"Are you allowed to eat that?"-weird food advice you've received when pregnant

[ChickenMe]

Hi

I've noticed that people love to tell us pregnant ladies what we can and can't do and no more so than when it comes to my favourite subject, food.

MIL, soon after being told I was expecting, exclaimed in a panic "eggs! You mustnt eat eggs!". Conversely she says it's fine to drink booze "so long as you don't get really drunk". Lol.

Upon mentioning tuna, prawns, fish, seafood in general Ive had "are you allowed that?" from several people. Poor condemned fish!

The funniest one was chatting to a woman at work and she says "grapefruit" in a rather stern way. Apparently it's not allowed.

I find it amusing that the above proscribed foods are all pretty healthy yet no one would blink an eye lid if I were to inhale Haribo or mainline Fanta for nine months (just don't eat eggs).

What ridiculous or hilarious food advice have you received from anxious well wishers?

Literally LOL at 'whole raisin in baby's first nappy'

I have been told off:

-by a random person for eating a blackberry from a hedgerow (it was high up, it wasn't next to a road, it was tasty)

-by my best friend for drinking tonic water ('I've heard you shouldn't have that because of the quinine': after I'd drunk it, prompting an hour of worry before I looked it up in my preggers books and found quinine isn't even indexed)

This is brilliant!!i relayed a story to a work colleague about how my DH had ruined my dinner the precious evening - baked potato with cottage cheese (the only thing I'd been able to stomach enjoy for ages) - by saying 'are you allowed that?'. She then, knowing I had eaten enough of it for 300 hundred people, proceeded to tell me why I should not have eaten it - apparently it damages babies in all sorts if traumatic ways!

moomb your story actually made me feel sick. Being pregnant and hungry is soooooo traumatic! You are my hero!!!

Raspberries? Grapefruit? Nuts (maybe not peanuts I kind of suppose owing to changing guidance)? Eggs? All these things are VERY good for you. People are bonkers!

Also agree, i similarly hate being forced to 'just have one' (alcohol)

I had:
-0% booze free beer because 'why ... can't you go without the taste of beer?' like it was the mark of an unfit mother. Just don't like endless cokes and lemonades.
-stilton (you're allowed it)

• Pork scratchings ?!?!!

-"Deli meat" (America only) meaning any cooked meat at all grrr. -Diet coke

...I almost printed the NHS guide page off and sellotaped it to my face!

When I was pregnant with DD the first MW I saw insisted on reading the NHS list to me (strangely enough I hadn't lost the ability to read with pregnancy and had read it already). When she got to tinned tuna she said:

"It says 'no more than 4 tins of tuna a week' but I think that should be 2". I found that really odd. Who was she to be making up the rules instead of sticking with the ones set by her employer? And on what basis did she conclude that?

haha theres some funny things on here! my SIL in the netherlands was given (and i think followed) official advice to not eat spicy food while breastfeeding - "like onions and leeks". i have no idea how you avoid onions, but my MIL thought it was terrible that my 18 month old niece came with us for a (very mild) curry!

Ruth an NCT person told a member of our group who is punjabi that! The woman was confused and pointed out India is full of Indian babies whose mums eat spicy food and who eat spices themselves when weaned!

Friend: 'Do you want a coffee'
Me: 'Yes please'
Friend: 'Oh but you aren't allowed when you're pregnant are you?'

I wanted to tell him to fuck off. Let me decide!!!! it's not meths!

Sushi. Despite Japan still being a non-extinct country with one of the best health and live birth rates going.

Whilst at work I was addicted to ham and cheese baguettes for lunch. I popped to pret with my workmate and the two South American assistants at the till started whispering to each other whilst I waited to pay.

I asked if everything was ok. The male assistant looked at me and said 'madam we can't sell you this, you shouldn't eat ham in your condition'.

I am (to my own detriment) an overly polite person and started explaining the difference in guidelines in different countries. Explained where he could find the information so that he could be better informed when ladies with round tummies came into pret.

At that point my workmate piped up 'she's not just a f**king host, she can eat what she wants!'

We found another local pret

Lily now I want a ham and cheese Pret baguette - I know the type you mean and they're amazing.

Alas I'm in the provincial sticks these days and there probably isn't a Pret for 35 miles!!!

I went out for a meal the other day. The starter (sharing platter) consisted of Brie, a variety of cured meat including chorizo and Parma ham (drool), pâté, and prawns. Followed by huge bowls of mussels.

I lost count of the amount of times I was told how brave I was for eating two slices of Parma ham and four mussels. I wasn't brave, I was hungry. And it was good.

I was stunned when I first became pregnant at how everyone suddenly thinks they can comment on everything you do and what you eat and drink.

I was told off for drinking one can of Pepsi, stepping one step up a stepladder at work...then again when I said I was unable at 8 months pregnant to carry two heavy suitcases full of paper files and books. At one point the only foods I could keep down were bland foods like mashed potato, custard and sponge cakes, and when a colleague saw me eating trifle he said he was shocked 'to see me eating pudding all the time!'. I said I'd stop if he would clean up the ensuing puke :)

It's actually disgraceful how women turn into public property the minute they become pregnant.

Saf yes it drove me mad how people poked their nose when it was something I could do or eat... but then backed off and said 'you're not ill' when they had something they want you to lift/carry/do for them, lazy so and sos... grrr.

Hummus. Apparently.

Can't work out why at all.

Pink maybe they think it is similar to pate?

The non-liver pate thing is odd. If you can eat the ingredients of smoked mackerel pate, then putting them in a food processor and eating the resultant pate 5 min later can't be bad for you. And how is hummus different to a vegetable pate?

Vegetable pate isn't advised either I dont think?

No it isn't. But why? And how is it different to hummus?

I know someone who came very close to punching a sandwich shop worker in the face when she was told she couldn't have mayonnaise on her egg mayo sandwich

'Twas helmanns, not fresh stuff and she did managed to get it eventually (after painstakingly explaining how pasteurisation works). All she wanted was a sandwich.

Nobody mentioned anything to me about my food choices, or touch my bump I think I have the best fuck off face around I did manage to have pate, soft poached eggs and not-cooked cured meat in one meal though (before I got

I think the non-liver pate thing is to do with the rate of bacteria growth? Same thing as with eating reheated rice - not much of a risk, but when it's bad it's really bad IYSWIM

Ugh. Disappearing text.

Before I got bfp but was a couple of weeks pregnant.

I actually didn't enjoy the meal, didn't know it was the start of morning sickness!

The thing with all deli items, pâtés, cut meats, other delicious things is not the ingredients but the moisture content and the way they are stored. They just have a slighter higher risk of food poisoning.

You must all be very patient.

I've never been pregnant but I have very low tolerance levels shall we say I am a bitch and would probably tell anyone who commented to either not come out with such bollocks to just to fuck off.

My MIL who hates me did me a fried egg whilst everyone else had bacon (I don't eat meat), and insisted it must be very well done. Smh, her one opportunity to do me in and she chickened out. The eggs were from her own hens too, not even laid by lions!

I was eating a dairylea dunker in work (classy) and someone helpfully pointed out that i wasn't allowed soft cheese. I absolutely PMSL.

Im not showing yet, but oh my chirst if people start doing this to me they are going to regret it - Im seething with rage for you ladies!

Im seriously going to carry round my copy of Expecting Better, with post-its on relevant pages to read out if needed!