List of dietary taboos during pregnancy

There are only 4 types of foods that you really need to avoid during pregnancy - incompletely cooked animal foods, any alcoholic drinks, unsterilized dairy products/raw foods, and foods that can cause allergies in you. The other widely circulated "can't eat crabs", "can't eat watermelon" and "can't touch coffee" are not absolute taboos. Whether and how much to eat can be decided based on your own physical condition, and you don't have to be bound by all kinds of unreasonable rules.

Let’s talk about undercooked food, which is the easiest food to trap. Last week, I met a little girl who was 20 weeks pregnant at the outpatient clinic. She and her friends went to eat Japanese food and couldn’t help but eat two pieces of salmon. She had diarrhea for two days when she came back. When she came for a check-up, her face turned pale. Fortunately, it was just a common gastrointestinal disorder and she was not infected with parasites. Indeed, there are now nutrition studies saying that deep-sea fish that have been regularly frozen at ultra-low temperatures (frozen below -35°C for more than 15 hours) can eliminate almost all parasites. Pregnancy guidelines in many European and American countries do not include sashimi as an absolute taboo. However, in most domestic Japanese restaurants and takeaway sashimi, you cannot trace the origin of the freezing process. It is not worth risking infection with Toxoplasma gondii and parasites just to eat one bite. In addition to sashimi, soft-boiled eggs, medium-rare steaks, raw pickled crabs, and drunken crabs are also included. Be sure to eat them fully cooked, and don’t be greedy for the tender ones.

As for food containing alcohol, this is an absolute red line drawn by all medical institutions around the world. Regardless of whether it is glutinous rice wine, rice wine, fruit beer or so-called non-alcoholic beer, as long as it contains alcohol, even just a little bit, there is no need to touch it. A pregnant mother came to me for consultation before and said that her husband's family persuaded her to drink half a cup of home-brewed rice wine to "warm her body" during the New Year's Eve dinner. She was worried for a whole week that she was afraid that the baby would be teratogenic. In fact, the intake was extremely low and there was a high probability that there would be no problem. However, this unreasonable anxiety could have been completely avoided.

There are also unsterilized dairy products. Many people think that freshly squeezed milk is more nutritious. In fact, it may contain Listeria. If an ordinary person is infected, they will have diarrhea for a few days at most. Pregnant women who are infected will have a much higher risk of miscarriage and premature birth. These include unpasteurized homemade cheese, Brie cheese, and blue cheese. Try not to touch them. When buying milk and yogurt, look at the "pasteurization" or "high temperature sterilization" labels on the packaging. You are sure to buy those from regular manufacturers. Needless to say, there are foods that can cause allergies. Normally, eating mangoes will cause rashes, and eating seafood will cause diarrhea. Don’t try it when you are pregnant. It’s really uncomfortable if you don’t dare to take medicine when allergies occur.

After talking about what must not be touched, the remaining "taboos" that are so popular that they are really not that scary. When my best friend was pregnant with her first child, her mother-in-law wouldn't even let her touch the watermelon, saying that "coldness will cause miscarriage." She was so greedy in the summer that she ate half a piece of iced watermelon and hid in her room crying for half an hour, fearing that something might happen to the baby. However, there were no problems at the next prenatal checkup. Now the baby is in elementary school and as strong as a calf.

For example, crabs, hawthorns, and popsicles, which are the most frequently asked questions, do not have the term "sliding food" in modern nutrition. As long as you are not allergic to them and the crabs are thoroughly steamed, it is perfectly fine to eat one or two at a time. It is okay to eat three to five hawthorns at a time. Eat one popsicle when the weather is hot to relieve the heat. As long as you have no gastrointestinal problems and do not have diarrhea. Of course, if your spleen and stomach are weak and you usually get upset after eating something cold, or if a traditional Chinese medicine doctor diagnoses you as having a cold constitution, then it’s okay to eat less. You don’t have to compare yourself with others. Your own physical experience is the most important.

There are also coffee and milk tea that have been scolded for many years. Now the mainstream pregnancy guidelines clearly state that it is safe to consume no more than 200mg of caffeine per day, which is about the amount of a medium cup of standard American. There are many pregnant mothers around me who work on the Internet. They are too sleepy to lift their heads at work. They drink half a cup of latte every day, and their babies are healthy. Of course, if your heart beats faster and you suffer from insomnia after drinking coffee, you don’t have to drink it at all, and there’s no need to hold on. As for milk tea, the main problem is that it has too much sugar and many additives. You can choose the one with 30% sugar or no sugar. It’s perfectly fine to drink a cup occasionally to satisfy your cravings. Don’t drink it just as water every day. Otherwise, when your blood sugar spikes, you won’t be able to resist sugar cravings until you cry.

Speaking of which, I came across a post a few days ago. A pregnant mother took a mouthful of instant noodles and her husband scolded her and cried, saying that the preservatives in instant noodles were bad for the baby. It really made me angry. What's wrong with eating instant noodles once in a while? If you add an egg and two handfuls of green vegetables when cooking, you'll get more nutrition. It's a hundred times better than starving to the point of stomachache and emotional breakdown. Emotional stability during pregnancy is much more harmful than that illusory "preservative".

In fact, after doing pregnancy nutrition consultation for so many years, my biggest feeling is that many pregnant mothers are too easily bound by various rules and regulations. They are afraid of problems if they eat a bite of this, or fear of affecting the child if they drink a bite of that. Instead, they forget that the core of the diet is balance and moderation. You eat enough vegetables, protein, and staple food every day, which is much more important than whether you can eat a certain food. If you are really not sure whether something can be eaten, just take a few bites to satisfy your craving. Don't show off. If you really feel a little uncomfortable after eating, go to the hospital in time. Don't worry about it at home. Oh, by the way, don’t believe the rumors that “eating rabbit meat will cause cleft lips” or “eating soy sauce will turn babies black”. There is really no scientific basis for it. Pregnancy is hard enough. Eat what you want and be happy is the most important thing, right?