Missing cheese, wine and Baileys!

[MsHedgehog]

With it being the Christmas season, anyone missing the staple Christmas foods - lots of cheeses, wine and of course hot chocolate Baileys?!

I'm not much of a drinker usually anyway, but I feel like I'm missing out! Just pleased that there are no Christmas parties I'm missing out on!

The NHS only say you can't have rare steak doesn't it? Medium is ok - doesnt have to be well done. I hope anyway as I had a Medium steak yday - eek

@lucywho123 the advice on the NHS website is: you can eat ‘meats such as chicken, pork and beef, as long as they're well-cooked with no trace of pink or blood; be especially careful with poultry, pork, sausages and burgers’

If you had it yesterday I’m sure you are absolutely fine! The chances of getting food poisoning from all of the things we are avoiding is so so tiny (I’ve never had it before on my life) but there is a heightened risk so I do tend to avoid anyway. It’s all about making your own risk decisions!

Agree its all about informed personal choice with these things. My understanding re alcohol is that they can't accurately quantify the safe alcohol limits and so on a precautionary basis advise against all alcohol. So in reality some very occasional small amounts are probably fine. I poured myself a quarter glass the other day as I was having major beverage envy, but ended up not even finishing it! Think it was that nhs advice bleating in the back of my head that put me off, even though my logic tells me its fine...if anyone can recommend some decent non-alcoholic (or very low alcohol e.g. 0'5%) wines then let me know!! No way I'm sipping on water with my turkey...would at least like to pretend I'm on the booze

Re cheeses, I'm satisfying cravings for those cheeses that are off limits by having them in cooked format e.g. baked camembert, or goats cheese risotto (mixed in well before the end of cooking so its piping hot). Same re chorizo, having it in stews, on pizzas etc instead of cold in sandwiches...

Thanks @Trousersareoverrated - in my head I thought as long as I don't go medium rare it's ok. I know its all mainly advisory but I've stuck to most of the advice up until now

I'll be eating Baked Brie and Baked Camembert over Christmas aswell to have a bit of normality as thats allowed obvs. I really am gutted that Pate is off limits though, my fave thing to gorge on over Xmas

I think regarding drink, that the advice errs on the side of caution. I have taught two children with foetal alcohol syndrome and bless them, these children were so damaged 😥 - but in both cases their mothers had drunk the equivalent of a bottle of vodka a day. It was extreme drinking throughout the pregnancy. I’m sure a small amount does not have much effect, but who wants to take that risk? We don’t know day by day which part of our baby is developing.
I personally have found that I can’t stomach any alcohol during pregnancy. It’s my body’s way of self regulating - it knows me too well!

I really recommend the book "expecting better" by Emily Oster. it goes heavily into the statistics behind all the advice. I found it very comforting to be able to make my own decisions based on the risks.

Yes... thanks for the reminder. I have that book, I really must read it!