The Chilling Facts About Pregnancy & Cold Foods

We all know that kids love ice cream. But what do they think of it while they're still waiting to be born?

Undeniably, many an expectant mother enjoys ice cream as a staple of her pregnancy diet. And rightly so. Dairy products such as ice cream and yogurt provide needed doses of calcium and protein.

But can cold food be dangerous to a healthy pregnancy? Researches in pregnancy nutrition have proven that cold food can be certainly be a concern -- especially if it is improperly prepared. Furthermore, a pregnant mother should be wise in selecting the types of cold food that she chooses to eat, because many foods stored at low temperatures risk breeding bacteria which can spark a threatening infection called listeriosis.

The Facts

During pregnancy, women function with challenged -- thus compromised -- immune systems. A woman's exposure to listeria bacteria as she carries her baby can send her spiraling into illness, whereas the same bacteia could be harmless to her before or after her pregnancy.

For this reason, even soft-serve ice cream should be avoided if she is at all unsure of the standards of restaurant's sanitation. (Of course, the inside of a restaurant's soft-serve ice cream machine is almost certainly not a place that she will inspect for traces of slime, so she may want to simply skip this treat and stick to the cartons of Ben & Jerry's that she can buy from the grocery store.)

Added to this list of items to steer clear of are 1.) shrimp cocktails & other fresh fish (such as sushi), 2.) a wide variety of cheeses including soft-ripened & blue-veined cheeses (and also, according to one expert, mozzarella), 3.) undercooked and runny eggs, 4.) freshly-squeezed/unpasturized juices, 5.) ready-to-eat food such as chicken or tuna fish, and even hot dogs.

Furthermore, a good rule of thumb is to only eat meals that are freshly-prepared, especially in the case of salad. Even after a scant 2 days of refrigeration, foods can begin to breed bacteria that can do harm to a vulnerable immune system.

Recommendations

While it is true that Listerosis is a very rare infection, affecting only 1 in every 20,000 pregnancies, every mother-to-be will want to avoid the risk of developing this infection.

For this reason, it is imperative that she develop a healthy pregnancy diet that pays careful attention to raw, unpasteurized cold foods that could transport hidden illness to her and her baby.

These simple pregnancy nutrition tips can help to keep a woman and her child in the clear from the very start.

Sources:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/prenatal/national_guidelines-lignes_directrices_nationales-06g_e.html#4
http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/hliving/healpreg.html
http://www.pregnancytoday.com/reference/articles/dietdonts.htm
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~pregnant/newall.html
http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/consumers/low-immunity-child-pregnancy/pregnancy-food-safety/#P89_8822
http://cks.library.nhs.uk/patient_information_leaflet/listeriosis