Is pate a no no all the way through pregnancy or just the beginning bit??

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

I am overdue and DYING for some pate.....!!!

I think its a no-no all the way through due to the levels of vitamin A... just hold on in there for a little while longer till baby is out and you'll be able to gorge yourself on it!

(Or, try some veggie pate but never the same IMO)

Poo.
Thank you though!

I though veggie pate was out too?

I know that it is not recommended. But I like the european view of pregnancy. A tiny bit won't hurt. I had a glass or two of wine. And some camenbert, twice. And I think I ate stilton, once. And I had pate once.
I am not recommending this to anyone specifically. I am just saying that I didn't stop eating anything.

write a shopping list of treats to be brought to you in hospital the day after giving birth
I had

• salami
• serrano ham
• pate
• epoisse
• gorgonzola

followed by chocolate mousse made with raw egg mmm might start writing mine again even though am only 16 weeks.

Both pregnancies I got to 6 months and had a dirty evening with crackers, french bread, stinky cheese and pate.

I'd probably do it again, but you're so close to giving birth you can wait an extra few days?

What about smoked salmon pate?

Or that Shiphams stuff in a jar?

Pate why? I am pregnant and eat Pate alot.

What is wrong with it?

High risk of listeria Flum, due to the way it's produced.

If you buy pasteurised stuff in a tin/jar it's supposed to be okay, though no idea how good it would taste then!

Flum - supposedly listeria risk (yes like pasteurised cheeses with mould on according to my GP) I think the anxiety caused by the complicated restrictions she gave me are probably at least as harmful as the foods I was told to avoid.

Also vitamin A - would love to know how much of it is in pate. I have a vague memory that lots of other foods are rich in vitamin A, like carrotts, eggs, spinach...

Surely a small amount of pate won't do any harm?

in my opinion a little wont hurt, think back to the old days when they didnt have all this "scientific info crap" people carried on as normal and had perfectly healthy babys just dont go eating a ton of the stuff lol

a small amount of pate that gives you Listeria will do harm.

as far as Vitamin A is concerned, it is the liver-based pates that are the problem.

Upwind = carrots and spinach etc. don't contain vitamin A, they contain carotene, a pro-vitamin A, which is 6 times less strong than vitamin A. So you would need to eat an awful lot of carrots etc. to achieve dangerous levels of carotene/vitamin A.
Eggs do contain vitamin A but not anywhere near as much as liver.

Oh Listeria is incredibly rare, I do not know anyone who has ever had it. I will continue to risk it.

Thanks Thumbwitch - is it possible to quantify the risk of listeria infection from eating pate? And the actual level of vitamin A compared to, say, eggs?

From what I've read most cases of listeria seem to come from things we are not told to avoid like lettuce! I am very sceptical about the reccomendations I was given because there does not seem to be any real scientific basis for them. I would love to have been handed a leaflet that actually explained the risks of different foods.

that is a great idea to have a hamper of all bits you can now eat once you have had the baby. ask dh\dp to bring in a selection of pates and toast when you have given birth.
i really miss pate too i luv brussels

Thumbwicth, but even with Liverpate, they do say, this one that is from the deli counter...... that one that has been prepared in this way, has more/less risk than deli one, don't they ?
A very carefully chosen one may have less risks.

But then you could buy a tescos, chicken sandwich and get a very mild form of food poisoning. That happened to me. And it was confirmed, becasue I still had half a chicken sandwich left that was sent to the lab and confirmed.
Fortunatley I was not pregnant at the time. But I could have been.

The thing about Listeria is that it is a very dangerous organism to unborn babies, which is why people go overboard in terms of prevention.
It isn't that rare, but if food is kept refrigerated properly it is unlikely to cause a problem. Listeria is unusual in that it happily grows at a temp range of 4-10 deg C, which means that cook-chill foods and foods that you don't cook (such as lettuce) are all potential carriers. Washing your lettuce should reduce the risk of catching Listeria from it.

If your pate is fresh, has been kept properly refrigerated etc., it is unlikely to be a problem - but there is that tiny risk. same with raw eggs.

Upwind - here are some contents of Vitamin A in certain foods (micrograms/100g food)
Halibut liver oil 900,000
Cod liver oil 18,000
Lamb?s liver 30,500
Sardines (canned) 7
Butter 1,000
Eggs boiled 190
Cheddar cheese 363
Whole milk 100ml 30
Fortified margarine 33

lamb's liver will be generally representative of liver, although not accurately - however, you can see that it is a couple of orders of magnitude higher in vitamin A than eggs.

Thanks Thumbwitch - interesting that butter is so high, I eat quite a lot of it.

In the advice I was given washing salad carefully was never mentioned. This thread has definitely made me more aware and I will be more careful about food preparation in the future.

Thankyouandgoodnight, if you can be bothered (which if you are overdue you might not be TBH!)...

You could make a very easy and yummy smoked kipper pate like this one uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/516302. I usually make the one from the Delia Complete Cookery Course but can't find the book at the moment. This one is v similar. I have eaten this during pregnancy but would probably only keep for a day or two rather than a week just to be on the safe side (maybe make 1/2 quantity)...

Thanks everyone. I had completely forgotten about all the other non-liver pate's out there, so thank you!!!!

too much vit a is poisonous as it is too much for the babies body to cope with or something like that!

Oops, ate quite a lot of it whilst on holiday in France. And had a small glass of wine every day (has anyone seen those new warning signs on French bottles of wine, quite surprising for the French I thought?) And some brie. I'm quite a believer in your body instinctively knowing what is right or wrong for you. I mean, what did people do before all these warnings came along?

But I thought you were meant to eat lots of cod liver oil-rich foods? And even take the capsules?? Not that I am pg yet.... Just overly interested and desperate!