Foods you can't eat while pregnant?

[hwillm1977]

Okay, so I'm pregnant... about two months now... and was recently reading online that I can't eat anything unpasteurized for the next 8ish months... including soft cheeses... really?

I figured I would ask here, where people regularly eat/drink unpasteurized milk/cheese/etc.... is it really unsafe?

What about honey?

I LOVE feta cheese, and I can't imagine not eating it.

 

[patandchickens]

"Can't" is probably not the right term.

"Are advised to avoid" would be closer to accurate.

The problem with soft cheeses made from unpasteurized milk, is that they sometimes carry Listeria. You are more likely to get listeriosis when pregnant than when nonpregnant, and if you *do* get it, it can cause serious illness to you and/or loss of the pregnancy. (The other foods that carry a higher-than-average risk of listeriosis are uncooked deli sliced meat, uncooked hotdogs/sausages, uncooked smoked seafood, and that sort of thing).

You have to decide how this general issue maps onto YOUR life in particular, in terms of your personal feelings about risks and consequences, same as anything else in life.

Personally, I did not eat deli sliced meats or anything from a 'sub shop' during my pregnancies -- which was not hard as i hardly ever eat that sort of thing ANYhow -- and avoided unpasteurized soft cheeses as well, because the only ones I had access to were mass-industrially-produced ones that IMO are at nontrivial risk of carrying Listeria. OTOH I did not stop gardening (toxoplasmosis risk!! [I figured I probalby already had immunity]), and if I had had my own milk animal then I would probably have it *tested* for Bad Things and exercise heightened hygeine, but quite likely would've drank its milk or eaten its raw-milk cheeses.

It's a personal thing, though. Don't let people from EITHER extreme boss you around; research each topic and decide what YOU THINK you should do

(e.t.a. - no problem at all with raw honey. It is only *infants* who are at risk of botulism from it, not mommies with not-yet-infants still in their tummies )

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[old fashioned]

I've not heard of that so & btw--CONGRATS TO YOU!

My personal thought on this.......pregger women have survived a millenia before Louis Pasteure(sp) ever discovered the process. Same for honey!

I just wonder why these become new problems with old stuff? And my first thought would be that somehow those same foods may "react" with the chemicals now used for treating cheese & honey & whatever else is now "bad" for you that never was before.
I hun, but best of luck to ya!

 

[Dace]

4 full term pregnancies here and I never heard a warning about lunch meat!

I knew nothing about raw dairy, so that wasn't a choice I had to make...I always drank what the local grocery sold.

Be careful of seafood, do some reading, certain fish contain a lot of mercury.

Oh, by the way....CONGRATS!!

 

[dragonlaurel]

Congrats!

 

[murphysranch]

Congratulations!

I loved being pregnant, both times. No problems, no worries. Loved to eat. And I didn't know about deli meats, esp since I was the Dir of Purchasing for a nationwide sub shop chain. I certainly ate my fill over those years with nary an issue.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Yes, congrats! And I loved being pregnant too.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I didn't know about the cheese and honey thing. So I ate what I could keep down.
I did make DH clean the cat litter box.
I stayed away from licorice, fennel, anise and pennyroyal as they can cause abortion according to my herbals.
The rest of the foods I stayed away from were because they either gave me a serious case of gas, made me vomit or gave me heartburn.

Congratulations!

 

[sufficientforme]

I never gave up honey, (raw filtered) I eat it daily. Mostly they worry with certain fish which can have mercury and raw dairy is something I would probably avoid just to be "safe" I loved being pregnant, so jealous!

 

[abifae]

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