Neurotic about food I've eaten-please help restore my sanity!

[Cesca1983]

i am 12 weeks pg and had a M&S roast chicken and yogurt sandwich a couple of weeks ago and have been a bit worried that it is an off limits food during pregnancy. Scared now about listeria etc. then last night had some ravioli with prosciutto in it and I'm making myself feel like I'm doomed, even though it was boiled for 3 mins. Don't know what's wrong with my rational mind! Or should I be worried?
Have had headaches and cold since last week and am convincing myself these could be listeria symptoms.

Can anyone offer any advice?

Don't worry! Prepared food from m&s will be grand. mayo is only dodgy if made with raw eggs. I've eaten cooked prosciutto all the way through - on top of pizza etc - and it's fine!

Yoghurt is also fine as long as its pasteurised which all supermarket brands are

I wouldn't be at all worried about eating either of those things. Sounds like you are a bit anxious though (which I can relate to) - maybe just stick to buying straightforward/plain things to eat from now on, you don't want to be stressed every time you eat!

Headaches are really common in early pg btw... and I had a permanent cold early on - immune system lower. xx

All yoghurt is pasteurised. You can't make it without first boiling it to destroy the bad bugs. You then add the special yoghurt yeasts.
All supermarkets use pasteurised eggs in their mayo
If youve cooked things then they will be fine. It only takes 15 secs at 72 deg C to destroy nasty food bugs. That is the time the product is at this temp not the time you need to cook it

As above, those will be absolutely fine. However, I completely forgot I was pregnant and licked the cake mix from the bowl yesterday! Raw egg anyone? No point worrying at this point though, thats what I keep telling myself...

Op I remember being overwhelmed by worries about dangerous things in pregnancy when I finally got pg with dc1 after several years of trying. By dc3 I was much more chilled out about blue cheese and shellfish. Most of the things that are off limits according to British advice are part of a normal diet in France and pregnant women keep eating them. You'll be fine. Good luck with motherhood.

Have a really good look at the NHS guidance. It changes regularly, so rely on that rather than friends.

The foods you've eaten need cause no worry though! You can set your mind at ease by being really familiar with the guidelines. It gets easier I promise!

That sounds fine. You know you're okay to eat sushi now, provided the fish was frozen first?

Unwashed salad is more of a listeria risk than most things.

If you'd had listeria you'd know about it. It's like full on flu and you'd be very ill.

Ah the great egg debate. I eat runny yolks and licked the cake bowl today. All British lion eggs come from vaccinated hens. Research found no salmonella in these eggs! But each to their own :)

Wow, am I in trouble?!

I've eaten raw/runny eggs, bagged salad, goats' cheese...basically everything I'm not supposed to, all the way through so far. Last night I had a slightly rare steak.

It's all about calculated risk.

It's DC3. Maybe that explains it...

Thank you for all your replies - very reassuring. It is the cold roast chicken that concerned me most. Not the yogurt, completely fine on that one, and the pasta I think is just because I have already let my mind drift over the edge on the meat thing so pretty irrational. But the cold chicken in sandwich genuinely concerns me. As it says chilled meat is a listeria risk. This is my second pg and up until the sandwich felt really relaxed. Then because I've had the cold but with lots of aches and pains and swollen glands I'm thinking is this the listeria symptoms? Then to top it off baby hardly moved a muscle at 12 week scan this week.
I know this is supposed to be totally normal but somehow I have put all these things together and scared myself.

There was an interesting article in the Times on Saturday about an economist in America who, upon becomming pregnant, actually looked at the statistics behind the 'warning lists'.

I can't remmeber the exact numbers, but she looked for example at the listeria risk, and found that 20% of cases in the US were associated with a speicfic cheese, so she avoided that. But only very few were associated with cold cuts, which would increase her risk of listeria from 1 in 8000 (of example) to 1 in 7990 - so she kept eating ham. I can't link to the article, as it's behind a pay wall, but worth digging out if you can find it.

She also looked at the risks associated with caffeine and alcohol, and found that often the statistics were clouded by other things (for exmaple 45% of those who stated they had drunk during pregnancy, also admited to taking coke, so perhaps it was the drug rather than the booze which caused any problems - or at least not clear cut).

A very long winded way to say you'll be fine with the chicken!

Jeezus. Cold roast chicken from M&S??? Surely that isn't on any of the nhS lists??

I'm 39 weeks and have been relatively pragmatic with food. I've had cooked goats cheese, some raw egg (semifreddo), and some quite rare steak.

When I was in France I got some weird looks for askin if a dressing had egg in it.

Goats cheese without the rind is fine - cooked or uncooked!