Diet taboos in early pregnancy

Uncooked ingredients, food/drinks containing any alcohol, high-risk marine fish with excessive mercury, and other statements on the Internet such as "cannot eat crabs/hawthorns/ice drinks" have no absolute scientific basis. As long as you tolerate it and eat it in moderation, there will be no problem.

Let’s start with these three categories of foods that are completely non-controversial and that all obstetricians and gynecologists will tell you to avoid.

The first is raw/half-cooked ingredients that have not been thoroughly heated, such as sashimi from Japanese restaurants, runny eggs, half-cooked steak with red blood streaks, freshly squeezed unsterilized fresh milk, including tender meat slices that are blanched for a few seconds when making hot pot. This type of food has a high risk of carrying Listeria. An ordinary person may suffer from diarrhea for two days at most if infected. Pregnant women are 10-20 times more likely to be infected. In severe cases, it may cause intrauterine infection, miscarriage or even fetal arrest. I went to the emergency room with my best friend a while ago. She was so greedy that she ate half-cooked foie gras from an izakaya. She had diarrhea for two days and almost had to have a miscarriage. The final check showed that she was not infected with listeria. She was so scared that she didn't dare to touch half-cooked food until she gave birth.

Then there are all foods containing alcohol. This is the unanimous consensus of the global obstetrics and gynecology community: there is no safe dose of alcohol intake during pregnancy. Regardless of whether it is rice dumplings with fermented glutinous rice, wine-filled chocolate, fruit wine with a very low alcohol content, or dishes that have not been cooked thoroughly with a large amount of cooking wine, don’t touch them. Alcohol will pass through the placenta and enter the fetus without any obstacles. Even a little bit may affect the neurological development of the fetus. There is no need to take any chances.

There are also high-risk marine fish with excessive mercury content, such as swordfish, swordfish, tilefish, and large tuna belly. These fish are in the upper reaches of the food chain and contain more mercury in their bodies. Long-term consumption may affect the development of the fetal nervous system. If you want to eat fish to supplement your nutrition, there is absolutely no problem. Just choose low-mercury fish such as salmon, pangasius, and farmed cod. It is safe to eat 2-3 times a week, about 100g each time.

Now that we have completed the taboos that we have completely reached consensus on, let’s talk about the taboo foods of “Internet celebrities” that are the most frequently asked and controversial ones.

For example, crabs, hawthorns, and ice drinks are listed as top taboos by the elderly. In fact, the judgments of different medical systems vary greatly. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that these foods are cold in nature and may increase the risk of bleeding for pregnant women with a cold constitution and a history of threatened abortion, so they usually recommend taboos. ； However, from the perspective of Western medicine and evidence-based medicine, there are currently no studies proving that eating normal amounts of crabs and hawthorns will directly cause miscarriage. The two pregnant mothers around me are extreme examples: one ate popsicles every day for the first three months and had a green light all the way through prenatal check-up, and the other started bleeding after eating half a piece of iced watermelon. Later, it was found out that she had low progesterone and her symptoms happened to occur on the day she ate ice. It had nothing to do with the watermelon itself.

There is no need to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to such controversial foods: if you are allergic to crabs, have diarrhea when eating ice, or have symptoms of threatened miscarriage such as bleeding or low progesterone, then avoid them.； If you usually have a strong stomach and suddenly want to eat a bite, it is perfectly fine to eat half a crab and drink two sips of iced milk tea. There is no need to be frightened for several days just because you took one bite. On the contrary, a bad mood will have a greater impact on the fetus. I also met a pregnant mother last week. Her mother-in-law made her cry because she secretly took a bite of crab. When she came for a B-ultrasound, everything was normal. I told her that next time she wanted to eat crab, she could just take a few bites behind her mother-in-law's back. She didn't have to feel guilty, and she was amused.

Another pitfall that many people easily fall into is taking supplements like crazy just after pregnancy. In fact, the fetus's fingernails are only as big as the first three months of pregnancy, so the nutrients it needs are not much different from those before pregnancy. Daily supplements with ginseng, velvet antler, and old hen soup will eventually grow all over the body, but it will increase the risk of gestational diabetes and hypertension later in life. There was a patient who gained 8 pounds in the first month of her pregnancy. She was forced to drink tonic soup every day by her family. Later, the doctor ordered her to adjust her diet and stabilize her weight.

As for coffee and milk tea, which many people struggle with, they are not completely untouchable. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has long made it clear that it is safe to consume no more than 200 mg of caffeine per day during pregnancy, which is about the amount of a medium cup of American coffee, or two cups of regular instant coffee. If you usually feel flustered and insomnia after drinking coffee, then definitely don’t touch it. ； But if the pregnancy is so severe that you vomit everything you eat, you can only rely on half a cup of latte to be energetic enough to eat. You can drink it, which is better than not being able to eat anything and not being able to keep up with nutrition. I myself suffered from vomiting in the early stages of my pregnancy, so I managed it through half a cup of warm latte every day, and the entire prenatal check-up was fine.

In fact, pregnancy is a natural physiological process. There is no need to make it feel like you are in jail and dare not touch anything. The core thing is to remember the three types of foods that must not be touched, and the rest can be made as comfortable as possible. The first three months of pregnancy are actually uncomfortable, and being able to eat is more important than anything else. If you are really not sure whether you can eat something, just ask your prenatal doctor, which is much more reliable than the messy short videos you see.