Foods you should and shouldn't eat

[RollitInGlitter]

Hello ladies,
Yesterday somebody told me I shouldn’t be eating peanuts during pregnancy because it will give my baby a peanut allergy. I did some googling and it says I’m fine to eat peanuts unless I’m allergic, which I’m not. So peanut butter for me!
It got me thinking about the other stuff people say you can and can’t eat when you’re pregnant. What other things have you all been told you should/shouldn’t eat while we’re pregnant that have turned out to be rubbish advice?

To be honest and I’m probably not the only one I have everything in moderation. Like we aren’t allowed alcohol or pate but in reality the odd glass of wine or tiny bit of pate isn’t going to harm is it. I take all the guidelines with a pinch of salt

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/foods-to-avoid-pregnant/

Seafood. I see/hear so many comments about "are prawns/mussels ok". The NHS advice is pretty clear that cooked seafood is fine. Also stuff like mcflurrys etc.
(I am also a fan of everything in moderation!)

Ha that's funny I've heard the exact opposite advice. To eat lots of nuts to ensure baby doesn't develop an allergy. I don't believe either!

They say you shouldn't eat soft cheese or rare steak. I think on occasions it's fine. I don't eat steak every day (maybe a couple times a year when my DH wants to cook it) I'm not going to turn one down just because I'm pregnant!

Same for wine. The odd glass every few weeks cannot harm the baby. There is no evidence for this. Foetal alcohol syndrome didn't arise from a rare drink.

It sounds like I'm ranting at you! Sorry o don't mean to ha ha.
Enjoy your pregnancy

I eat anything and everything 🐷

Runny egg yolk.

I avoided it for the first half and missed my dippy eggs like crazy before I researched more and realise if anything it's runny whites that potentially cause food poisoning although still extremely unlikely.

From then on I had boiled eggs as often as I could!

Another one here for everything in moderation! Including pate, liver and wine

It's important to understand the risk of each item. For example, rare steak poses a risk of toxoplasmosis. Very rare but with potentially devastating consequences so I avoided it. Alcohol in small amounts - no evidence to show harm to foetus therefore I drank occasionally. Soft cheese and listeria - as for steak, not worth the risk for me.

There are very few things you can't eat and the NHS website offers good advice.

Advice changes over time so that’s why you can hear contradictory things. The peanut thing changed a few years ago so my work friend was telling me not to eat nuts because that was the advice when she had her children 16 years ago, but now the advice is the opposite. Same with runny eggs - that’s fairly recent that they’ve said they’re ok.

Avoid unpasteurised cheeses, soft cheeses and pate as these can contain Listeria, which is dangerous in pregnancy. Alcohol can cause fetal alcohol syndrome in excess, but we have no data on what it does in moderation. However as it is a metabolic poison, I would suggest it’s best avoided altogether - why would you want to expose your precious baby’s developing and vulnerable brain cells to a poison?
Raw egg used to be a risk for Salmonella - this is less common in British chicken flocks these days, but again, why risk it when you can eat plenty of other things instead?
Peanuts are an interesting one - for years it was advised to avoid them to reduce risk of allergy in the baby, only to discover this actually increased the risk! So yes, full steam ahead with the peanut butter...!
The only other definite dietary advice is to get plenty of folate before conceiving and during the first trimester, to reduce the risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida and anencephaly.
Go for a good balanced diet with plenty of vegetables and protein, and don’t “eat for two”. You need very few extra calories in pregnancy.
Good luck, and I hope all goes well!

You can eat soft cheeses and cold cured meats if you cook them too

And yet toddler dribble is never mentioned as potentially being a source of CMV infection - causes more disability than listeria

But people are warned to avoid soft cheese etc

You can't avoid every risk. What will be will be.

I’m another one for mostly anything in moderation! I didn’t really drink before pregnancy so that side of things hasn’t bothered me at all and I haven’t drunk any alcohol at all. I did however have to stop smoking.

However, some of the foods I found too tough to resist! Particularly sushi and goats cheese. Regulations/guidelines tend to be different in different parts of the world and after spending most of the first trimester craving my favourite foods and not having them, my mum’s advice was ‘eat whatever you want in moderation. They didn’t even tell us not to smoke or drink, and you were fine!’ - after that I have been eating a bit of sushi (apparently it’s a legal requirement that all sushi is frozen before a restaurant can serve it in the UK) and a few steaks that weren’t well done... tho they were much more done than I’d usually have them... I think it’s totally up to you how strict you want to be, all you can do is be aware of the risks and make judgement calls.

My midwife told me peanuts were ok as long as there's no peanut allergy in your family. I've gone on the advice I was given on do's/dont's because after two miscarriages I didn't want to take the risk.

I have informed my husband though that when I come out of hospital the first meal I want is a pink steak with stilton sauce and a glass of red wine!

I got told to be careful of undercooked/rare meat, runny eggs (this has now changed if they have the lion stamp and are in date they should be fine), ice cream from a van, pate, sea food, cured meat, salad bars, fruit and veg that may not have been washed properly, also to limit caffeine. According to my doctor is it mainly to avoid food poisoning.

I believed the no runny eggs thing as my sister couldn't eat them when she was pregnant 10 years ago. Had a total panic when I ate runny fried eggs till I found out the guidance had changed! Mayonnaise was another my mum nearly had a fit about me eating till I told er shop bought stuff is ok too now and it's only homemade you can't eat.

Missing Parma ham, Brie/Camembert and red wine at the Italian though!! 😔