Pregnancy food jungle
It's 7 am on a Saturday morning and I'm sitting in my kitchen. My inner clock has always made it easy for me to get up in the morning, but pregnancy sure seems to take that to a new level. Unfortunately that means I'm ready to fall asleep at 9 pm, which was in the middle of Straight Out of Compton at the movie theater last night.
I'm about halfway done making this baby and I have gotten fairly used to all the dietary restrictions/recommendations and how to navigate that chaos of opinions. I'm dealing with double confusion because I read both Danish and American guidelines and they are not the same. For example, in Denmark it's okay to eat sushi because all sushi places are required to freeze their sushi for 24 hours to kill any parasites. That's not a requirement in the US so it's difficult to guarantee parasite free sushi.
In Denmark there are strict guidelines for not eating too much licorice, while in the US no one has even thought about commenting on that since no one eats licorice (except for Danes like me who has it imported).
When I made myself a cup of chamomile tea at work a colleague immediately told me that pregnant women are not suppose to drink chamomile tea. When I looked it up sure enough American sources said "No" and Danish/Scandinavian sources said "Sure go ahead".
Eggs is another point of confusion. I grew up in Europe during the massive salmonella outbreaks and I remember when someone accidentally killed their neighbor by serving them a cake with raw eggs contaminated with salmonella. However those outbreaks never really reached the US and people still eat raw cookie dough or lick the bowl when baking a cake. So where does that leave the pregnant woman?
Last, I have been informed that the red coloring in candy can cause birth defects. I have a hard time believing that red coloring is somehow more dangerous than say blue or green candy coloring but the problem is once someone tells you something like that you can't help but worry about it and so I find myself sorting through my m&ms avoiding all the red ones.
How much fact and how much cultural opinion go into making pregnancy dietary guidelines is difficult to determine. Likewise differing national guidelines for production and preparation of foods play a role in recommendations as well.
At this point I try to strike a balance between giving up foods or eating them with some moderation depending on what feels right. So I had some very soft brownie with chamomile tea and licorice the other day while I skipped the sushi and red m&ms.
I'm about halfway done making this baby and I have gotten fairly used to all the dietary restrictions/recommendations and how to navigate that chaos of opinions. I'm dealing with double confusion because I read both Danish and American guidelines and they are not the same. For example, in Denmark it's okay to eat sushi because all sushi places are required to freeze their sushi for 24 hours to kill any parasites. That's not a requirement in the US so it's difficult to guarantee parasite free sushi.
In Denmark there are strict guidelines for not eating too much licorice, while in the US no one has even thought about commenting on that since no one eats licorice (except for Danes like me who has it imported).
When I made myself a cup of chamomile tea at work a colleague immediately told me that pregnant women are not suppose to drink chamomile tea. When I looked it up sure enough American sources said "No" and Danish/Scandinavian sources said "Sure go ahead".
Eggs is another point of confusion. I grew up in Europe during the massive salmonella outbreaks and I remember when someone accidentally killed their neighbor by serving them a cake with raw eggs contaminated with salmonella. However those outbreaks never really reached the US and people still eat raw cookie dough or lick the bowl when baking a cake. So where does that leave the pregnant woman?
Last, I have been informed that the red coloring in candy can cause birth defects. I have a hard time believing that red coloring is somehow more dangerous than say blue or green candy coloring but the problem is once someone tells you something like that you can't help but worry about it and so I find myself sorting through my m&ms avoiding all the red ones.
How much fact and how much cultural opinion go into making pregnancy dietary guidelines is difficult to determine. Likewise differing national guidelines for production and preparation of foods play a role in recommendations as well.
At this point I try to strike a balance between giving up foods or eating them with some moderation depending on what feels right. So I had some very soft brownie with chamomile tea and licorice the other day while I skipped the sushi and red m&ms.
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