Pregnancy is a very critical time for the woman especially if it is your first one, you have to pay attention to all the details that can affect you or your baby, and one of the things you have to know about is that there are many foods you should avoid during your pregnancy.
Here are the foods to avoid during pregnancy:
As a pregnant woman, you should avoid raw and undercooked meat, Luncheon meats, deli meats, hot dogs, sushi and other raw fish. You have to choose well-cooked meat or poultry with no blood. Moreover, you have to be careful with mincemeat and sausages. You will be exposed to listeria or salmonella, which is a dangerous kind of bacteria that can be found everywhere including refrigerators. Hormonal changes adversely affect a pregnant woman’s immune system so she becomes more exposed to infections, and it often causes some kind of infections that lead to hospitalization, or sometimes death, it is important to know that the symptoms in the early stage of this infection are more like flu.
The second thing you have to be careful to avoid is unpasteurized milk, cheese, and fruit juice or even unwashed vegetables and fruits. It may contain Listeria, E. coli, Campylobacter, Toxoplasma and Salmonella. Which can be passed to the baby causing him/her and to the mother serious infections.
High dose of alcohol or even medium one during pregnancy may cause genetic alcohol syndrome and can increase the chance of stillbirth. Upon to many new types of research, moderate alcohol dose may have harmful effects on children later after birth.
Avoid high intake of methylmercury that exists in long living fish such as swordfish, shark and many others because this element can harm the unborn baby causing some disorder to his/her immature nervous system. It was advised to take no more than 12 ounces fish with a low percentage of mercury a week.
Caffeine is one of the things you should avoid in pregnancy and you have to know that no researches dealing with this matter have determined exactly how much is the safe amount of it. However, most of them recommend no more than 200-300mg daily intake. In addition, it is important to mention that there is a study took place in 2008 showed that women with caffeine intakes greater than the dose already mentioned were at high risk of miscarriage and one of the other researches showed that taking only half the previous dose of caffeine or more is linked to some kind of growth restriction. So please in order to avoid headache calculating the exact amount of caffeine try to take no more than one small cup of coffee daily and I think everything will be fine .
Another important advice is that you should pay attention and consult your doctor when it comes to herbal products and vitamins supplements because there are not enough studies about the safety of herbal products in pregnancy and it is widely known that consuming too much of vitamin A, for example, should be certainly avoided in pregnancy. It is very hard to comply with all the safety rules during pregnancy, and the changing of hormones even making it worse. However, thinking about the baby’s welfare can always make things easier, every choice you make will have immediate or prolonged side effects on your baby, and it is a temporary situation you can try to go through it with love and patience.
Read More: How much weight gain is normal during pregnancy?
References:
http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v62/n4/full/1602866a.html
http://www.healingourchildren.net/Pregnancy_Diet/Three_Types_of_Foods_to_Avoid_During_Pregnancy.html
http://www.raisehealthyeaters.com/foods-to-avoid-during-pregnancy/
http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/pregnancy_food_donts.pdf
http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/foodsafetyandyou/life-events-and-food/pregnancy/foods-to-eat-or-avoid-when-pregnant
http://www.womhealth.org.au/pregnancy-and-parenting/listeria-and-pregnancy
