Different food recommendations for pregnancy?

[sconeonamission]

Ok. Everyone I speak to seems to think something different about what to have / not to have during pregnancy.

Before pregnancy, I'd have like 4 cups of black tea with a sugar. First trimester, the thought of tea made me feel ill. Now I like to have tea again, but the daycare lady told me no - can't have black tea - tea in general - during pregnancy

The doctor told me no greasy foods : ie: maccas (But I so love the cheeseburgers right now), pizza etc.

Bought sushi. But apparently, if I make it myself it's ok. Then another friend, who shall remain nameless, solely coz I don't know her BB username , says no, coz the chicken is cold - I was going to make chicken and avocado - so no cold chicken. No sushi. The dr at the hospital appt says that it'd be ok, pretty much eat it and not leave it too long.... Shouldn't be too much of a problem as dh and ds would eat it too.

Leftover roast meat? I was thinking of using it and putting on a sandwich and toasting it.

I'm so confused!

[leckert]

Leftover roast meat? I was thinking of using it and putting on a sandwich and toasting it.

I'm so confused!

This should be fine providing you're making sure that it's nice and hot - thus killing any nasty bugs. (not sure about the rest as I don't eat sushi and hadn't heard about the no greasy foods one)

[~me~]

I have never followed 'what not to eat during pregnancy' guidelines. The only thing I follow is my instincts and cravings Lol.
For some reason being pregnant made me crave all the things I shouldn't have and I ate them...including Macca's sundaes
The conceren is listeria, so if the place looks dodgy or you are unsure, then don't eat it. Things like Deli salads I would avoid. I at salami from a deli as long as I saw them slice it fresh and usually ate it within two days.
Trust your own judgement...my favourite thing to eat was egg, bacon and black pudding sandwhiches, had them nearly every day for lunch while on Mat leave. As far a sushi goes, it's usually the rice that would be the concern as rice is probably one of the worst for being susceptible to listeria if it's not fresh.
Not sure about the tea, I drank coffee and also had a glass of wine at night with dinner.
Yes you need to be a careful, but you also need to eat

[onthefly]

I'm with Heather.
We should focus more on good nutrition and balance when pregnant, and plenty of water.
I mean, maccas is never good for us. And the cancer-causing sulfites in ham should be a bigger concern than the remote possibility of listeria (I love ham but...)
But anyway, go with what makes sense to you.

[little_mrs]

Agreed!

I think with the maccas a dr will tell you not to eat it weather your pg or not!! As long as it's not a daily thing (which would be bad for anyone!) I've had it a couple of times now just try to order something slightly different so they have to make it fresh for you. With the tea, i think the theory is that too much caffine while pg can lower birth weight, but that would make tea way better than coffee or coke! Cold meats (like ham and stuff) are sometimes not actually cooked and because they're cold bacterias can form in them, from memory meats cooked past 60 degrees C right thru and eaten hot is generally thought safe because that heat kills the bacterias. Soft cheeses are fermented with moulds, so eating them cold can contain listeria too.

I'm no Doctor or nutritionist or any sort of expert, this is just my personal opinion and what i've learnt over the last 6 months!!!

[juniper76]

from memory meats cooked past 60 degrees C right thru and eaten hot is generally thought safe because that heat kills the bacterias.

I don't know about other bacteria, but I believe it's 70C for listeria.

On the sushi thing, if you cooked the rice and chicken fresh and refrigerated them straight away they should be fine as long as you use them within 24 hours. However, having said that, I'm super-paranoid and wouldn't eat either of those cold.

For the tea, there's so many conflicting opinions. Read up on it and decide for yourself what you believe. I don't recall hearing of any issues with plain black tea (other than the caffeine), but I'm not an expert by any means.

For the leftover roast meat, I'd just microwave it before putting it in the sandwich to make sure it's piping hot the whole way through. Again, use within 24 hours of original cooking.

And as for the greasy food... I've been so bad with that. DH & I eat too much take away and, with the restricted options (based on who I trust to sell freshly-made hot meals), I have to admit that fish & chips and pizza do make it to the top of our list too often.

[MrsFabuloso]

I'm another person who just uses my instincts and common sense. I still eat ham, pizza, and premade salads ect. But only if I know it comes from somewhere I have eaten at alot and there is a high turn over of food. So somewhere I trust that is clean and has good food handling practices. I still eat left overs but no more than 2 days after it has been cooked and only if I heat it to HOT in the microwave or whatever. I also eat takeaways like macca's and KFC if I feel like it (though that's not so often). Sushi isn't reccommended because of the high rate food poisoning assosiated with it, but if you make it at home and use all cooked ingredients it should be ok.
The only foods I totally steer clear of is raw eggs, raw meats, soft cheeses like brie and camembert. I will pm you a good site I found recently re:food recommendations in pg.