Did you eat ‘forbidden foods’ in pregnancy?

[Wouldloveanother]

After 2 weeks of horrendous morning (all day) sickness and accompanying gastro problems, I NEEDED a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich. Bought one from Tesco, it went down a treat, currently smacking my lips and feeling better than I have for a day or two.

But… the NHS website says to be ‘careful’ with smoked salmon. Surely Tesco sandwiches are pretty safe? Have I committed a pregnancy crime?

Although the milk, non game meats and cheeses could also be cooked and would then be ok to eat

Game meat is not considered ok because of the lead pellets that shoot them.

It’s mad really, because the ‘banned’ foods hold so much more nutritional value than the beige rubbish that we know to be ‘safe’.

I didn't. But my mother was very confused when I told her how dangerous too much vitamin a can be. Apparently the advice 30 years ago was to eat lots of liver 😮

There are very few foods you should avoid. The rest you can cook to make safer. Stop being dramatic

And why have you given up exercise? You are pregnant not ill

That's why I said non game meats

There’s loads of things to eat, apart from the few items mentioned. I was happy to live without them during pregnancy.
It’s like when folk wonder what on Earth vegans / veggies eat. Um, everything else that isn’t meat or fish, obviously!

You can avoid risks that are easy to avoid though.

It's up to the individual, obviously, but I would not find it particularly hard to avoid smoked salmon for 9 months (as much as I love it). There are plenty of delicious foods that you CAN eat in pregnancy.

I had haggis about 6 weeks pregnant not realising it had liver in it, have been fine and just know to avoid it now.

There is such a small amount of foods on the banned list

You're being dramatic

I didn't alter my caffeine intake, I drink tea and diet coke usually 2-6 cups of tea abd one can of coke. I believe that caffeine can cause low birth weight, both my babies were over 9lb so not a worry I personally had.

I accidentally drank a whole carton of raw milk milkshake. Didn't realise it wasn't pasteurised. All was ok!

Not really. Not saying I’ll be repeating my salmon decadence this afternoon, but most British food is so stodgy and lacking in nutritional value.

My GP recommended Guinness. He also recommended drinking a glass of red while I gave my first her evening breast feed. Something to do with me being relaxed and that helping with the colic as well as giving me some iron. And that was in the mid '80s. And in case you're wondering, no, he wasn't old. Maybe in his late 30s at the time.

@locke360

like what ?

Not all haggis contains liver

@Wouldloveanother

why have you given up exercise Op?

If the risk was to me, I'd weigh up the risk and possibly take it; I don't really feel right in risking the health of another person.

I’ve given up my yoga classes. The teacher would always ask if anyone was injured or pregnant so assumed it wasn’t safe to continue. Still doing cardio type stuff but I love yoga.

In yoga they will give alternative options so you arent doing certain exercises so I don't know why you didn't just speak to the instructor rather than giving it up

I continued to go running throughout my
pregnancy

some people didn’t approve of this

no idea why

@Wouldloveanother

They'd be asking to make sure the moves are ok for pregnant women

There are some positions you shouldn't do whilst pregnant

Why some people don't bother to look into things is quite confusing

Because I didn’t want her shouting across the room in front of people I know ‘Wouldlove don’t do this one okay, do the easy one’ and everyone working out why.

I’ll take up pregnancy yoga at 12 weeks so only a few weeks to go.

Plus ive been too sick to turn myself upside down etc, could’ve ended very badly…

I craved sushi in all my pregnancies apart from this one, looked up the risks and as all UK sushi has been flash-frozen it's no more risky than any other food.

Also ate pasteurised brie.

Listeria mainly pops up in things like vegetables and bagged salad, which we're not told to avoid in this country, and the risk is tiny anyway, so don't pay much attention.

I try to avoid/limit caffeine because I'm prone to anaemia and don't want to stress baby out.

I didn't drink in any of my pregnancies because 1. I didn't want to - went off it completely, and was never a big drinker in the first place, and 2. there was no health benefit, unlike with things like cheese and sushi.

@LuckySantangelo35

Are you honestly saying you can't think of any tasty foods outside of this very small list of unsafe ones:

Unpasteurised milk
Unpasteurised cheese
Mould ripened cheese
Raw meat
Liver
Pate
Game
Duck, goose and quail eggs
Smoked fish
Swordfish
Shark
Raw shellfish