Restricted Food?

[*KaiMom*]

Are you someone who follows the "avoid during pregnancy" food guidlines strictly? Or do you just sort of go with what you usually eat and don't think much about it?

I was talking with a friend tonight about lunch and told her that I usually always have a sandwich. Usually it is turkey. With lots of veggies and sometimes with hummus or a dash or vinegar. She then said aren't pregnant women not supposted to eat deli meat? Now that I think about it I think that is a guideline...but I really LOVE turkey sandwiches. I was a vegetarian for many many years and I swear that is the one thing that I missed the most.

I'll also come out of the closet and admit I eat sushi sometimes during pregnancy.

[ScarletBegonias]

here is a cool article that explains that most seafood related illnesses are from shellfish, not raw fish.

i eat sushi frequently while pg. in fact, it's my fav pregnancy food besides fresh fruit!

pg women are told to avoid deli meat for several reasons:

listerosis, which improperly handled/stored deli meats can harbor, can cross the placental barrier and cause m/c, ptl, and fetal death

listerosis can grow at fridge temperature

and lastly, most of the "improper handling" happens in actual delis/restaurants, not necessarily at home, so sandwiches you make yourself, especially if you are heating the meat, as in a french dip, grilled ham & cheese or hot pastrami etc, are probably going to be safe.

during my last pg i consumed raw milk and cheeses like it was going out of style, kombucha was my fav drink and sushi was my staple meal.

[welsh]

For me, it's about the source of the product. We live in Russia where they're not great about keeping things cold so I'm cautious. That doesn't mean I totally avoid though.
When I'm home in the UK at Christmas, I'll definitely be more indulgent!

[expat-mama]

I love, love, love sushi so I'm glad to hear someone else is planning on enjoying it throughout their pregnancy. I lived in Japan and Korea and women there eat raw fish AND seafood throughout their pregnancies with no problems.
I'm not big on deli meats so I'll probably just avoid those anyway.
I'm not happy about soft cheeses being on the "bad" list. I have developed an addiction to the Feta they have here in the middle east- it's soo delicious and I can't live without it.
I got a free coupon for a new fro-yo place but didn't use it because it was soft serve.
Other than that, I'm off caffeine.
I usually don't buy much processed foods but if I do I'm looking even more carefully at the labels and avoiding colourants, dyes, preservatives, and of course the usuals- HFCS and unnatural sugars and MSG etc.

[*KaiMom*]

Originally Posted by ScarletBegonias

here is a cool article that explains that most seafood related illnesses are from shellfish, not raw fish.

i eat sushi frequently while pg. in fact, it's my fav pregnancy food besides fresh fruit!

pg women are told to avoid deli meat for several reasons:

listerosis, which improperly handled/stored deli meats can harbor, can cross the placental barrier and cause m/c, ptl, and fetal death

listerosis can grow at fridge temperature

and lastly, most of the "improper handling" happens in actual delis/restaurants, not necessarily at home, so sandwiches you make yourself, especially if you are heating the meat, as in a french dip, grilled ham & cheese or hot pastrami etc, are probably going to be safe.

during my last pg i consumed raw milk and cheeses like it was going out of style, kombucha was my fav drink and sushi was my staple meal.

I'm so very happy to hear about the sushi from everyone. I really do love it. I don't buy meat in the deli. We usually just have some sort of hormone free prepackaged meat. I'm not too worried about it but because I do eat it regularly maybe I will be eating some hot sandwiches through the winter.

Originally Posted by welsh

For me, it's about the source of the product. We live in Russia where they're not great about keeping things cold so I'm cautious. That doesn't mean I totally avoid though.
When I'm home in the UK at Christmas, I'll definitely be more indulgent!

I agree! The source of something for me is a big factor.

Originally Posted by expat-mama

I love, love, love sushi so I'm glad to hear someone else is planning on enjoying it throughout their pregnancy. I lived in Japan and Korea and women there eat raw fish AND seafood throughout their pregnancies with no problems.
I'm not big on deli meats so I'll probably just avoid those anyway.
I'm not happy about soft cheeses being on the "bad" list. I have developed an addiction to the Feta they have here in the middle east- it's soo delicious and I can't live without it.
I got a free coupon for a new fro-yo place but didn't use it because it was soft serve.
Other than that, I'm off caffeine.
I usually don't buy much processed foods but if I do I'm looking even more carefully at the labels and avoiding colourants, dyes, preservatives, and of course the usuals- HFCS and unnatural sugars and MSG etc.

I'm glad I don't like cheese so that is one worry off my list. I don't drink much caffeine but now of course trying to be on the look out for it more...I do love chai sometimes! I'm pretty strict about preservatives, dyes, msg etc normally so it's not too hard for me to stay away from those things but I did catch myself reading the labels a little more the other day at the grocery store.

[CorasMama]

Soft cheese is okay so long as it's made from pasteurized milk, expat. I don't know if you can get feta from pasteurized milk where you are, but if you can, then go for it, guilt-free (I know I am!)

The only thing I'm super cautious of when it comes to sushi is tuna, swordfish, shark, etc (the high-mercury fishes) which is a shame because tuna sashimi is my all-time favorite thing to order. My midwife said that so long as I avoid those, occasional sushi from somewhere I trust is okay. Which is good, because I've been promising DD a sushi dinner at her favorite place for her 12th birthday (in 2 months) for almost a year.

I have been heating our deli turkey (it's the nitrate-free from costco), because it's actually pretty good like that. I nuke a slice of it for 30 seconds, put a little bit of dijon mustard, and roll it up and voila! delicious high-protein snack!

I've never had much of a caffeine habit (well, not in the last decade or so), so I figure following a no-caffeine rule is easy for me. Especially since I don't drink coffee or tea, and I'm allergic to corn, so the only caffeine option open to me is diet soda, and I don't really want to consume the artificial sweeteners.

I really really want some eggs benedict, which is on the no-no list all over (undercooked eggs in the eggs and the hollandaise sauce, nitrates in the ham, white flour in the english muffin), so I'll probably hold off for a couple of months. I am NOT interested in the work involved in making it myself so that I can use pasteurized eggs and nitrate-free ham and whole wheat english muffins. I can't stand the smell of food cooking right now anyway.

So I guess I'm following the do's and don't's pretty closely, but not super-strictly.

[Terrilein]

I'm lactose intolerant so the soft cheese/raw milk thing is no biggy for me since I avoid those items anyways. I'm not fond of sushi either, so that's no loss for me either.
The only things I'm going to have/having trouble with is coffee and probably the deli meat. I love and need my coffee. Granted I did buy some good decaf, but I do drink my regular coffee mornings to wake up. With dd I did manage to cut back to two cups a day. I'm hoping I can do that again. As for deli meat, we almost always buy pre-packaged items. I had no idea that we had to avoid them. I wonder if that was recommended 9 years ago, too. This seems new to me.

[CorasMama]

Terrilein: yeah, it certainly wasn't ever mentioned to me 12 years ago when I was pg with dd. And I was even more hyper-vigilant then than now. (Like, I didn't eat a single hot dog or piece of nitrate-containing deli meat, and only drank decaf tea). Also, did you know Lactaid is natural (it's just the enzyme that you and I are lacking, lactase) and safe for pregnancy? I developed lactose intolerance a few months ago, and we're cheese snobs (seriously, I could wax poetic about a number of cheeses), so lactaid is one of the things I consider necessary.

[Terrilein]

Hehe, yeah, I'd heard about the lactase pills, but I just stick to avoidance since I'm a "natural LI". I've had an aversion to milk products most of my life and so I just go with it. You won't believe how many people gave me such a hard time for not drinking milk! My body knows what's good for it. That said, I do like and eat hard cheeses.

[bjorker]

I had salad bar food from our local awesome grocery the other day. My friend looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned that it was supposedly a pregnancy no-no, and said she lived off of their salad bar when pregnant. But I swear I remember hearing that you're not really supposed to eat buffet food. I'm going to treat it just like everything else and go with my gut on that stuff. I'm really picky about my food as it is (I mean as far as quality goes, on top of just being picky about food) so I'm not really worried about sticking to the general Americanized pg rules.

The hardest "no no" for me is coffee. I've still been drinking it, but not every day, and less of it when I do.

[CorasMama]

Originally Posted by bjorker

I had salad bar food from our local awesome grocery the other day. My friend looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned that it was supposedly a pregnancy no-no, and said she lived off of their salad bar when pregnant. But I swear I remember hearing that you're not really supposed to eat buffet food. I'm going to treat it just like everything else and go with my gut on that stuff. I'm really picky about my food as it is (I mean as far as quality goes, on top of just being picky about food) so I'm not really worried about sticking to the general Americanized pg rules.

The hardest "no no" for me is coffee. I've still been drinking it, but not every day, and less of it when I do.

Which one? Central Market? I puffy heart their salad bar!

[*KaiMom*]

Originally Posted by bjorker

I'm not really worried about sticking to the general Americanized pg rules.

ITA. I go with what my body is telling me it needs. Protein, calcium, omega etc.

[jazzybaby9]

I am WAY strict about what I eat during pg, at least during my first pg...I'll probably be pretty laid back with this one . I was really into fruits last pg (girl) and this one, I'm already craving shellfish, oysters, meats, and more meats. Last pg I didn't have a single caffeinated beverage...I had pepsi around 6 months and FREAKED out...it was pretty hilarious now that I think back...a prego laying on the floor with wide eyes and saying "never again, never again, never again"

I've cut out coffee and junk food a few months ago already... thank God I did- first pg, I had HG and was going thru terrible withdrawls from cigarettes, caffeine, alcohol, and some other stuff I won't mention. But I quit everything cold-turkey...so I'm actually excited to be super-healthy again.

I don't know about anyone else, but I feel more emotionally stable during the second and third trimester than when I'm not pg. BUT then again I only have 1 child and every pg is different.

I remember having to stay away from bleu cheese and sushi was HARD!!!

Sorry for the babble!

[jazzybaby9]

Originally Posted by bjorker

I had salad bar food from our local awesome grocery the other day. My friend looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned that it was supposedly a pregnancy no-no, and said she lived off of their salad bar when pregnant. But I swear I remember hearing that you're not really supposed to eat buffet food.

Is that because there's an increased risk of bacterial growth since the food sits out and people are messin' with it? I MACK out at the salad bar...mmm

[jazzybaby9]

Originally Posted by ScarletBegonias

i eat sushi frequently while pg. in fact, it's my fav pregnancy food besides fresh fruit!

That is me to the T

[*KaiMom*]

Originally Posted by jazzybaby9

Is that because there's an increased risk of bacterial growth since the food sits out and people are messin' with it? I MACK out at the salad bar...mmm

Yes. I also think that's why they say to stay away from deli counter meat. The food sits out for long periods of time and people are handeling it in and out of the containers.

[slgt]

I'm pretty cautious all around, and we eat a very healthy, organic, local diet as much as possible. We only eat meat if we know the farm and hwo they treat their animals.

My one guilty secret? I haven't been able to give up my 1/2 cup of coffee yet. I drink about 1/2 cup per day. I'll pick up some decaf next time I shop and then I'll be fine...

[bjorker]

Originally Posted by CorasMama

Which one? Central Market? I puffy heart their salad bar!

Yep! They have some tasty stuff in there. My aforementioned friend said she lived off their potato salad when pregnant. She had really bad hyperemesis the entire time, so she had to go with what she could stomach.

[CorasMama]

The one in Shoreline has this pasta salad called Scooby Doo. It's delicious, and the one in Mill Creek has never heard of it.

[welsh]

I miss Central Market! When we lived in Houston, DH would refuse to go in there with me because it'd take all day to get around the free samples!
Last night I was thinking of all the yummy things I used to eat while pg with DS in Houston and how there is NOTHING yummy here to tempt me!
To everyone in North America....enjoy a little extra for me, please!!!