You can eat papaya while pregnant, but you’ll want to make sure it’s ripe and has yellow skin.

Diet and nutrition are important when you’re pregnant. Throughout their pregnancy, women are given recommendations of foods to eat while pregnant and foods to avoid.

Although fruit is part of a balanced diet, certain fruits, including papaya, that pregnant people are told to avoid include:

  • Grapes. There are various opinions about grapes and pregnancy based on the resveratrol in grapes and the difficulty digesting grape skins.
  • Pineapple. There’s an opinion that pineapple may cause miscarriage, but this isn’t backed by scientific evidence.

Yes and no. There’s confusion around eating papaya while pregnant because ripe papaya is suitable for pregnant people, while unripe papaya isn’t.

Ripe papaya (yellow skin)

Ripe papaya is a natural and healthy source of:

Unripe papaya (green skin)

Unripe papaya is a rich source of:

The type of latex in unripe papaya should be avoided when pregnant because:

  • It might trigger marked uterine contractions, leading to early labor.
  • It contains papain which your body may mistake for the prostaglandins sometimes used to induce labor. It may also weaken vital membranes that support the fetus.
  • It is a common allergen that could trigger a dangerous reaction.

Although ripe papaya can be a beneficial part of nutrition while pregnant, unripe papaya can be very dangerous.

You may continue to eat ripe papaya throughout your pregnancy. However, you may decide to eliminate all papaya from your diet until after they give birth, as there are many other sources of nutrition to enjoy safely during pregnancy.