Once you get through the first weeks of pregnancy — especially if morning sickness has you existing on ginger ale and saltine crackers — ramping up your second trimester nutrition is probably top priority. After all, you want to ensure your baby arrives strong, healthy, and ready to take on the world. These guidelines will help you know what to add to your diet — and what you should avoid — when it comes to second trimester nutrition for you and your baby.
Pregnancy nutrition: Foods to include in your diet
Second trimester: Foods to avoid during pregnancy
Some may be surprised to learn that there are foods that cause miscarriage in the second semester. Raw or undercooked fish and eggs, as well as the aforementioned mercury-laden fish such as shark, king mackerel, and swordfish, should be avoided. These foods can potentially cause listeria, a disease-causing bacteria linked to miscarriage. Unpasteurized dairy products and soft cheeses like feta, Brie, and blue cheese, and organ meats like liver should also be avoided for similar reasons.
So, is it safe to have a glass of wine to go with the foods you can eat? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no known safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy; it too should be avoided at all costs. But, your doctor may be of a different opinion.
“In general, I tell people to abstain in the first trimester, which is when the organs are forming, but in the second and third trimester, one normal size glass of wine a week is not going to destroy the baby,” Keith Eddleman, MD told Elle.
While Eddleman says he understands why the CDC and The American Academy of Pediatrics caution pregnant people against drinking alcohol, he also acknowledges that there’s no data indicating one glass of alcohol per week is harmful.
“They don’t say that, because the safest thing is just not to drink, and some people can’t drink just one,” the director of obstetrics at Mount Sinai Health reasoned. “But when I’m sitting with a patient, and they say drinking is something they enjoy and they’re going to their niece’s Bar Mitzvah or confirmation and want to have a glass of champagne, you shouldn’t beat yourself up over that.”
