We often get to see lots of articles around healthy foods and recommended foods for our pregnancy, focused on taking care of our own health and that of our baby. On the contrary, there are some foods that mostly nobody speaks about and are the ones that should be avoided. Here, you will find the foods to be avoided and also the reasons why they should avoid them.
It is important to highlight that this a generic list and these are not the only foods that we must avoid. Some of them will depend on our health condition as a whole, of any allergies or any specific situations presented during the pregnancy, that is why we should always be under the care of a specialist that will support us during our pregnancy in order to take care of our health and to better develop our baby during our 9 months pregnancy.
In general, the foods to avoid during pregnancy are:
- Raw or undercooked meat: We should avoid pork, raw sausages, paté, raw jam, steak tartare and carpaccio. Raw food can contain pathogenic agents from toxoplasmosis that could damage our baby’s brain. The germs die when you cook them and heat them.
- Smoked ham, serrano ham and cold smoked fish such as smoked salmon and eel.
- Canned salads: these salads and canned gourmet products can contain bacteria.
- Raw or low cooked eggs: raw eggs can contain salmonella. You should then avoid foods such as mayonnaise and tiramisú as they are prepared with raw eggs.
- Raw milk, unpasteurized and products from non heated milk. These includes all raw milk cheeses, soft cheeses such as brie and Camembert. These products may contain listeria.
- Raw milk products. You should avoid cheeses such as brie, gorgonzola, ricotta and feta cheese as they may contain bacteria. For the same reason, raw fish such as sushi should be avoided the same as smoked salmon.
- Liver: if you like viscera you should avoid it as the contamination risk is very high and there is also danger of vitamin A overdose.
- Alcohol: must be completely avoided. It can have a very strong effect in your baby’s development.
- Drinks with quinine or caffeine: you should avoid quinine water as well as black tea, coffee, sodas and energetic drinks. .They all should be avoided during your diet in your pregnancy.
- Strict vegetarian diet: as it will be difficult to ingest the proper quantities of proteins, vitamin B12, calcium, iron and zinc.
- Refined or poor carbs: you should avoid sugar and white flour products, try to replace them by high quality products such as potatoes, grains bread, pasta and grains rice.
- Fish with high content of mercury: these kind of fish such as sharks, swordfish, etc should be avoided. Some specialists recommend also low consumption of fresh tuna and salmon no more than 2 per week.
Dra. Virginia Treviño
Médico Bariatra FIVER/SALUZ