Eating Well In Pregnancy: The Singapore Version

Your tummy rumbles and you’re looking to quell those hunger pangs. You pick out eggs and some seafood, hoping to whip up something quick. But wait, could some foods be bad for your growing foetus? Can they affect your unborn child’s development?

The lists of what not to eat in pregnancy are long, contradictory and slightly terrifying, and most of them were written for kitchens that look nothing like ours.

So here’s the Singapore version: the things that come up at a hawker centre, in a kopitiam, and at a family dinner.

First, the reassurance. If you ate something on this list last week before you knew, or before you read this, the overwhelming likelihood is that everything is fine. These are risks to reduce over a pregnancy, not emergencies. Nobody needs to go to A&E over a plate of sashimi.

Any of it counts because pregnancy dampens your immune system, so infections that would give you a bad two days can do more harm to a baby.

The local ones nobody warns you about


Food	Why	What to do
Half-boiled eggs with kaya toast	The yolk and white are deliberately runny, not cooked enough to kill salmonella	Ask for them fully cooked, or switch to scrambled or hard-boiled for now. This is the one that catches out almost everyone.
Raw or blanched cockles (hum) in laksa or char kway teow	Barely cooked shellfish brings a real risk of hepatitis A and other infections	Order without hum. Most stalls will do it if you ask.
Sashimi, sushi with raw fish, raw oysters	Raw seafood is a listeria and parasite risk	Cooked sushi and rolls are fine. Avoid the raw ones.
Yusheng at Chinese New Year	Traditionally contains raw fish	Toss it, enjoy the ritual, eat around the fish, or ask for a version without.
Century egg and salted egg	Not cooked in the usual sense; preparation varies	Salted egg cooked into a hot dish is generally fine. Century egg served cold is best skipped.
Cut fruit left sitting out	Listeria grows on pre-cut fruit held at room temperature	Buy it fresh and cold, or cut it yourself.

The usual list of foods to avoid

Unpasteurised milk and soft cheeses: brie, camembert, feta, blue-veined cheeses. Listeria. Hard cheeses and pasteurised soft cheeses are fine, and so is anything cooked until piping hot.
Pâté, including vegetable pâté. Listeria.
Cold deli meats: ham, cold cuts. Heat them through and they’re fine.
Liver and liver products. Not an infection risk. Liver is extremely high in preformed vitamin A, which can cause birth defects. This one surprises people because liver is otherwise an excellent source of iron.
Undercooked meat and eggs generally.
Unpasteurised juice.

Which fish to eat

Fish is good for you and your baby in pregnancy. The advice is about picking the right ones, not avoiding fish.

Aim for one to two servings of low-mercury fish a week. Salmon, sardines, cod, tilapia, prawns and squid are all reasonable choices.

Limit the big predators, which accumulate mercury: shark, swordfish, marlin, king mackerel and tilefish. Batang, the Spanish mackerel in your sliced fish soup, is best kept to about one serving a week, not an everyday fish. Canned tuna is fine in moderation; limit albacore, which is higher in mercury than skipjack.

Kopi, teh and caffeine

You don’t have to give it up. The usual guidance is up to 200mg of caffeine a day, which in practice is about one kopi or teh, or two mugs of instant coffee.

Remember that tea, green tea, cola, chocolate and some soft drinks all contribute. And bear in mind the separate point that tea and coffee interfere with iron absorption. If you’re taking iron, keep it a couple of hours away from your kopi. Our guide to iron deficiency in pregnancy goes into why that matters more here than most places.

Alcohol

No amount has been shown to be safe, and the advice in Singapore and almost everywhere else isn’t to drink at all in pregnancy. If you drank before you knew you were pregnant, which is extremely common, mention it to your doctor, but don’t spend the next six months on it.

What to eat more of

The “avoid” list gets all the attention, and the half that helps more is what to add.

Folic acid, 400mcg daily, ideally from before you conceive through the first twelve weeks. It cuts the risk of neural tube defects by around three quarters, which is the single largest return on anything in this article.
Iron. Around three quarters of pregnant women in Singapore are iron deficient, so this isn’t a theoretical concern. Red meat, dark leafy greens, dhal, tofu, and thoroughly cooked shellfish.
Vitamin C alongside iron-rich meals: a squeeze of lime, tomato, or fruit afterwards. It substantially improves how much iron you absorb from plants.
Calcium: milk, yoghurt, cheese, tofu set with calcium, small fish eaten with bones.
Fluids. Easy to forget in this climate, and dehydration makes almost every pregnancy symptom worse.

Frequently asked questions

Can I eat half-boiled eggs while pregnant?

Not while they’re runny. Half-boiled eggs are deliberately undercooked, so there’s a salmonella risk. Ask for them fully cooked, or have scrambled or hard-boiled instead until after the birth. This is probably the most commonly missed item on any Singapore pregnancy food list.

Can I eat sashimi or sushi when pregnant?

Avoid raw fish, including sashimi, raw sushi and raw oysters, because of listeria and parasite risk. Cooked sushi and rolls are fine. The same applies to yusheng at Chinese New Year, which traditionally contains raw fish. You can still take part, just not eat the fish.

How much coffee can I drink during pregnancy?

Up to about 200mg of caffeine a day, which is roughly one kopi or teh. Tea, green tea, cola and chocolate all count towards it. If you’re also taking iron tablets, keep them about two hours away from tea or coffee, since both interfere with iron absorption.

Which fish should I avoid while pregnant?

Limit the large predatory fish that accumulate mercury: shark, swordfish, marlin, king mackerel and tilefish. Batang, the Spanish mackerel in sliced fish soup, is best kept to around one serving a week. Otherwise eat fish: aim for one to two servings a week of lower-mercury options like salmon, sardines, cod, tilapia, prawns or squid.

Can I eat cockles or hum during pregnancy?

Better not. Cockles in laksa or char kway teow are usually only blanched, not thoroughly cooked, which leaves a real risk of hepatitis A and other infections. Most stalls will leave them out if you ask.

I ate something on this list before I knew I was pregnant. What now?

Almost certainly nothing. These are risks to reduce across a pregnancy, not emergencies, and the overwhelming likelihood is that everything is fine. Mention it at your next appointment if it’s worrying you, and move on.

Why is liver off the list when it’s high in iron?

Because it’s also extremely high in preformed vitamin A, and high vitamin A intake in pregnancy can cause birth defects. A single serving can exceed the safe daily limit. Get your iron from red meat, dark leafy greens, dhal, tofu or thoroughly cooked shellfish instead.

What to remember

Cook your eggs, skip the hum, skip the sashimi, keep it to one kopi, and don’t eat liver. Everything else on the classic list is good to know but comes up less often here.

And spend at least as much attention on what to add: folic acid before and during the first twelve weeks, and iron, which most pregnant women in Singapore are short of.