French cheese and paracetamol

[helgaw99]

Hi all,

2 very quick questions.

1. I go to France on holiday with a bunch of foodies. Is there any french cheese I am allowed to eat- ie pasteurized ones or hard ones? The thought of spending a week watching others guzzle brie and red wine makes me upset, so if I can join in a little bit I will be very happy!

2. I have a really bad shoulder at the moment which is taking forever to heal as the osteopath is been ultra gentle. It is keeping me awake at night and making me miserable. Am I really ok to take paracetamol? I also have amatriptyline (sp) from previous injury- no chance I can take that is there?

Thanks
Hx

You can take paracetamol (no idea about amatriptyline).

You can eat pasteurised hard cheese, any cooked cheese, and it's up to you if you want to eat pasteurised soft cheese or not - there is a food poisoning risk, although it's much higher with salad (but still very low).

I think you can have all hard cheeses, because they will have been pasteurized; I would stay away from most soft cheeses, although ones that you are sure have been pasteurised (boursin eg) shouldn't be a problem.

I think paracetamol is fine, but can you just call your MW/clinic to check just in case? Sure there will be loads of people on here that will know though!!!

sorry - should have clarified, it's not that salad is a risk as such, but the main food poisoning concern in pregnancy is listeria. Listeriosis has been found on unwashed vegetables including bagged salads. If you wash tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce etc/take normal hygiene precautions you should be fine.

Personally I'd eat brie, but you've got to decide what level of risk is acceptable for you. There is no way of cutting out all risk, just reducing it (and as I said, it's a very small risk in any case).

I usually take amitriptyline but was advised not to in pregnancy. I know you can take it sometimes (it's not contraindicted) but you would need to check with your doctor for that. Paracematol is totally fine when pregnant.

Helga I'm in the same position as you, off to France in 2 weeks and I love the food but will have to restrict somewhat! I'll be 19wks.

I will stay completely off the pate, brie and don't like camembert unless it's cooked in breadcrumbs and served with jam in which case I can have it! The only thing I love is chevre but cannot find out if it is pasteurised or not or if it is mould ripended like brie. My gut feeling is that it will be ok, might just leave the rind. Will also wash all fruit and veg.

Also half a glass of wine once or twice will not do any harm either

You can't have chevre unfortunately :(

You supposed to avoid (1) unpasteurised cheese and (2) cheese with a mould rind (eg Brie, chevre). Both have a risk of listeria.

Most hard cheeses will be fine though. And there will be some soft cheeses which are ok too - check the label.

Personally, I stuck to hard, pasteurised cheeses when in France, but I did discover some delicious ones! If you ask at the cheese counter in the hypermarket there are some hard(ish) goats cheeses which are fine and are delicious used instead of chevre in cooking. Also lots of yummy sheeps milk hard cheeses (brebis). There is also a mature gouda you can get from the fridge cabinet which is amazing. They were my faves that got me through the holiday anyway

Another thing to watch out for in France if you're being careful is that salad dressing in restaurants often has raw egg yolk in it. The risk in that case is salmonella rather than listeriosis, so not as worrying, but worth knowing!

The main thing is to stick to pasteurised cheeses.

Don't assume all hard cheeses are fine -- I think Comte is often not pasteurised, for example.

I was pregnant in France and found that nearly every cheese at the supermarket was pasteurised, including a range of chevre. Where you need to be more careful is eating cheese from farmers markets -- most of these will not be pasteurised. And obviously at restaurants, as you can't be sure where they got the cheese from.

I was so sick then that the only thing I could eat was goats cheese and bread. Try not to worry too much and enjoy your trip!

ps you can have a sneaky little glass of bordeaux sometimes too

I was told by the doctor paracetamol is fine :) but Ibruprofen is NOT (I know you did not mention that one but I thought I would just repeat what the doctor said)

The chance of getting listeria is generally low but can lead to birth defects/spontaneous abortion (see this)

I guess it depends on the risk that you are happy with - cheeses in France are lovely but even the French must have some pasturised cheese? Probably not at markets though. An speaking as someone who has (guiltily) eaten sausage and cheese from local markets in Italy when pregnant - didn't really enjoy them, was being stubborn at the time.