Can Pregnant Women Eat Pineapple?

Can pregnant women eat pineapple safely?

We get it.

The refreshing sweetness.

The juiciness.

The unmistakable summer taste that feels like pure sunshine in a fruit.

Pineapples are some of the tastiest fruits around, and are high in a ton of super-beneficial nutrients for mamas-to-be, including fiber, calcium, Vitamin C, and the all important folic acid.

But there are several stubborn “old wives tales” that seem to re-surface when it comes to pineapple and pregnancy, such as that it induces labor or can possibly cause early miscarriage.

Let’s unpack these rumors and sort the pineapple facts from the fiction.

In this article 📝

Can I eat pineapple while pregnant?

The short answer is yes.

Pineapple is perfectly safe to eat during all stages of pregnancy and in fact, as we mentioned, it’s a great source of many nutrients that you need while growing your little peanut.

The controversy around pineapple during pregnancy arises because it is also a well-known source of a particular enzyme called bromelain.

Bromelain is supposedly dangerous for pregnant women because it is thought that it can cause early contractions — hence the idea that it can induce labor, or possibly even trigger early miscarriages.

But can it really?

Do pineapples induce labor?

Pineapples have never been shown to induce early contractions or labor in pregnant women.

Unfortunately, despite what your great aunt Maude may have told you about her best friend Sally’s daughter’s neighbor, who once ate a pineapple at 40 weeks pregnant and suddenly, boom: her baby was on its way, this doesn’t really count as proper scientific evidence that pineapples can induce labor.

And in fact, scientists haven’t been able to find that much proper evidence to support the idea at all.

While concentrated bromelain as a dietary supplement on its own isn’t advised for pregnant women (it’s a bit of protein-busting enzyme, and we pregnant women need our protein), there simply isn’t enough bromelain in pineapple flesh to have any noticeable effect on you or baba.

You would have to eat a whole lotta pineapple — and we don’t mean the nice juicy bits — to get anywhere near the amount of bromelain to make a difference.

Why sacrifice a few healthy servings of this delicious nutritious fruit when you don’t need to?

We say dive in!

Can I eat too much pineapple while pregnant?

With all our pineapple love, though, there can be such a thing as too much pineapple while pregnant.

While we’re all for you eating decent regular-sized portions of pineapple during your pregnancy, pineapples do contain a lot of acid.

Since heartburn and acid reflux are some of those pesky common symptoms of pregnancy, too much acid is a good thing to avoid, so you might not want to overdo the pineapple chunks for this reason.

Similarly, like other fruits, pineapples are packed with sugars — accounting for that tasty sweetness, of course.

If you’re watching your calories to make sure that you’re only eating the most nutritious and efficient calorie quota you can, then too much pineapple could quickly load you up on sugars that you don’t really need.

This is another sensible reason to limit your pineapple intake.

Get a hit of the vitamins and nutrients you need, but don’t overdo, and you won’t overload on unnecessary sugars and acid.

Some people also experience allergies to pineapple, and if you’re one of them, you might want to limit your pineapple intake for this reason too.

If you don’t know whether you’re allergic to pineapple, it can help to know that it often goes together with other allergies, including latex, pollen, or other fruits.

If you have these allergies, it might be best to proceed with caution before diving into that pineapple smoothie.

For most people though, a healthy serving of pineapple (about one cup-full of pieces or chunks) is a fresh and tasty addition to their diet.

So, what are you waiting for? Enjoy that fresh summer fruitiness!

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