Stressed over what I can and can't eat

[Rxchel97]

Hi everyone, I really hope I get some replies on this as I feel so confused. I'm currently only six weeks pregnant with my first baby. (Hopefully all goes well) but I have been googling and searching up every food or drink I eat before consuming it. I have found that the NHS say one thing while other people say another, and women who have been pregnant before such as my mum and nan say ANOTHER thing. It's really starting to stress me out a bit and the idea of going through nine months of this is daunting. Can anyone else who's pregnant or has had children please give me some advice on what the best foods are to eat?

I am petrified of eating the wrong thing and causing serious problems or even miscarriage. As you can tell I am very panicky. Thank you to anyone who replies

Follow the NHS guidelines. There’s very little that is actually harmful, it’s more about minimising the risk of things like listeria.

NHS advice everytime. It is up to date and evidence based

Just read the NHS guidelines and ignore everything else! Things have changed since your mum and nan were pregnant, just smile and nod then eat what you want and feel comfortable with.

Ignore everyone and just follow NHS.

There's not that much really.

As far as I can remember

Soft cheese - unless it's cooked so you can have some baked camembert or melted brie.
Generally just cook meat extra well.
Eggs are lion stamped so fine any way.
Limit caffeine
No alcohol
Wash things like salad extra well if it's been pre packaged.

I just followed the NHS guidance. It changes fairly regularly so things that people have been told even just a few years ago might not be applicable now. The list is surprisingly little...although still managed to contain many of my favourite foods 😂😂😂

Follow the NHS. It's evidence based and relevant to the UK.

If you start googling you'll get all sorts of guidelines from different countries which don't apply here as hygiene standards are different.

If you listen to random people they will likely be out of date or just plain wrong :)

If you want to stick to the current guidelines, go with NHS, if you want to scare yourself silly - listen to everyone!
www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/foods-to-avoid-pregnant/

Generally, the risk is from toxoplasmosis. It changes a lot - for example in my last pregnancy the guidance said to avoid all runny eggs, but now guidance has said runny eggs are fine if British Lion stamped. Try not to worry too much and aside from caffine/alcohol, try to apply the logic 'is this likely to give me food poisoning'.

Basically, NHS guidelines say to avoid:
-Unpasteurised milk and cheese made from it
-Mould ripened cheese (brie, camembert) or soft blue cheese (gorgonzola) BUT cooked they are fine
-Cold cured meats (salami, chorizo) BUT cooked they are fine
-Raw meats
-Liver
-Pate
-Game meats
-Runny eggs if the egg isn't lion marked (lion marked are fine to have runny)
-Limit oily fish

• Avoid swordfish, marlin, shark and raw shellfish

Remember your mum would have been pregnant in the 80s/90s and your nan maybe the 60s or 70s?

Of course research has moved on since then. They will likely come out with all kinds of out of date advice about babies, try to remember it's just reminiscion and nostalgia for them, and not necessarily relevant to raising a baby now. Practice your nod and smile or "The midwife says to do it this way".

Also, as with most things pregnancy / baby/ child related, you'll find everyone has an opinion.
I remember in my last pregnancy the Christmas meal organiser took it upon the self to change the starter I had selected and told me on the day "oh yes I changed it, you can't have camembert when you're pregnant". Yes I can, it's cooked. I double checked and rang the restaurant before I selected it. So, thanks for that.

Follow the NHS guidelines, but try not to get too stressed about it all.

Of course it’s worth following the guidelines to be safe, but in reality it’s very very unlikely you would get ill from eating the banned foods.

You can eat most things, just avoid high risk foods like raw fish, unpasteurised products alcohol and caffeine. The nhs list is your best guide.

Definitely ignore everyone else and use the nhs guide.

Follow the NHS one.

Just follow the NHS guidelines - there is very little that is risky to eat and for most things the risks are small. Btw you can eat raw fish if it is previously frozen - restaurant and ready made shop bought sushi is previously frozen so ok.

The NHS guidelines like others have said, should tell you everything you need to know. Food standards change all the time and it's likely that things would have been different in your mum's or nan's days.

I think the most important ones to avoid are alcohol and caffeine, everything else is minimising the risk of bacteria in food which is quite a small likelihood anyway.