Seven Foods Pregnant Women Should Avoid

When a woman is pregnant she experiences so many hormonal changes and with that, comes some food sensitivity and there are also foods pregnant women should avoid. A good pregnancy eating plan can help. Here we will advise you with some of the foods you should take out of your diet. Some of these foods would do you well to have stricken from your diet for good! We will also teach you storage and temperature control.

Dietary Storage and Temperature for Pregnant Women:

One way we can help you stay healthy during your pregnancy is to teach good food storage and prep instructions so that you can avoid the harmful bacteria that can harm you and your fetus.

• Store food below 5C and serve above 60C. This ensures food borne bacteria is kept dormant or destroyed.
• Of course keep the best practice as far as separating raw and cooked or uncooked dry foods. Don’t use the same plates or utensils. This is called cross-contamination when you come down with a foodborne pathogen via having these things together
• Defrost in a refrigerator or use a microwave. This is because leaving raw food stuffs at room temperature on the counter does two things--it grows bacteria on the food which may not be destroyed during cooking and it leaves invisible bacteria behind on the countertop which could contaminate other food.
• Wash your hands with hot soapy water prior to touching food.
• Eat cooked food within no more than 12 hours.

Three bacterias on foods that pregnant women should avoid:

• Toxoplasmosis- A parasite that is carried mostly by felines. It is also in raw or uncooked food. It is harmful to the fetus in the form of brain damage and/ or blindness in the fetus.
• Listeria: Could be transferred to your infant or newborn by way of unhygienic preparation of food.
• Salmonella: This is normally found in raw food like chicken that can cause a miscarriage.

Seven foods pregnant women should avoid:

1. Any seafood which is raw is always food that pregnant women should avoid. We will even go as far as saying cold or smoked fish is also not good.
2. Pre-cooked deli meats
3. Any kind of Pate
4. Chopped pre-cooked chicken. Again--stay clear of the deli.
5. Packaged cold salads like macaroni or potato etc...One more time--steer clear of the delicatessen.
6. Milk shakes and soft serve ice cream on the boardwalk..out of the question.
7. Many women eat liver for the folic acid and vitamin A. However it can be toxic so eat it in 4oz pieces at a time and only a couple days a week max.