I want Brie and pate .......

[LoveBeingAbleToNamechange]

Just got back from waitrose and couldn't help but stand at the Brie and pate and imagine I was eating them. Very rare for it to bother me but today, [stamps foot] I want it

you only want it because you can't have it
how about going for a nice ice cream, or something yummy on toast, it'll make you forget about brie and pate.... hopefully... :o

Well get some pasteurised Brie and cut the rind off, or get some pate not made liver

None tbh I am stuffed as had steak AND ribs for lunch followed by ice cream

I just want it

I want pate too. So much. Coarse liver pate, none of your mushroom pate crap. Spread really thickly on hot toast. Mmmmmm.... only 7 months to go...

I want them on crusty bread, with a side of prawns and mussels

I'd like a nice dunky egg with soldiers. And yes I know it's probably ok with vaccinated hens etc yada yada, but I just couldn't enjoy it properly knowing there was technically a risk.

Well, cheap brie is usually pasteurised isn't it? If you were in Waitrose you were probably staring at the upmarket Brie de Meaux which isn't, but if you're desperate!

And I find pork rillette (also at Waitrose!) fulfils the same role as pate VERY satisfactorily!

The mussels though...well I want them too. I bet the vacuum packed ones have had any poss lurgies heat-treated right out of them.

Coffee, Pate, Brie, Runny eggs, smoking, red wine.....I am always curious as to what pregnant French women survive on...

Christmas without peanuts made me totally farking miserable. Never realised I actually ate that many...must just stuff them in my face like a zombie.

Crab pate? Mackerel Pate? Mushroom Pate?

When I was pregnant with DS1, DH and I went out for our anniversary and I unthinkingly ordered an amazing roquefort salad for my starter. When it arrived, I realised my mistake and had to watch DH eat it while I had his boring soup instead

Actually i don't know why i'm asking which pate you fancy, you're not allowed any are you?

Binfull, my midwife said that shrinkwrapped pate is fine, as long as it's not liver pate, and as long as you scoff it asap after opening.

It's the stuff that has been festering on a deli counter for several days that might make you ill.

I didn't even LIKE brie or prawns - until I was pregnant with DD. Then they were all I wanted.

Binfull, good question about French women, is anyone a member of 'La mumsnet'?

Bah! I'm enjoying runny eggs almost daily, and have done my entire adult life. I LOVE eggs, and have never had food poisoning - not even when my mum brought salmonella home to keep in the fridge.

(She is a microbiologist, and it was a research thing!)

I come from a country, like France, where such foods are fine to eat in pregnancy. All my friends back home happily ate what they wanted and have healthy babies.
I ate pate and pasturized brie while pregnant....

Honestly? I say eat the damn stuff and enjoy it. My own personal view is that life is full of risks and that as sensible women we should be able to take our own decisions on which ones to take. At 36 weeks, I have continued to enjoy runny eggs and brie and pretty much whatever else I've wanted to eat. My view is that I'm more at 'risk' of injury every time I get in my car and drive to work than from dunking my soldiers in my eggs for breakfast.

ooh ladies, sorry to disappoint, but French women are even hotter on 'forbidden' foods in france compared to us English...

Spend alot of time in France & had several friends who have been preg there....you're practically scorned in public if you're seen to drink alcohol when preg, smelly cheese & pate a big no no, and they're OBSESSIVE about toxoplasmosis & rare/cured meats - you get blood tested for it every month in France.

In general (& I hope I dont offend any french women reading this post), the French are obsessive about their health so take all the food rules when preg very seriously.

I type this whilst staying in France at 22wks preg....so far have had to watch hubby eat rare steak, eat gorgeous gooey cheese & drink gallons of wine. All I get it well cooked omlette & chips....:(

Sigh...not 'that' long to go....

eat some bloody brie then, as people say, most of the commercially bought stuff is pasteurised anyway. the chances of catching listeria are far higher from things like salad bars and deli counters where food sits around in humid environments (hint: go into a laboratory and observe and compare the conditions used to culture bacteria) which for some reason i've never heard anyone moan on about. id also recommend a glass of wine with the brie.

wonders if today's bad mood means she shouldn't post on here... oh to hell with it!

Yes - icravecheese - you are completely right, French women are much more self controlled strict with themselves when they are pregnant. NO 'forbidden' foods. A bit like the stereotypical reputation of French women and their beauty regimes ie they follow better routines and use better products. They seem to be much more disciplined (in general) than us English women.

Yes, crossing the road is a risk, as is eating a runny egg/pate/brie. But if I did fall ill due to eating said egg/pate/brie and damage my baby I think I might regret not having a little self restraint in the food department. If I got run over, I don't think I would realistically be thinking "oh gosh, I wish I had stayed in the house for the full nine months of my pregnancy". Hence why I (and the OP from the sounds of it) am trying to take a sensible approach to what I eat during pregnancy.

AFAIK the lists of 'forbidden foods' is actually a list we are given as 'advisable to avoid'. So you can eat what you like but this constant "I ate nothing but brie on runny eggs with a side of pate and my kids are alright" is getting on my nerves. Someone in the 'powers that be' has researched and believes there are avoidable risks associated with these things. Imagine if they didn't tell us and loads of babies died from runny egg syndrome (sorry to be facitious) then we would all be in absolute horror that the Govt had kept this info secret from us. And if it is incorrect and false information... well I don't think avoiding a few food products and alcohol for 9 measly months will do me any harm either

And FWIW my mum ate liver and drank wine when she was pregnant with my brother and he has a whole heap of personality issues. So there, let that balance the anecdotal 'evidence'!!

phew, sorry about that ladies. That has been building up inside me for a few "I want to eat everything/drink the whole lot" threads. I think I should maybe contemplate going back to bed...

Oh, shush, you people! It's making me hungry...

plupervert Well you can have some dried toast and nothing else!!

Fuck knows how we survived as a species before we were told not to eat X,Y,Z.

I pigged out on pate, brie, prawns...in fact anything I fancied...I just made sure it was fresh and hadn't been left out overnight. Anyway, as people have already said, so much stuff is pasteurised you're more likely to catch something nasty from a healthy salad.

Binful, your post has made me curious - why no peanuts?

PS French women also avoid salad stuff from restaurants (ie where they haven't washed it themselves). I suspect more and more British women will do the same now...

And yes, we did survive as a species before these lists came out, but general medial advancements mean that the infant mortality rate is 1/3 of what it was 30 years ago. Obviously this isn't just down to what we eat, but I feel really fortunate to live in a world where things are so advanced (and presumably the next generation will benefit even further from subsequent medical discoveries).