What dietary taboos should pregnant women pay attention to?

It is enough to avoid categories with clear health risks, ensure that the ingredients are clean and fully cooked, and control the intake of high oil, sugar and salt. It is not necessary and you do not dare to touch or eat that. Instead, it will make you emotionally anxious, which is not good for your baby.

Let me first talk about the absolute taboos that are uncontroversial in the entire industry. Avoid all drinks and foods containing alcohol. Even the so-called "alcohol-free beer" and "braised dishes with a lot of cooking wine" should be avoided as much as possible. The negative impact of alcohol on fetal neurodevelopment is undeniable, and there is no disagreement between Chinese and Western medicine on this point. Also avoid thoroughly cooked meat, eggs, and aquatic products. Sashimi, soft-boiled eggs, medium-rare steaks, raw pickled shrimps, and crabs can easily carry listeria and parasites. The immunity of pregnant women is lower than that of ordinary people, and the risk of infection is higher. It's several orders of magnitude higher. When my best friend was pregnant with her first child, she was so greedy that she took a bite of the drunken crab ordered by her husband. She went to the emergency room with acute gastroenteritis that night. Fortunately, she only had diarrhea for two days and it didn't affect the baby. Later, she walked around the pickled raw food stalls throughout her pregnancy.

As for the "folk taboo foods" that are making a lot of noise on the Internet, such as crabs, hawthorns, longans, and iced milk tea, there is really no need to take them too seriously. When I was pregnant, I specifically asked the director of the obstetrics department. They said that as long as you don’t have symptoms of threatened abortion, you won’t have allergies or stomach upsets when eating these foods. It’s perfectly fine to take a bite or two to satisfy your cravings when they are freshly cooked. I even secretly ate half a box of strawberry-flavored ice cream in the winter, and nothing happened. Of course, if you have a particularly sensitive constitution and usually suffer from stomachache and diarrhea after eating something cold, or have had a history of adverse pregnancy before, then there is nothing wrong with avoiding it. There is no need to try it out.

In addition to these things that everyone often discusses, there are also some pitfalls hidden in daily life that are easy to step on. Many people focus on the taboo of crab iced milk tea, but are reluctant to throw away leftovers and moldy fruits that have been left for two or three days. They cut off the bad parts and continue to eat them. The risk of toxins in these moldy foods is much higher than a bite of crab. Previously, the pregnant mother downstairs was reluctant to throw away sweet potatoes with dark spots. After steaming and eating them, she had vomiting and diarrhea, and she was hospitalized for two days for observation. Also, don’t overindulge in foods that are high in sugar and oil. That’s not to say you can’t eat them at all, but don’t eat them as food. The pregnant mother I worked with in the past had a poor appetite when she was first pregnant, so she relied on iced milk tea and small cakes every day to survive. As a result, her sugar tolerance was completely broken at 24 weeks. She had to control sugar for more than two months, and even replaced white rice with multi-grain rice. Not to mention how uncomfortable it was. In addition, don’t blindly take any folk anti-fetal medicines or ginseng and deer antler supplements. If you really want to supplement your nutrition, ask your obstetrician first. If you take the wrong supplements, problems may arise.

In fact, to put it bluntly, pregnant women really don’t have to pay too much attention to their meals. Your good mood is more important to your baby than anything else. As long as you grasp the general principles and occasionally eat what you want, it’s really not a big deal.