Blue cheese… salami…. Pate…

[Todaysthedayhey]

Hi
advice needed
I’m craving all the things they tell you not to have!!
esp blue cheese. And we have some sitting in the fridge because my husband obviously forgot it’s a no-go for me lol (wanted a cheeseboard for guests coming over)

is there real risks with this? I’m 16w now.. I don’t want to do anything to risk the pregnancy but I’m wondering what the deal is with food and pregnancy.

barely eating full meals because I’m just struggling to - unlike me. Usually have a great appetite.

all comments welcome just want a little education that’s all.
when I was about 4weeks pregnant I actually ate a lot of blue cheese on a cheeseboard and had no idea!!! (Didn’t find out until a week or so later)

same goes for salami meats, pate, smoked salmon, steaks medium rare… gosh.. 😫

I’d eat all of that (and do) and I’m 18 weeks pregnant, with the exception of pate. With the others, as far as I understand it the main risk is listeria / food poisoning, which is extremely unlikely. With the pate it’s the high vit a content which can cause issues hence why that’s the only food I’ll really avoid whilst pregnant.

at the end of the day though it’s personal choice.

You can eat the cheeses if they're cooked anyway so can you just stick some on a pizza or in a pasta sauce or something? Though I think the risks are pretty low in general (for cheese, pate and things I'd be more cautious about)

I’m sure you can eat hard blue cheese even without cooking it first!

Pate is advised against because of high vitamin a so definitely avoid that, the others because of listeria and toxoplasmosis risk, which is a very small risk but still a risk. So depends if you want to take that risk or not, personally I didn’t as if something happened i wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself but we are all different.

As an aside, you can eat Stilton without cooking it when pregnant. You can also eat other blue and soft cheeses if cooked, so you could do a few baked cheeses with bread to dip in.

Thank u! Helpful 😊

I’ll have to check what blue cheese it is we have!
I genuinely thought all blue cheeses were out!
and I’m definitely prefer them uncooked.

sushi is the other one!!
My baby also wants alcohol!! Which I definitely won’t be having but I am finding it so wild all these weird cravings.

You can eat sushi.

Check if it’s made with pasteurised milk - if so it is lower risk. I’d been having cheeses and cured meats but only cooked. But the risk is so low anyway. Honestly I’d be more cautious of a supermarket sandwich at the moment, in the news there’s been e-coli found in them.

You can have stilton! Something about hard and soft edges on blue cheese 😂 enjoy - I also love a cheese board

I looked at this when I was pregnant last year: turns out there's loads of data on vitamin a in pregnancy because there are large parts of the world where people are given vitamin a supplements because there's not enough in their diets.

Turns out the risk with vitamin a is only in the first 12 weeks, and the lowest dose of vitamin a that is associated with any increase at all in fetal abnormalities is equivalent to eating a kilo of Brussels pate a day every day for those 12 weeks. Once I worked that out I was quite happy to eat the pate too!

Edit: spelling

I've eaten steak rare this pregnancy on more than one occasion. I'm usually risk adverse, but I've been craving it so much.

The risk of getting something from salads & unwashed fruit is much higher than it is from Salami in a country with EU food regulations.
I have been eating salami and I’m all fine.
I have not touched paté, because of the vitamin A.

You can eat hard cheeses even if unpasteurised as they have a low moisture content. Soft mould ripened and blue cheese can be eaten if heated first. Pate has vitamin A and should be avoided. Cured meats can be heated before eating to make them safer.

It's currently advised to heat sushi due to listeria issues with smoked fish currently.

Thanks so much everyone!! I treated myself to some salami and Stilton yesterday!

There are some decent vegan alternatives out there if you fancy trying those. Usually made of soya, wheat gluten, or pea protein. Unfortunately no decent replacement for cheese yet though

A friend was told by a doctor to mainly take the listeria based advice seriously. Your immunity is lower during pregnancy to prevent your immune system attacking the baby as a foreign object (that's what morning sickness is) so even though it's a low chance, it's higher during pregnancy iyswim.

And I know someone who got toxoplasmosis in pregnancy and the baby was affected. Not fun.

I'd have the odd third of a glass of something alcoholic. Non alcoholic beers have also come on a huge amount, when I was pregnant seven years ago it was all Becks blue that tasted like arse, now I can't always tell something's alcohol free.

The risks are real but they are small. I have a friend who lost a baby at 20 weeks after a bout of food poisoning eating a food she should have avoided - but know hundreds of women who ate all these foods and were fine. Is the reward worth the small risk? Up to you. But there’s some good advice here to minimise risk and satisfy those cravings.

No @Baklavamama its never worth the risk. I know as I’ve had losses myself
but I’ve asked for education because I see so much conflicting information I never know what’s right or wrong with pregnancy diets!