Super Foods + Smart Advice = The Best Prenatal Diet

Chicken + Yogurt + Nuts = Cell Growth and Repair

Protein-rich foods are vital for your tissue growth as well as your baby’s. “Protein intake during pregnancy needs to meet the requirement for growth of the placenta, breasts, uterus and the mother’s expanded blood volume,” says Mark Dykowski, M.D., an OB- GYN at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. And protein helps repair the cells that are stressed by the changes brought on by pregnancy.

MORE PROTEIN SOURCES: Beans; eggs; low-mercury fish; lean cuts of beef, pork and lamb; seafood; dairy foods; peanut butter.