To ensure you get all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals you need, before your pregnancy, you should include foods from all five food groups in your daily diet. Remember to eat a variety of foods from each food group to ensure you get all the nutrients provided by the foods in that food group.

The five groups are:

Foods in this group come from grains like wheat, oats, rice, rye, barley, millet and corn. The foods in this group provide carbohydrates, protein, fibre and a wide variety of vitamins and minerals including folate, thiamin (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin and iron. When choosing breads, cereals, rice, pasta and noodles try to choose the high fibre varieties.

Vegetables and legumes are a good source of vitamins, minerals, fibre and carbohydrate. Ensure you eat a variety of vegetables everyday. Don’t forget if you are short on time you can use frozen and canned vegetables as alternatives to fresh vegetables but choose those with no added salt.

Fruit is a good source of vitamins, including vitamin c and folate. Fruit also provides carbohydrate and fibre, especially in the edible skins. Fruit juice belongs in this group, but juices have a much lower fibre content than fresh fruit. Eat a variety of fruit each week, and for convenience try canned fruit (in natural juice or without added sugar) or dried fruits.

The foods in this group are an excellent source of calcium; very few foods in our diet contain as much calcium as milk, yoghurt and hard cheeses. These foods are also good sources of protein, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin B12. To avoid including too much fat in your diet choose the low fat varieties of milk, cheese and yoghurt.

There is a wide variety of foods in this group. It consists of meat (e.g. beef, lamb and pork), poultry (e.g. chicken, turkey and duck), fish (canned or fresh fish), eggs, nuts and nut pastes such as peanut butter, legumes and some seeds (e.g. sunflower and sesame seeds). These foods are a good source of protein, iron, niacin and vitamin B12. Remember to trim fat from meat and skin from poultry before cooking.

There are some foods that do not fit into the above five food groups. These are not essential to the diet and usually contain too much added fat, salt and sugars. However they can add to the enjoyment of eating a healthy diet as long as they are eaten in moderation. These foods include biscuits, desserts, soft drinks, chips, lollies and chocolate etc.