Foods to avoid?

[NinjaPanda34]

Hi, are capers ok? There's lots of very opposite info out there! Some saying, yes it's fine and then some USofA sites saying it can cause miscarriage! I am planning on cooking them.
Thanks x

Wow interesting! I have NEVER heard anything mentioned about capers being bad before, but was intrigued so did some googling. I saw the same info you must have seen, about them being a kind of old wives tale way of stimulating menstruation etc.
I think if they really did have miscarriage-inducing effects then they would definitely be on the banned foods list, especially when we are generally so over cautious with this kind of thing.
I'm sure a few capers would be absolutely fine! They have such a strong flavour anyway, you cant possibly eat very many of them at once.

I have a theory that you could look up any food in the world on the internet and find someone saying you shouldn't be eating it when pregnant. I just go off the NHS guidance, which I think is strict enough anyway - I'd be living on wholemeal toast and water otherwise!

Eh? I had loads of capers on holiday in Greece! Hope they're ok!

seasaltmill did you eat tatziki and feta whilst in greece too? im going there in 5 weeks and cant find any info on whether stuff is pasteurised or not!

I was in Greece at 17 weeks and ate ALL the tzatziki and all the feta. I assume it was all pasteurised due to the heat out there.

As for capers, I reckon you'd have to eat such a vast amount for them to be in any way harmful, a handful on a salad is going to do fuck all.

Just keep to the NHS guidelines else you'll go mad thinking you can't eat anything. Never heard about capers before, the USA have different guidelines to us. I had capers in a salad I made the other day, was lovely.

No capers cannot cause miscarriage. I'm a bit when the internet churns up rubbish about miscarriage, for me it borderlines victim-blaming (it must have been something she ate... not the sperm/egg not meeting properly or a germ in the air... something she ate. GRRRRR).

The NHS has 2 pages about what to eat/not to eat. This is the most detailed, worth bookmarking! It has lots of real Q&A at the end too. www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/foods-to-avoid-pregnant.aspx#close

Always follow the rules from the government/largest respected medical organisation for the country you are in and ignore others.
With the exception of the litigious, health-as-a-marketplace USA, most countries base their guidelines on factors such as their food production laws, best before dates, weather, typical dietary make-up of population and so forth. They are tailored. So in a country where you don't drink the tapwater there might be different rules about how to wash salad and whether to eat it out, for example.
Unfortunately, on top of those factors, in America companies make a lot of money from selling fear. I remember being in California and sachets of cleaner to get 'chemicals' off fruit and veg being all the rage - scrubbing 'wasn't enough' and the adverts had basically people with cancer claiming their 5 a day (without the expensive product) may have caused them. There are other countries like this too. But that is why the web is risky - you just don't know who to trust.

I ate feta, yoghurt, you name it! It's all pasteurised!

I just had a pizza that I think used capers to make their base :-s really worried now! Such conflictive information!! Too late to ring my midwife :-(

@hannahblack1992 they aren’t on the NHS do not eat list, so don’t worry yourself.

Stick to the NHS list otherwise you’ll drive yourself mad x

Unfortunately I am an over-googler and drive myself mad daily :-( should stop. Think it was just ground capers to add flavour to the base.
Thank you x