Foods, Diets, to Abstain From When You're Pregnant

Pregnancy is an exciting and hard time for all women. Your life has just changed forever. Not only do you have to get ready for future changes, but you will need to make lifestyle changes right now. The most important change could be your diet. There are certain foods you should avoid in your pregnancy due to health problems for both you and your baby. Avoiding these foods could be one of the most important things you do in your pregnancy because you can avoid certain health problems for you and birth defects for the baby.

Certain seafood. Do not be afraid to eat seafood during pregnancy. I was so confused during pregnancy that I did not eat them at all during my first pregnancy. But I really missed out because seafood is full of nutrients that your growing baby will need in the womb. The main nutrient is omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are contained in seafood and are essential for brain health. There are studies out now suggesting that consuming more omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy can improve baby's intelligence and vision. So how do you know what seafood to stay away from? You will need to stay away from fish that contain a lot of mercury. The list of high mercury fish, compiled by the FDA, includes shark, mackerel, tilefish, and albacore tuna or tuna steak. You will also want to abstain from fish caught locally unless you know the levels of mercury and other pollutants from the lake. The FDA suggests eating no more than 12 ounces a week of safe fish.

Unpasteurized foods. This can include avoiding certain apple ciders, cheeses, and certain milks. A trip to the local cider mill proved disappointing when I realized that I could not consume their homemade apple cider, which I consider the best in the world. By reading the tiny print on the bottle, I discovered that apple cider could be sold unpasteurized. If you are worried about your cheeses or drinks, simply read the entire label and it will tell you if your product was pasteurized or not.

Undercooked or raw foods. During pregnancy, you will want to avoid sushi and make sure that your steak is cooked all the way through. You will also need to avoid hollandaise sauce, Caesar salad dressing, and uncooked cookie or cake batter because of the raw eggs in them. This was a problem for me when I had to start cooking my morning egg yolks until hard. This made my toast, which was usually moistened by the eggs, incredibly dry. I solved that problem by adding a serving of cheese to the eggs. Undercooked foods, while delicious, can cause food poisoning, which can cause harm to your baby.

Cold deli meat. You should not eat deli meat out of the fridge because you may get listeriosis. Listeriosis is rare. Less than 2,500 people will contract it each year, but for a pregnant woman, the complications are serious. Complications caused by listeriosis can include miscarriage, premature delivery, newborn infection, or in extreme cases, death. Simply solve the problem by warming up the lunchmeat in the microwave until it steams or bake in the oven (for items such as pizza or casseroles). This food issue is not widely known among pregnant woman. In fact during my pregnancy, people looked at me like I was weird when I would not eat deli sandwiches without heating up the meat to steaming because they did not know the danger. You will also want to change your eating habits when you go to sandwich shops. Get a sandwich that is baked instead of made with cold cuts.

Alcohol. Although some women claim that their doctors are okay with an occasional drink, the best advice is to abstain from all of them. According to the March of Dimes, there is no study that gives a safe amount of alcohol to drink during pregnancy. Alcohol can harm fetus and leave babies with lifelong problems long after they are born including physical, mental, and neurobehavioral problems.

Weight-loss diets. Pregnancy is not a time for weight loss. This is the only time in your life, besides childhood, where you will be expected to gain weight. If you are looking for eating plans to avoid, you will need to look no further than the diet section of any bookstore. South Beach, Atkins, Weight Watchers, are popular diets that should not be followed during pregnancy. If you are already eating healthy, you will be expected to consume 300 more calories than normal, not less. By following a weight loss plan, you could be cutting out on essential nutrients for your growing baby. When I joined Weight Watchers, I was told that if I was pregnant I could not be in Weight Watchers because pregnant woman were not supposed to lose weight.

Salty foods. This is not a health threat for most pregnant woman, but simply an inconvenience. Just as during menstruation, your body is going to bloat more when you eat salty foods. With all of the natural weight gain, do you really want to swell up because of salt? If you are unlucky enough to have hypertension, whether pregnancy induced or not, abstaining from salty foods could be the difference of life or death to both you and your baby. When my blood pressure went became borderline for hypertension, I was put on bed rest and told to decrease my salt intake because if I did not, they may have needed to induce labor for both my health and the baby's health. Luckily decreasing my salt intake worked and I had a healthy, full term baby.

Anything that makes your stomach churn. Most women with children can recall a food aversion during pregnancy with disdain. Even if something is nutritious, if you cannot stand the thought of the food, you probably will not be able to keep it down. I tried to eat oatmeal for breakfast because of all the nutrients I would consume in such a small serving, but the thought just did not appeal to me. I still cannot eat oatmeal to this day because I forced myself to eat it during pregnancy.

Pregnancy should be a carefree time. If you abstain from certain foods, you will not have to worry about harming your baby because of what you put in your mouth. Remember that whatever you eat, the baby eats.