoy your food.
• When possible, try to add in a beneficial fat (such as avocado, nut butter, dairy, or eggs) to help give you more energy than just carbs.
• Be sure to drink a lot of water!

TIP: It can help to try to remember that you won’t feel awful forever, and that you won’t be eating in such a potentially odd way forever either.

Pregnancy Snacks to Buy

I highly recommend keeping some healthy store-bought pregnancy snacks on hand to help you through each day and night—and to fuel you when you get starving and are out and about.

These are some of my favorites (that are also great to help cope with breastfeeding hunger too!).

1. Kind Protein Bars (I love the Dark Chocolate flavor)
2. RX Bar Vanilla Almond Butter packets
3. PB&J Larabars
4. Kashi Heart to Heart cereal (pair with salted almonds or milk for more protein)
5. Mesa Sunrise cereal
6. Peanut Butter Pretzels
7. Beanitos Nacho Cheese Chips
8. Whole grain bagels with butter or cream cheese
9. Pita bread with nut butter or hummus
10. Pretzels and nut butter
11. Cheese sticks
12. Drinkable yogurt or kefir
13. Whole milk yogurt (the fat will help you stay fuller a little longer) with some granola
14. Roasted chickpeas
15. Low Salt Triscuits
16. Whole Grain Cheese Crackers
17. Coconut Date Rolls
18. Van’s Ancient Grain Waffles
19. Bananas
20. Dried fruit such as apricots

TIP: Don’t feel badly if your craving shift from week to week—that is normal as you progress through pregnancy!

Heartburn-Inducing Foods to Avoid in Pregnancy

If you’re like me and experience heartburn during pregnancy, know that I feel your pain! I’d never had it in my life and I was so unprepared for how unappealing it made so many foods. I learned that not only are foods I expected to be acidic, there are many I didn’t realize would be. Here’s what I tried to avoid to help keep heartburn at bay:

• Coffee
• Tea
• Citrus
• Kiwi
• Tomatoes
• Bananas
• Milk
• Yogurt
• Kefir
• Oats
• Bread

TIP: Talk to your doctor about heartburn relief for medication options that are safe for pregnancy as needed.

Healthy Pregnancy Snacks with Lower Heartburn Risk

Here are some snacks I turned to during the second and third trimesters to help me avoid too much heartburn. Each person is unique, so you may need to have some trial and error as you figure out what works best for you to keep it at bay.

1. Pretzels
2. Apples
3. Dried apples
4. Apple Chips
5. Blueberries
6. Freeze-Dried Blueberries
7. Pears
8. Applesauce
9. Simple Blueberry Smoothies
10. Whole grain crackers and nut butter
11. PB&J Bites
12. Spoonfuls of cashew butter or almond butter
13. Pesto pasta
14. Hard-cooked eggs
15. Bland hummus with carrot sticks or cucumber slices

TIP: Carbonated water can exacerbate heartburn too, so avoid it if it seems to be making things works.

Homemade Pregnancy Snacks

These are some of my go-to pregnancy snacks to make at home. Each is easy and nutritious. And they’re all great to share with other kids you have at home.

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Smoothies

Favorite Pregnancy Smoothie

I’d love to know what your go-to pregnancy foods are, so please chime in below in the comments!

This post was first published December 2019.