Is It Safe to Eat Taramasalata While Pregnant
The news this week, that a Sainsbury's worker refused to serve a pregnant woman unpasteurised cheddar is infuriating for several reasons.
The idea that it's helpful to "offer your opinion" on what pregnant women should - and more often should not - be eating is commonly held and acted upon regularly in my experience so far. And, as was the case with the interfering shopworker here, people all too often get their facts wrong, with Sainsbury's admitting today, "unpasteurised Cheddar does not pose a risk to health during pregnancy".
That said, it's hardly surprising that there is confusion - despite the Food Standards Agency recommending that unpasteurised hard cheeses are safe during pregnancy, some retailers, such as Waitrose, do err on the side of caution and put a warning to pregnant women on their packaging.
And the confusion doesn't stop there. Peanuts, raspberries, honey, taramasalata, liquorice, lettuce, coffee, chamomile tea, macaroons, seafood, all oily fish, sausages, chillies, sweetbreads, kidneys, health drinks (eg Purdeys), live yoghurt, cream cheese, pork ... these are just a few of the foods which I have been misguidedly told that I should avoid entirely during pregnancy, usually just at the point when I'm about to put the food in question into my mouth. One of the things you don't expect when you first become pregnant is that everyone – friends, family, random strangers – will all have an opinion on what you should and should not eat and think that they have a right – even a duty – to impart this opinion to you. The only person who could possibly care as much as I do about my baby and who therefore does have a right to question what I am eating is my partner, but even his input has taken some getting used to. The feeling that many people think you are public property and can no longer be relied upon to know what is safe to put into your own body is not pleasant – I have gone through a range of emotions including resentment at being patronised, tearfulness (during particularly hormonal stages, admittedly, such as the time when my partner got very upset because all I'd eaten all day was endless rounds of sourdough toast with honey and peanut butter), absolute outrage, and of course, occasional amusement. I have been amazed at the confidence with which people have publicly thrown out prescriptive advice. On one such occasion I was in a crowded Thai restaurant and about to dip a cracker into some satay sauce when across the table I heard, "Catherine! Stop! You can't eat that!"
A friend who had had a baby three years previously was trying to save me from inflicting a deadly peanut allergy on my unborn child. Fortunately, I had read quite extensively round the subject, and knew that firstly, medical advice said that it was only necessary to be cautious around peanuts if either I or my partner had a history of allergy (neither of us did), and more to the point, the current opinion was that it was likely that a trend in avoiding peanuts during pregnancy was responsible for the rising allergy rate in children. I explained all of this to my friend, who found it hard to believe that official advice had so changed so dramatically and remained sceptical, then brazenly carried on eating the satay sauce.
I say brazenly because that's what is feels like when you have to justify your food choices and carry on eating in the face of approbation. I wouldn't mind the advice so much if everyone was right, but they very rarely are, and I'm sure the national obsession with food safety is somewhat to blame for this. There is so much conflicting information out there, much of which verges on hysterical scaremongering, that it's not surprising that many of us are confused at best, terrified of food, at worst.
Get yourself pregnant and these feelings are amplified because you're also responsible for the health of your baby. The overriding mentality of "if in doubt, don't", so evident on all the websites associated with health and pregnancy can engender groundless fears in the most rational of people. For example, I was recounting to a friend a discussion I'd had with my partner about taramasalata and her immediate reaction was that she wouldn't eat it, "because it just doesn't seem like the type of food one should eat during pregnancy." Why?
Another result of having all this information available is that very well meaning people often half remember things they've read, or completely get the wrong end of the stick. For example, another friend thought I couldn't eat raspberries, because she'd once read that raspberry leaf tea was used to induce labour so could cause the baby to be born prematurely. My partner has also been confused at times - he thought I couldn't eat honey because he rightly knew that children under one year of age shouldn't eat it, but he fortunately trusts me to check these things out for myself.
I do find that those who love food and who have a good general knowledge of it are much more relaxed. Attitudes also vary from generation to generation, and nationality to nationality. Women of my mother's generation become impatient when I regale them with yet another story about what I've been told not to eat - they tell me to use common sense, act on what my body is telling me it needs and otherwise, apart from the obvious (the foodstuffs which all information sources seem to agree on), eat everything in moderation. This is probably because they didn't have all of these guidelines when they were pregnant and had perfectly healthy babies regardless.
It is those people who generally view food with suspicion who are both the most fearful and the most vociferous, and unfortunately a lot of women of my generation fall into this category. Again, I do feel as though they have been made paranoid by constant food scares and a barrage of conflicting advice. The obsession with checking endless websites for information on different foodstuffs is almost akin to the hypochondriac compulsively checking his symptoms.
At times I have felt as though I am falling into the same fretful mindset myself, but usually because I have absentmindedly eaten something my common sense would have told me to avoid if I had been paying attention. I have read widely and have made decisions based on this and my own general knowledge of food. Luckily, I have the toxoplasmosis antibodies, so I am eating rare meat when I know the source (why isn't this tested for during pregnancy in the UK as it is in France?). I eat seafood and unpasteurised cheese when cooked through. I eat offal (except liver), occasionally. I wash everything thoroughly, and never buy bagged salad. I'm careful about deli products, but am not avoiding them altogether. I'm steering clear of predatory fish, because of mercury levels, limiting caffeine intake, but probably eating too much milk chocolate. I am also currently avoiding raw or partially cooked eggs but I am ambivalent about this one and want to research it more thoroughly. In short, I'm trying to be careful without being overzealous. I just wish everyone was happy with that! So if you've been pregnant and have been given advice, did you find it welcome or not? Do you act upon it, or check for yourself? Do you carefully follow official guidelines or are you prepared to take risks? And for everyone else, what is your attitude towards pregnant women of your acquaintance? Should I be more forgiving towards those who want to prevent me from making a mistake?
Is It Safe to Eat Taramasalata While Pregnant
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/oct/06/pregnancy-food