Diet taboo list after pregnancy

Among the dozens and hundreds of dietary taboos during pregnancy circulated on the Internet, there are only three categories that are 100% absolutely forbidden - undercooked raw/half-cooked food, any alcoholic drinks, and food that has become moldy and spoiled. The remaining so-called "taboos" are almost all related to personal physique and consumption. There is no one-size-fits-all standard.

In case you don’t remember it, I compiled a very simple core list. You can save it in your phone and take it out to take a look at it when you go out to eat:

I accompanied a friend to the obstetrics department for a check-up, and I heard the doctor talk about a real case: There was a 6-month-pregnant mother who was greedy and ate two boxes of raw pickled shrimps from Internet celebrities. She was infected with listeria and had a high fever. In the end, the baby was not saved. It was a pity. Many people think that "it's okay if the ingredients are fresh." However, listeria can survive in a refrigerator environment of 0-4℃. Even live shrimps just caught from the seafood market cannot be killed by marinating them. There is really no need to take this risk. There is also the matter of alcohol. WHO has long made it clear that there is no safe alcohol intake during pregnancy. Don't believe the sayings that "it's okay to drink a sip of fruit wine" or "wine will make you breast milk." Even if it's a hot dish with a little cooking wine, try to avoid it if you can. The risk of teratogenesis is a matter of probability, and it's 100% if it's spread to you.

After talking about these three untouchable minefields, the remaining "taboos" that are rumored to be magical are actually mostly in the gray area of ​​"can you eat them?" and are very controversial.

Take coffee as an example. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists clearly states that daily caffeine intake should not exceed 200mg (about one medium cup of regular American coffee, or 2 cups of ordinary instant coffee). As long as there are no threatened abortions or unstable fetal heartbeats, and you will not feel panic or insomnia after drinking it, then drinking one cup every day is absolutely fine. When I was pregnant with my eldest son, I had severe morning sickness. I relied on half a cup of iced Americano every morning to suppress my nausea. The whole prenatal checkup was all green, and the baby was born healthy at 8 pounds. However, many Chinese medicine practitioners recommend completely quitting caffeine during pregnancy because they think it will excite the uterus, especially pregnant mothers who have had a history of miscarriage. I think it all depends on which one you believe. No one is right or wrong. If the elderly at home refuse to drink it, there is no need to quarrel with family members over a sip of coffee. It is not a mistake.

There are also crabs that have been scolded for many years. The older generation said that eating them will cause them to slip. In fact, there is no concept of "spin" in Western medicine. As long as the crabs are fresh and thoroughly steamed for 15 minutes, you are not allergic to seafood. Eating one or two at a time is perfectly fine. When my best friend was pregnant with her second child, she was greedy in the winter and ate half a steamed hairy crab. Nothing happened. However, the pregnant mother in the same ward had diarrhea for two days after eating one in the first trimester. People with weak spleen and stomach cannot eat cold food, so there is no need to carry it, right?

There are other sayings about not eating hawthorn, not eating ice cream, and not eating spicy food. It all depends on personal habits: if you chew three kilograms of hawthorn at one time, everyone will definitely have a stomachache. If you usually eat a candied haws and drink two sips of hawthorn water, it will be fine.； It’s normal for pregnant mothers with cold stomachs to eat a small pudding in the summer. When I was pregnant with my second child, I ate a chocolate chip a day during the dog days of summer, and I didn’t have any diarrhea after the baby was born. ； Pregnant mothers in the Sichuan and Chongqing areas also eat spicy food every time they have their babies. You can't just switch to plain boiled vegetables when you're pregnant, right? As long as you feel comfortable eating it and don't have any uncomfortable reactions, you don't need to eat it at all.

As for the claims that "eating soy sauce will make babies black", "eating rabbits will cause cleft lip" and "eating mutton will cause epilepsy" are purely nonsense. I ate braised pork ribs in soy sauce dozens of times during my pregnancy, and my baby is now glowing white. Hare lip is caused by genes and teratogenic factors in early pregnancy, and has nothing to do with eating rabbits. Don't believe these rumors of the older generation.

In fact, my biggest feeling about being pregnant with two children is that you really don’t have to act like an ascetic when you are pregnant. I have seen too many pregnant mothers who dare not eat this or touch that. They are worried about eating the wrong things throughout the pregnancy, but their bad mood affects their hormone levels. The most important thing to pay attention to is not what you can’t eat, but what you shouldn’t eat too much: eating too much high-sugar milk tea cakes can easily lead to gestational diabetes, and eating too much high-salt pickled vegetables can lead to edema and high blood pressure. These are more harmful than the so-called “taboo foods”.

Keep the three red lines mentioned at the beginning, and occasionally have a craving for hot pot, drink a cup of milk tea, or nibble a crab. It's really nothing. If you are comfortable, your baby will grow well, right?