Can I eat Eggs?

Eggs are safe and nutritious during pregnancy when fully cooked. They provide choline (critical for fetal brain development), protein, and vitamin D. Both the yolk and white must be firm — avoid sunny-side-up, soft-boiled, or raw eggs.

A "Use Caution" rating means this food is generally fine during pregnancy but comes with a specific factor worth managing — a daily limit, a preparation requirement, or a moderation guideline — rather than a reason to avoid it outright. These ratings reflect general guidance from the FDA, ACOG, CDC, and USDA. The goal of the "caution" label is to flag what to pay attention to, not to suggest the food is unsafe when that factor is properly managed.

Cook until both yolk and white are firm. Hard-boiled, scrambled, and well-done omelets are all safe. Avoid runny yolks.

Whole grains, legumes, and nuts are generally excellent, safe choices during pregnancy — good sources of fiber, folate, and protein. Current AAP and ACOG guidance no longer recommends avoiding peanuts or tree nuts to try to prevent childhood allergies; in fact, eating them during pregnancy (unless you have a personal nut allergy) is considered fine. The one clear caution in this category is raw or uncooked flour and dough — raw flour has been linked to E. coli outbreaks and raw egg in dough carries Salmonella risk, so cookie dough, cake batter, and similar raw mixtures should be baked before eating. Fiber from this category also supports digestion, which can help with the constipation that's common during pregnancy, making whole grains, legumes, and nuts a genuinely useful staple rather than just a neutral choice.

The caution around this food applies consistently across all three trimesters — there isn’t a specific window during pregnancy where it becomes more or less risky. The safest approach is moderation and attention to preparation or portion size throughout, rather than avoiding it in some trimesters and not others. If you’re managing a related condition, such as gestational diabetes or high blood pressure, ask your provider whether they’d recommend a stricter limit than the general guidance described here.

Beyond food-specific guidance, a few baseline food-handling habits reduce risk across everything you eat during pregnancy. These come from general FDA and USDA food-safety guidance rather than being specific to any one food, and they apply the same way in every trimester: