When Gloria was pregnant, there were a few items of food we had to give up as precautions. Before we were born, we never had any restrictions or guidelines as we do now. Here are some of the food sacrifices I made for her.
Sushi
Sushi was a big sacrifice for us both as we could eat a lot of it and not get too full. The biggest disappointment was not eating raw fish anymore. With sushi, we love raw salmon and tuna, but as we don’t know how the fish was prepared we could not risk the bacteria that are involved in the preparation. If we were certain that the raw fish was frozen, we would know that sushi is safe to eat. Freezing the fish kills the parasitic worms in salmon, but we were not willing to take this risk. We did however make our sushi based on vegetables, cooked crab sticks and other products we could find. Smoke or cured salmon was an option for us, as the process of smoking does kill the worm parasites.
Cheese
We love cheese, especially after dinner with a nice bottle of red wine. The general rule we abided was to avoid soft cheeses such as brie and camembert. Blue and mouldy cheeses were a definite no-no. It was a treasure hunt to find these cheeses pasteurised and sold for a good price so we tend to avoid them. We kept with cheddar, parmesan and Gloria’s favourite of manchego. It is a very strong cheese that helped her with her cravings, especially not able to eat blue cheese, this was needed.
Raw / Semi Cooked Eggs
To be extra safe, we had to thoroughly cook our eggs to the point where our yolks were solid. It was a guideline to follow in case of salmonella but we played it safe. It did mean we ate fewer eggs, since we both love runny eggs.
Pâté
Pâté may contain listeria, which can cause problems during pregnancy. This was the first food product Gloria ate after birth.
Raw Steak
During the pregnancy, we ate medium to well-done steaks. Many sources say this is okay, as the outer edge is cooked and has had the bacteria killed. If we ate out at restaurants, we did specify to have the steak well done, this way we took the necessary precautions.
Alcohol
Alcohol is a big factor and was very limited. The Alcohol-free drinks just aren’t the same and mostly taste of just fruit or vegetable juice. We decided to not fully cut out alcohol but limit the intake. Half a glass here and there, or a very moderate amount didn’t hurt.
These are just some basic food guidelines during your pregnancy, most people do ignore them and are perfectly fine. Back in the day, the guidelines were much different and many chose not to follow them. The NHS has provided a page giving further detail regarding food guidelines during pregnancy and can be found here.
