Whilst I wait until October the 8th to have my pregnancy test, I have to act and behave as if I was already pregnant (50-50 odds, really, hehe :])
And the one thing that I am paying more attention to is food and drink, and only 3 days after embryo transfer this subject is already driving me crazy as I have been “banned” from some of my favourite foods 🙁
This is the official advise from the NHS:
Don’t eat mould-ripened soft cheese, such as brie, camembert and chevre (a type of goats’ cheese) and others with a similar rind. You should also avoid soft blue-veined cheeses such as Danish blue or gorgonzola. These are made with mould and they can contain listeria, a type of bacteria that can harm your unborn baby.
Booooohh! I like blue cheese and soft cheese and all cheese!
You can eat hard cheeses such as cheddar, parmesan and stilton, even if they’re made with unpasteurised milk. Hard cheeses don’t contain as much water as soft cheeses so bacteria are less likely to grow in them. Many other types of cheese are OK to eat, but make sure they’re made from pasteurised milk. This includes cottage cheese, mozzarella, feta, cream cheese, paneer, ricotta, halloumi, goats’ cheese and processed cheeses such as cheese spreads.
Better news, phew!
Avoid all types of pâté, including vegetable pâtés, as they can contain listeria.
Noooo! I love paté…. It’s such a great sandwich filler for lunchtime sandwiches!
Cook all meat and poultry thoroughly so it is steaming hot and there is no trace of pink or blood. Take particular care with poultry, pork, sausages and minced meat, including burgers. Avoid rare meat.
I like my stakes medium-rare, so I have already started eating them just medium, which is not great… A lot of the flavour of the meat is gone… No problem with the chicken, though, as we like to roast it nicely 🙂
Make sure that eggs are thoroughly cooked until the whites and yolks are solid. This prevents the risk of salmonella food poisoning. Avoid foods that contain raw and undercooked eggs, such as homemade mayonnaise. If you wish to have dishes that contain raw or partially cooked eggs you should consider using pasteurised liquid egg.
This one has actually killed me. I L O V E my homemade mayonnaise, and I won’t be able to have it for 9 months! (hopefully) I made my last batch on Tuesday and haven’t had any more since 🙁 Today I was going to have a fried egg for breakfast but then I thought that I probably won’t be able to have them either, as I like the yolk runny! :((
Don’t eat liver or liver products such as liver pâté or liver sausage, as they may contain a lot of vitamin A. Too much vitamin A can harm your baby.
Apart from in paté, I don’t normally eat much liver, so this one is not a big issue.
Don’t eat shark, marlin and swordfish, and limit the amount of tuna you eat to:
– no more than two tuna steaks a week (about 140g cooked or 170g raw each), or
– four medium-sized cans of tuna a week (about 140g when drained)
These types of fish contain high levels of mercury that can damage your baby’s developing nervous system. Don’t eat more than two portions of oily fish a week. Oily fish includes fresh tuna (but not canned tuna), salmon, mackerel, sardines and trout.
I am a big fan of fresh tuna and swordfish, although they are so expensive in this country that I do not eat them very often. I think the last time I ate swordfish was over a year ago, so it won’t be a massive sacrifice.
Eat cooked rather than raw shellfish as they can contain harmful bacteria and viruses that can cause food poisoning.
No more eating prawns then whilst my mum is peeling them for the prawn cocktail at Christmas… And no more “conchas finas malagueñas” either…
Cold cured meats include salami, parma ham, chorizo and pepperoni. Some countries advise pregnant women to avoid eating cold cured meats or smoked fish as there is a small risk of these foods harbouring listeria, or the toxoplasma parasite that causes toxoplasmosis. Currently in the UK we don’t advise pregnant women to avoid these products. However, if you are at all concerned, you might choose to avoid cured meats and smoked fish while you are pregnant.
It is great that the UK don’t advise against this consumption, however, to be on the safe side, I will try to avoid them as much as possible. Nonetheless, they say “cold”, which means I can cook it and eat it! I will still have chorizo cubes on my curry rice, and jamón cubes on my croquetas!
It’s fine to eat sushi and other dishes made with raw fish when you’re pregnant as long as the fish used to make it has been frozen first. This is because occasionally fish contains small parasitic worms that could make you ill. Freezing kills the worms and makes raw fish safe to eat.If you’re in any doubt, you might wish to avoid eating the kinds of sushi that contain raw seafood, such as tuna.
The safest way to enjoy sushi is to choose the fully cooked or vegetarian varieties, such as those that include:
cooked seafood, for example
– fully cooked eel (unagi) or shrimp (ebi)
– vegetables, for example cucumber (kappa) maki
– avocado – for example California roll
– fully cooked egg
Funnily enough, I am going to a birthday party in a Sushi restaurant next week! I will probably approach the staff and ask whether they freeze the fish before preparing the rolls, however, again, to stay on the safe side, I may stick to the ones suggested above.
High levels of caffeine can result in babies having a low birth weight, which can increase the risk of health problems in later life. Too much can also cause miscarriage. Caffeine is naturally found in lots of foods, such as coffee, tea and chocolate, and is added to some soft drinks and energy drinks. Some cold and flu remedies also contain caffeine. Talk to your midwife, doctor or pharmacist before taking these remedies. You don’t need to cut out caffeine completely but don’t have more than 200mg a day.
This won’t be an issue for me, as I don’t drink more than one cup of tea or coffee a day (unless I’m with the in-laws… they love making rounds of teas every hour or so!)
So, I am going to become accustomed to planning my meals a bit more. I can no longer go to the shop and take any product that I fancy. There are more implications now!
