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

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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!

Well a nurse I am in contact with wanted to hold a breastfeeding talk about what foods to avoid when breastfeeding. Star of the show...swordfish. Now I can accept that maybe it's not a good idea, but how many times in a lifetime do most people eat swordfish? Does it really warrant a 'talk'?

oh and onions apparently
maybe everyone who's pg and/or bf should just live in a bubble & be fed vitamins through a slot

SPB Well speaking for myself of course, I get through 1-2kg a day of swordfish & shark!

onions??? why??

I eat whatever I want tbh. No alcohol, but that's cos I don't drink normally. And cut down on caffine - but that's cos of my anxiety not pregnancy.

Every country has it's own rules nad it constantly changes anyway so I figured it was all bollocks.

I have a healthy disregard for the pregnancy food rules. I consider myself capable of looking at the risks and making my own decisions.

My mum always tells me to be careful of pears when bf and my MIL is anti-onion when bf. And garlic. She made us lots of meals for the freezer when dd was born except they were all mince based and there was no salt/stock cubes because of ds and of course since I bf she hadn't put onion or garlic in. Not the tastiest of meals then!

skihorse- I was just answering a previous question that the reason you aren't supposed to have homemade mayo is because of raw eggs.

My understanding is the lion eggs are salmonella free but I still don't eat soft ones while pregnant as that's what's recommended.

onions? garlic? pears? why is that?

This whole food business is v interesting - food guidelines are supposed to be helpful and when you look at the NHS guidelines they are pretty simple, but everyone feels entitled to tell pregnant women what to do!

I am avoiding rindy and blue cheeses, and oysters/ raw seafood, and cutting back on caffiene. I've also been a bit more careful about food poisoning - washing veg properly and avoiding something if it looks dodgy - I know I should probably do that anyway but never seem to get food poisoning normally. Have found it no great hardship to remove liver and swordfish from my diet. I do miss wine though, might have to sneak some of that back in (I'm 8 weeks tomorrow) ...

I comfort myself with the fact that my mum was 10 weeks pg before she knew, and ate all sorts of things, lived life as normal etc etc .. and I turned out OK! (well, OKish... and I can't blame her for everything, right?!)

that would be caffeine

Don't want to piss on anyone's parade but my son has an allergy to brazil nuts and hazelnuts, both of which I GORGED on when pregnant and breastfeeding. The specialist says there's no evidence to suggest that the two things are connected, but that's because a study's never been done (risk your unborn baby having a nut allergy in the name of science anyone? Nah, didn't think so). But he basically said that if he had a quid for every mother who looked at the test results and said "ooh - I ate loads of them when I was pg/bf" he'd be an even richer man.

But the soft cheese thing is bunkum.

I think the onion, garlic and pears things are because they are loons pidgin

Have always been confused about feta cheese. Some websites say is fine to eat, others not. I have been eating loads of it as is the only thing that I have really craved, that and peanut butter. I ate both during my first pregnancy and DD is a healthy 2.5yr old with no allergies. I really thought peanut butter was ok now. oops!

I think it is everything in moderation though isn't it. Luckily the one thing i had a craving for last time was ice, pretty safe in this country

I assume peanuts are OK - I eat them (breastfeeding NOT pregnant).
Onions, garlic, coffee, alcohol, kinder eggs MIGHT unsettle your baby I ahve no doubt, as might lots of things. However being told in advance to avoid them is nuts (pun intended). It also makes breastfeeding seem like something you do while you put your real life on hold, i.e. for a short time.

Not ice Alice?!
Oh no

Alice - ice may seem benign but I have knackered my tooth enamel crunching it! If only someone had protected me from myself...

i have very sensitive teeth and usually can't have ice, but when pregnant i could crunch away quite happily

cinnamon But either eggs are lion-stamped or they're not lion-stamped, do you see? They're either salmonella free or they're not. I think you're confused.

The girl I sit next to at work bought a snack pack of carrot battons from asda at the week end and there was a warning on the back saying they werent suitable for pregnant women or women trying to conceive

You are told not to eat soft cooked or raw eggs end of story not that they are fine if they are lion eggs. It was an aside the I thought lion eggs are supposed to be salmonella free. The lady I was replying to was asking about coleslaw which according to the list I have been given is fine if it is made with shop bought mayonnaise. I wasn't giving her my opinion but telling her what the guidelines state.

There are obviously many opinions on here and from others about what is or isn't suitable and different countries vary in what they are advising. It is upto the individual if they listen to only official guidance or ignore it or to avoid other things that others may have mentioned such as the cress at the beginning of the thread.

But you are told to avoid softcooked or raw eggs for fear of salmonella, so if they are lionstamped and therefore salmonella free, then no need to avoid.

Personally I think there is no point to an egg that isn't runny, so I'm buggered if I'm going to eat them with a hard yolk. I've eaten them soft all the way through (19wks currently).

I did avoid a chocolate mousse when about 6 weeks, but only because there was another pudding on offer as well so I dind't miss out, and I wouldn't avoid now.

According to the food standards agency in the UK, sushi and sashimi are both absolutely fine if they have been made with fish which has been frozen for at least 24 hours as that kills the bacteria. Unless you're planning to eat freshly caught and chopped fish on holiday or something a little bit won't hurt at all.

Ice cream from like ice cream vans?

Was told the machine might not be pasturised?

funny you should mention onions... im 28 weeks pg and since pretty much day one i have had a STRONG aversion to onions - the taste, the smell, spring onions, red onions, raw, cooked, any meal with onions in just tastes sicky and rotten to me - its really weird! especially since i love onions normally and cook (well used to) with them all the time.
any one know what it is about them thats considered hazardous?