Home Very interesting article-sushi and pregnacy

[Hudson_Hawk]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/opinion/15shaw.html?_r=1

If the link doesn't work, google NY Times, sushi, pregnancy

 

[janinegirly]

You'll find that some of the food guidelines are somewhat extreme and each expectant mother comes to terms with what she's comfortable with, or not etc. I'm not talking about the obvious no-no's (alcohol) but things like soft ice cream (listeria risk), ham (listeria risk), soft cheeses (depends if pasteurized), rare meats (some say this is for burgers, not steaks). All the guidelines have legit concerns but it's not always black and white and as we all know there are different guidelines in Europe/Asia as there were for our own mothers.

With sushi, my doctor actually said it was fine as long as it was from a good restaurant. Still I followed my own instinct and only ate cooked sushi. I know with me...it's better to be deprived than start wondering what if and drive myself nuts (I did this once after eating a pink burger).

 

[waxing lyrical]

I came across that article a while back. I had sushi during my last pregnancy. Love it.

 

[neatfreak]

Yeah some doctors are pretty crazy. I ate a lot of the "forbidden" foods during pregnancy. Doctors are just so afraid of lawsuits here these days that they err on the extreme side of caution and don''t want to tell you anything is safe if there is even a remote chance it could harm you.

I say be smart and enjoy what you want to eat. As long as things are from good sources and you aren''t being dumb you''ll be fine!

 

[kama_s]

Yup, that pretty much sums up my view on the matter. When my pregnant patients ask me re: unpasturized cheese, I ask them: when was the last time you got listeriosis after eating cheese? Never?

My take: Buy soft cheese and sushi from places that you trust and visit frequently, and eat in moderation. With sushi, I also suggest avoiding home-cooked, because handling raw food properly is not everyone's forte.

The other small little thing re: fish consumption is mercury, but even with that, it's all about moderation. And they're right, the fatty acids in fish are thought to be excellent for the developing baby. Health Canada actually recommends women eat a minimum of 1-2 servings of low trophic level fishes per week. Re: mercury, I have a chart somewhere where I have the max amount of particular fishes that the FDA recommends. If anyone wants to know about a certain fish, I can dig it out.

 

[Mara]

i eat sushi about once a month and have for most of my pregnancy. before i'd have it about 4x a month!

my dr basically said for all types of food to 'use your common sense'. she is like.. if you have gone to a sushi place for 10 years and never had an issue, chances are you will not have one in the next 10 months' ... 'but don't go try a new sushi place that just opened'.

same with other things. i drank a glass of sangria in spain (hello i was in spain!) a few times, and i have had the odd glass of wine here and there. i eat bleu cheese all the time...yum! most of what we have in the US is crazy-pasteurized anyway.

the funny thing for me is that most dr's won't say outright you should be strict on things like well-done meats or well-done eggs, like my Dr didnt mention it at all. but to me more people get sick off of like salmonella eggs or hamburger meat than well-prepared sashimi or pasteurized bleu cheese.

re: mercury, that is the one thing i def have kept a watch on. i know that there are studies out there but nothing is definitive, however i'd rather not mess around with that one. so i typically have only had fish once a week during this pregnancy and usually it's cod (fish and chips) and not tuna. but if i have tuna i make sure to only have it every 7-8 days. also diff tunas have diff mercury levels.

in the end it's down to your own comfort level with your body and the pregnancy. one of my friends had food poisoning 2x while preggo and everything was fine. our bodies are pretty resilient.

on the other hand, my dr told me one of HER doctor friend was preggo and while she knew that technically it was fine and would advise her patients to do what they felt ok with she would not get highlights on her hair or her nails done. she even said she KNEW it was fine but not for her.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Preg or not, I wouldn't eat raw fish. Something about it just turns my stomach!

Guess I'm probably the only one. . .

 

[cara]

The mercury in some sushi seems more worrisome than the infection risk. Though as kami says, there are benefits from the fats in some fish that are a plus. I guess old deli meat sometimes weirds me out in a non-pregnant state, I tend to throw it out pretty quickly so I might be a little more cautious on that front if/when preggo. But to each their own! I do at least like knowing *why* various things aren't recommended and having an actual discussion of the risks and potential harms. The soft cheese/deli/raw fish risks just seem like pretty looooong odds...

ETA: One thing the article says that I'm not sure is right is that a woman's immune function is the same as preggo and not preggo. I'm not sure it is - aren't pregnant women are slighly immunocompromised? And of course, *part* of the argument is that a listeria infection might have only minor consequences for the mom but more serious ones for the fetus - so even if the mom's immune system deals with said infection well, it could still present an opportunity for harm to the kid.

 

[upgrade]

I took the pregnancy food restirctions with a grain of salt for the most part I had a sip of wine here and there and I ate brie and proscuitto like nobody''s business! I craved it like you wouldn''t believe. I didn''t eat the raw fish sushi (stuck to the cooked stuff or veggies) while pregnant, but only because it didn''t appeal to me with all my crazy hormones.

I figure that the women in the countries where these fabulous foods orginated still eat them while pregnant so why can''t I?

The one that I did take seriously was the peanut/tree nut thing. My doc says there are those who believe that eating nuts in excessive amounts while pregnant/bf''ing can lead to nut allergies because the baby is exposed too much too soon, and there are those who believe that eating absolutley no nuts can be equally harmful as the baby has no chance to build up a tolerance. She advised me to eat nuts in small amounts throughout my pregnancy. She said she would feel most comfortable with one or two servings per week so that''s what I did. I don''t know if it made any difference but I was comfortable with her recommendation. My mom''s friend has an awful, horrible nut allergy so I grew up seeing that and would do anything to avoid it!

 

[Pandora II]

I avoided unpasteurised cheese - I actually couldn''t find any in the UK and I looked quite hard!

Otherwise I ate everything I wanted to - sushi in fairly large quantities!

 

[jewelz617]

I ate sushi a few times during my pregnancy. I considered it part of an overall healthy diet.

 

[Mara]

mmmm now i want some sushi.

 

[oobiecoo]

I was really worried at the very beginning of my pregnancy because every book and website had a list of different things to avoid but others would say it was ok. I finally asked my doctor and he basically said he couldn''t think of any foods I need to totally avoid. The only ones he mentioned was shellfish and hot dogs because of the nitrates or whatever but said anything else was fine. I don''t really avoid anything anymore... I just use common sense and eat in moderation. Billions of babies were born before we had alot of knowledge of food safety and sanitation so I think sushi one night or a bit of brie probably won''t hurt. Most of these "foods to avoid" pose small risks even to healthy, non-pregnant women anyway.

 

[steph72276]

Date: 1/13/2010 4:39:38 PM
Author: Mara
mmmm now i want some sushi.

mmmmm, me too. I''ve held off for this long, I might as well wait though.

 

[Mara]

lol oobie, i have never heard of hot dogs before! that is just what i was saying, Dr's are random.

though hot dogs repelled me until like 20 weeks. so maybe that was baby saying NO NITRATES, BAD.

lol steph one of my friends refrained from sushi til like 36 weeks and was like... baby is cooked by now, gimme some sushi!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/13/2010 4:44:36 PM
Author: oobiecoo
I was really worried at the very beginning of my pregnancy because every book and website had a list of different things to avoid but others would say it was ok. I finally asked my doctor and he basically said he couldn''t think of any foods I need to totally avoid. The only ones he mentioned was shellfish and hot dogs because of the nitrates or whatever but said anything else was fine. I don''t really avoid anything anymore... I just use common sense and eat in moderation. Billions of babies were born before we had alot of knowledge of food safety and sanitation so I think sushi one night or a bit of brie probably won''t hurt. Most of these ''foods to avoid'' pose small risks even to healthy, non-pregnant women anyway.

With hot dogs isn''t there also the issue of listeria? There are quite a few kinds of hot dogs on the market that don''t have nitrates. . .

 

[oobiecoo]

Date: 1/13/2010 5:06:06 PM
Author: MC

Date: 1/13/2010 4:44:36 PM

Author: oobiecoo

I was really worried at the very beginning of my pregnancy because every book and website had a list of different things to avoid but others would say it was ok. I finally asked my doctor and he basically said he couldn''t think of any foods I need to totally avoid. The only ones he mentioned was shellfish and hot dogs because of the nitrates or whatever but said anything else was fine. I don''t really avoid anything anymore... I just use common sense and eat in moderation. Billions of babies were born before we had alot of knowledge of food safety and sanitation so I think sushi one night or a bit of brie probably won''t hurt. Most of these ''foods to avoid'' pose small risks even to healthy, non-pregnant women anyway.

With hot dogs isn''t there also the issue of listeria? There are quite a few kinds of hot dogs on the market that don''t have nitrates. . .

Yep... listeria too. Thats one of the things my doc wasn''t bother by though.

 

[qtiekiki]

I didn''t eat any raw sushi last pregnancy, but I''ve been having sushi 3-4x a month this time. And my dr never told me to avoid anything.

 

[purrfectpear]

I ate sushi during my pregnancy and sushi was my son''s first food that wasn''t baby mush

Of course later on I regretted that since he ate me out of house and home with his sushi eating. Nothing like going out for dinner with a 5 year old and being handed a $90 bill for 2.

 

[steph72276]

Date: 1/13/2010 5:31:12 PM
Author: purrfectpear
I ate sushi during my pregnancy and sushi was my son''s first food that wasn''t baby mush

Of course later on I regretted that since he ate me out of house and home with his sushi eating. Nothing like going out for dinner with a 5 year old and being handed a $90 bill for 2.

LOL, Andrew loves sushi too. I thought the same thing, I shouldn''t have introduced him to an expensive food...should have stuck with the chicken nuggets

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I''m actually not a huge fan of raw sushi. I like salmon and tuna but it''s not really what I order when I go out. I love love love the tempura fried soft shell crab roll with avocado and I usually get that. Of course if I''m being good and eating gluten free like I''m supposed to, I can''t have it because of the tempura batter. So I''ve sort of been of sushi/japanese all together. I just haven''t been in the mood for salmon, etc. Lately my big craving has been for tex-mex. I made chili last weekend, enchiladas the other night and I really want to go out to our neighborhood mexican restaurant for dinner tonight! mmmmm mole....

I had a little bit of a panic attack last night when I realized that the power aid zero I''ve become addicted to (1 large bottle a day habit currently) has sorbitol in it. Luckily sorbitol (splenda) is on the OK list of stuff to have so I can still drink it! I''m totally off other artificial sweeteners though. From what I''ve read, stevia based sweeteners are a no-go. Is this still true? I''ve noticed that there are a lot more of these in the sugar aisle instead of the herbal supplement aisle, so I''m wondering if the FDA has finally approved it for sale as food?

 

[janinegirly]

I''m going to reiterate that you should try to not get panicked over every food on the so called "no" list b/c that list is overly conservative and you will only have an anxiety riden pregnancy (although that is totally normal too!).

Most people around the world (not to mention generations before us) ate as they pleased and have done just fine. Of course run all concerns by your doctor and avoid the obvious potentially harmful foods (of which there aren''t really that many), but in general a slip here and there (or even consistently) will not create problems.

Of course I''m saying this after I freaked out a billion times (over my face cream, then sacylicic acid in my cleanser, then over the alcohol in vanilla for my milkshake, then the one hot dog I ate, then the pink burger that was more pink than not, the the multi viatamin w/Vitamain A ...etc etc)

 

[vespergirl]

I totally refused to avoid the so-called "forbidden foods" during either of my pregnancies. I have a very healthy 3 year old, and I''m sure that the little one on the way will be just fine too. The only thing that I have been more vigilant about avoiding is alcohol (I usually would have a glass of wine every night with dinner) but my doctor told me that I didn''t even have to be so restrictive with wine - she said that a glass of wine a week is fine in the last trimester, and I do enjoy a glass of wine when we go out to dinner about every two weeks.

Here''s an interesting anecdote - I know that the guidelines have since changed, but when I and several of my friends were pregnant a few years back, the hysteria at the time was to not eat nuts during pregnancy, because it could cause a nut allergy. That sounded like total bull to me, so I continued to eat peanut butter to my heart''s desire. Two of my friends who avoided so called "allergenic" foods have babies that now have peanut allergies, and one has a child with an egg allergy. It''s common knowledge that exposure reduces sensitivity, so it''s not surprising to me that my friends who so severely restricted their diets now have children who can''t tolerate certain foods. My kid can eat anything

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

VG, I''m the same way with nuts, PB is one of my main protein sources at the moment, but as with most things right now, that could change tomorrow. I think the concern is over exposure can be as bad as under exposure. I know several years ago people were hypothesizing that the increase in celiac disease diagnoses was related to parents in the 60s-80s introducing wheat-based cereals too early. I think there are always going to be concerns of the moment. The artificial sweetner thing is a personal choice due to the chemicals than anything else.

 

[Mara]

re nuts...I asked about this during our BF class for nuts/dairy and the LC seemed to feel like the more restrictive your diet in general could lead to more allergies for the kid than not. She was like everything in moderation. I don''t have any sort of nut obsession but I haven''t cut any of them out nor do I plan to while BF.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I ate PB during my pregnancy and both my kids are fine and eat it all the time. I just make sure that it''s the organic without anything aside from peanuts and salt. No extra oils added.

I have a few allergies (milk and eggs) and pregnancy is a funny time in one''s life. During then I could eat ANYTHING without problems. It was right smack on the dot after I finished BFing my second son that all sensitivies came back. Neither of my kids have allergies! They are just picky eaters.

 

[miraclesrule]

When it becomes more "healthy" to eat a freaking hot dog vs. good fresh sushi, there is something serious backwards with the "advice". The U.S. is starting to freak me out beyond redemption.