Craziest food you have been told to avoid...?!

[TopTrump]

My friend works in a cafe where a pregnant woman came in and asked for an egg and cress sandwich, but with no cress (you thought I was going to say no egg, right?) - because pregnant women are not allowed to eat shoots and sprouting things!
I can't find any mention of this on the FSA or NHS websites, and being pregnant myself I'm paranoid enough to check this out!
Not that cress is a major part of my diet, but anyone else ever heard this, or anything else similarly bonkers?

Perhaps I could stretch the 'no cress' rule to include all fruit and vegetables so I could live on my preferred diet of chocolate and ice cream!

on a previous thread someone mentioned no beansprouts - perhaps connected???

Oh no, not another food to avoid! Is it just us Brits that worry about this stuff, or is it everywhere? Whenever I mention the soft cheese rule, people always say 'well I bet French women still eat Brie', like I'm being mega-over-cautious!

I went to my brothers for dinner last week and he phoned me because his girlfriend was worried I couldn't eat the baked cheesecake she was making. I said if it was baked I'm sure it's fine but asked what cheese it was anyway and his reply was Philadelphia . So others can be more cautious than the pregnant person!

Never heard of not eating cress or bean sprouts, if its not in the guidelines I'm sure its fine.

Hi all - I asked about beansprouts a while ago on another thread!

I live in Belgium and I can assure you that in Belgium/France the doctors are even stricter than in the UK (although the women don't always take the advice).

I looked at the US and Australian guidelines and they are waaaayyyy more strict than in the UK and they do mention beansprouts, cress, ham (yes ham - they type you put on sandwiches!!!!) and any food from a sandwich shop, pasty shop, BBQ etc!!!!!!!

This just confirms my suspicion that we're all safest just eating chocolate.

I had a colleague who wouldn't eat Philadelphia when pregnant...

I was told by a bloke the other day that i shouldn't eat nuts - of any kind...

I told him that he was wrong and could bugger off

Am also always surprised at the number of people that go on about parma ham and deli meats - the FSA guidlines say they are ok - and that is good enough for me!

TopTrump, didn't you know you really shouldn't eat chocolate while pregnant?!?!?

Snap to the nuts and also baked cheesecake.

Also everyone seems shocked that I eat prawns (cooked obviously)and shop brought mayo

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course, chocolate is a bean and so could be categorised like bean-sprouts. How stupid of me!

Seriously though, I am looking forward to being able to go out for a meal and choose WHATEVER I WANT off the menu without having my choices scrutinised by all and sundry (MIL, I'm looking at you)

[goes off to look for Chinese takeaway menu for tonight's meal]

I ate everything banned during my pregnancy from foie gras to banned cheeses. I am now playing with my very healthy and extremely alert 7 week old daughter.

The nutritional guidelines are just another way of frightening pregnant women imho and several of them are based on very out of date research or hardly any research at all. Others are misleading - for example the last outbreak of listeriosis in the UK was from lettuce. We aren't told to avoid that.

I asked the doc about beansprouts as I thought I had read something about it in between my pgs, she specialises in the antenatal care in our practice and seems well read and she said she couldn't see any reason why they would be a problem.

As I was about to tuck into a ham sandwich, a colleague tried to stop me! Apparently as I didn't butcher the pig, cure the meat, and cook the ham myself I should not be eating it.

But honestly, what working pregnant woman has time to prepare all her food from scratch?

I thought American women were limiting chocolate because of the caffeine?

I'm jealous of all of you eating chocolate! It's usually my most favourite thing in the world but in my last pregnancy and this one it makes me sick in first trimester and then just don't fancy it at all.

And it's easter, just not fair!!

Fibilou - you speak the truth!!!

All this food-related stuff is NONSENSE and designed to scare us all witless... I have the excellent book 'No Panic Pregnancy' (it's actually an American book - what are the odds?) and it sets out FACTS and FIGURES so you can make an educated decision on your own (like: Listeria affects 20 people in the US per annum (on average, obviously) - out of a country of 292 million, I'm prepared to risk the odd piece of Brie....)

He's also probably the only American doctor in the world now who will go on record saying you can have the odd glass of wine

cinnnamon - the same happened to me, with the chocolate. First half of pregnancy I couldn't eat or drink chocolate, just the thought made me feel sick. But then it quickly turned around and the last few weeks I've had to have a piece of chocolate or choccy biscuit every day! ;)

I had a colleague who refused to eat prepared salads from Marks and Spencer!
Personally, I didn't exclude anything from my diet during either of my pregnancies, I ate many different cheeses, smoked salmon and even liver on a couple of occassions with absolutely no problems.

The only thing I've been told to avoid is liver. Mw said everything else is 'fair game' in moderation.

My lovely GP and bunch of sensible midwives jsut said avoid liver and anything dodgy that might give you food poisoning, eg unwashed salads, rice etc that's sat out, stuff not reheated thoroughly. GP said the baby would be fine if I got salmonella but I'd feel even more crap and they wouldn't be able to give me any of the good drugs!

I think I had someone at work tell me I shouldn't be drinking coffee but I pointed out it was the only thing keeping me awake and at all productive and they shut up...

My mum had liver and bacon at least once a week to keep her iron levels up, and ate a tub of peanut butter everyday (was her craving) when pregnant with me. I'm alright(ish) I am pg with dc2 and happily have a glass of wine or a beer once to twice a week. I even had a bag of peanut M&M's last week

TBH, i think you have a much higher risk of something happening by having high amounts of sugar, fat, caffeine everyday than the odd bit of cheese or ham.

What's the view on shop bought Coleslaw? I love the stuff but am not sure I should be eating it.

agreed alice - high fat/high sugar is much more problematic than half the stuff they tell you to avoid. our mothers generation were actually told to eat liver to keep iron levels up - never mind all this vitimin A business!
(massively craving pate right now!)

I once went to a dinner party where I was not allowed:

• parma ham (my favourite and usual pregnancy craving. Obviously they didn't realise how dangerous it is to come between a pregnant woman and her dinner.)
• prawns

-scallops

But I was given unpasteurised cheese.

Can someone tell me why the prohibition on eggs that are not cooked to death? The Food Standards Agency forbids them, but aren't UK chickens vaccinated against salmonella?

Pineapple.
My father in law is Indian and gave my husband strict instructions to not let me eat any pineapple.
I love pineapple so I was a bit miffed. I asked the midwife about it and she said they sometimes tell women at the end of pregnancy to eat pineapple to bring on labour. Father in law might have a point.