Foods and Beverages that you must avoid during Pregnancy
Embracing motherhood is one of the best phases of life. While it brings you the joy of giving birth to a new life, it is also a sensitive period that demands acute attentiveness in all aspect of your lifestyle.
Eating healthy is one of the primary aspects that affects how you grow through your pregnancy. While there are some superfoods that make you healthy and strong to bear a healthy child, there are some others food and beverages which must be avoided in every condition.
In this post, we have mentioned 11 different foods and beverages that pregnant women must avoid completely to have a healthy and fruitful pregnancy:
Fish with high mercury content:
Consuming mercury is harmful to human body. There are n allowed levels for mercury intake and the source of mercury is polluted water. It may not only affect your nervous system, kidneys, and immune system but can be a risk factor for the development of your child.
Eating large marine fish can expose you to a higher intake of mercury levels. Some of the fishes that are known to have high mercury levels include Shark, Swordfish, King Mackerel, and Tuna.
Raw or undercooked fish:
Eating raw fish is associated with several infections, especially n case of shellfish. The infections can be varied ranging from viral to bacterial to parasitic and more.
While these infections can be limited to the mother alone, there are a few that can be passed on to the unborn child as well and the results can be fatal. The most common infection developed from raw fish is Listeria.
Raw, processed or undercooked Meat:
Toxoplasma, E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella are a few infections that a pregnant woman can develop when she consumes raw, processed or undercooked meat.
These bacteria can pass on to the baby and result in stillbirth, neurological disorder, blindness, epilepsy, and mental retardation.
Salmonella is the most common infection induced by raw eggs consumption. In most of the cases, the infection only affects the mother causing fever, nausea, stomach cramps, diarrhea and more. In a very rare occurrence, the infection can affect the child and result in stillbirth or premature delivery. Raw egg-related food items include:
- Salad Dressings
- Poached Eggs
- Cake Icings
- Homemade Mayonnaise
- Hollandaise Sauce
- Lightly Scrambled Eggs
Organ meat is a great source of iron, vitamin B12, vitamin A, and copper. However, experts recommend that eating a lot of animal-based vitamin A is not good for pregnancy. This type of Vitamin A can induce high copper levels in the body, inducing stillbirth or liver toxicity.
Coffee, tea, cocoa, and soft drinks are the most common source of caffeine. While consuming a certain amount of caffeine is good the intake should not go beyond 200 mg per day, which equals to 2-3 cups of coffee per day.
High intake can easily reach to the placenta and the fetus and can result in lower birth weight as well as developmental delay.
Just like raw eggs, raw sprouts too have a higher risk of Salmonella infection. You must not consume raw sprouts including mung beans sprouts, clover, radish and more and cook them before you eat.
Unwashed food items:
When you consume unwashed food items, you are exposing yourself to the rash of contracting Toxoplasma, E. coli, Salmonell, and Listeria infections.
These bacteria develop in the fruits and vegetable during the harvesting, processing, storage and transportation period. Toxoplasma is the most complicated bacteria which can result in blindness or intellectual disabilities ina child at a later age.
Alcohol consumption increases the risk of still birth or miscarriage. It can also affect the baby’s brain development, significantly.
Excessive alcohol consumption can result in fetal alcohol syndrome which can result in facial deformities, heart defects and mental retardation.
While herbal abortion is the best way to seek when you do not want a child, food induced miscarriages and child birth defects are very heart breaking in case of a wanted pregnancy.
It is very important to avoid these, and other food and beverages that is harmful for your pregnancy.
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