Pregnancy is a magical period for many women. You are pampered, taken care of and always made to feel special. Besides the hormones or morning sickness, monitoring your diet is very important. There are certain foods that you just can’t consume as it may affect both the mother and child. Here are 8 foods that you must strictly avoid eating during pregnancy.
1. Raw meat
Uncooked seafood, beef or poultry should be strictly avoided during pregnancy. It may be contaminated with coliform bacteria, toxoplasmosis and salmonella.
2. Smoked seafood
Smoked and refrigerator stored sea food contains Listeria. It can only be eaten if it’s cooked well in a casserole dish.
3. Imported soft cheese
Hard cheese like Swiss cheese is made with pasteurized milk which is the only option you must consider during pregnancy. Soft cheese is however made of unpasteurized milk which may contain E coli and Listeria which may cause miscarriage.
4. Unpasteurized milk
Unpasteurized milk contains the bacteria named Listeria. This bacterium can enter the placenta and cause infection in the blood, poisoning and eventually lead to miscarriage.
5. Raw cookie dough or cake batter
Obviously there is no harm having baked cookies and cakes but licking of the batter may cause infection through Salmonella.
6. Eggnogs
Eggnogs contain uncooked eggs. It contains Salmonella which is not good for the baby as it may cause miscarriage. It’s better to have eggnogs made of pasteurized eggs. When you make eggnog in the microwave or oven, make sure it’s cooked up to 160 degrees Celsius.
7. Homemade ice cream
Homemade ice cream contains uncooked eggs which may be contaminated with Salmonella. It’s better if you heat the mixture well so that the eggs are cooked properly. Or it’s much safer to work with unpasteurized egg product.
8. Caffeinated coffee
Women who consume 200 mg of caffeine or more suffer greater risks of a miscarriage. It may also cause you to give birth to a stillborn baby. In fact even after pregnancy you must avoid having caffeine as it may affect the breast milk.