Do Japanese Women Eat Sushi, Do French Women Eat Soft Cheese/Pate

[Bathsheba]

ETA: I hadn't read the whole thread when I posted this.... sorry.

I followed my gut with foods and I found it served me well. One occasion I looked at a whole table of food and just went I can't eat any of that. I was right, everyone else got food poisoning. I was 6 weeks pregnant at the time and very thankful I went with my initial reaction to seeing the food. I still ate what I wanted after that, but always followed my instinct, so sometimes I would have sushi and other times the look of it turned me off.

That's how I was as well with all 3 pregnancies. Sometimes there is false security in blindly following rules and not actually being educated. There is a difference. I think we would all agree that you could follow the food-types rules and still contract listeria or salmonella. It's just like Astrid said: you have to THINK about the hygiene and history of foods as a PRIME consideration as to whether it's safe.

I have worked in commercial kitchens and have training as to safe and hygienic food handling practises. This serves me far better than a food group list. Example: I would and have eaten a soft cheese that I have unwrapped from an air tight packet that was within "used by" dates. I would not eat the same cheese if it was unwrapped at an unknown point in time. My logic also works as Fiona put it... French women still eat brie when pregnant etc.

ETA: Ok... I am considering deleting this post because after reading the whole thread it might be a bit inappropriate to share my thoughts at this point of the discussion...

Um, Possibly one reason why I personally decided to take the risk in eating sushi and soft cheese during my pregnancies was because I don't eat red meat (mammals) and I think that perhaps I may have needed the extra protein...