Food questions

Okay...

I am just a bit confused about things like lunch meat and listeria and sushi etc.

I have read that you should avoid all lunch meat and deli type foods while pregnant due to e-coli and listeria.  Does this inlcude pre packaged lunch meats like ham that come in those little plastic containers?

Also... if you make your own sushi rolls using tinned salmon or cooked shrimp that you have heated to the proper temp is that okay?

Do the GP's give you some in depth guide once you become pregnant?

there was headlines on a paper saying something about food and pregnancy today i think......that the Dr's were all wrong and you can eat some types of food?

I ate whatever I wanted but the midwives will tell you which foods to avoid.

it is the foods they were all wrong about..that which ones you can and cannot eat.....

I ate whatever I wanted but the midwives will tell you which foods to avoid.

same here.  all in moderation. 

i don't like processed meats or sushi, so had no worries there. 

I ate whatever I wanted too and used common sense.

The only guideline I really kept to was minimizing the amount of mercury-heavy fish I ate.  Which was awful as I craved tuna during my entire pregnancy.

Oh, and unpasteurized cheeses.  Although they're probably not such a big deal, I chose to ease off the brie.

I eat whatever I want in moderation, though I do keep fish to two portions a week due to mercury.
I was advised by my OB/GYN in the states about the mercury.

I eat whatever I want in moderation, though I do keep fish to two portions a week due to mercury.
I was advised by my OB/GYN in the states about the mercury.

Do midwives not mention it in the UK?  How strange.

I avoided peanuts. Or tried to!

Do midwives not mention it in the UK? How strange.

Mine did. I don't eat any fish though, so we skipped that bit. She basically said nothing raw, unpasteurized, or allergy-causing (like nuts) if I had a history of allergies. Which I don't. It seems like, depending on which week you get pregnant, there are a million and a half more things not to eat. But really, it is all pretty basic and common sense. Avoiding things that like to cause food poisoning etc...

I remember my midwife told me to avoid liver which I was surprised because I thought liver was a good source of iron in which my system is always deficient.

Liver is very high in Vitamin A which is why you should avoid it while pregnant or trying and Pate even if tinned.

See I have a fish question too... does the two servings just mean high mercury fish or can you eat more servings of fish like river trout, flounder etc.?

The UK guidelines mention large fish like swordfish, tuna, shark etc but not little ones...

I love love seafood...

but then again I may go off it.. who knows!

I hadn't heard one thing about the mercury thing in tuna so I happily ate 2 sandwhiches for lunch 2 days last week and then ran across in a NON-pregnancy related magazine and thought "WTF?"  I hadn't heard anything from my midwife, GP, or pregnancy manual about it.  My book just says the thing about cheeses, uncooked eggs, pate, etc.  I was really upset and thought I messed up big time, and now I'm just avoiding it all together.

You can safely eat those two sandwiches.

Also the darker tuna is safer than the all white one. 

Mercury has been linked to brain defects and also to possibly higher levels of ADD/ADHD though I suspect those studies are inthe very early stages so far.

Larger game type fish have higher levels of mercury.

It's all about moderation.  Fish is good for you with all the Omega3's and protein it's still a brain food.  You just have to be aware of what types you eat and to not consume too much mercury containing ones.

From the FSA http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/agesandstages/pregnancy/whenyrpregnant/

"Some types of fish
You can eat most types of fish when you’re pregnant. But there are a few types you should avoid and some others where you should limit the amount you eat.

Avoid eating any shark, swordfish and marlin. Limit the amount of tuna you eat to no more than two tuna steaks a week (weighing about 140g cooked or 170g raw) or four medium-size cans of tuna a week (with a drained weight of about 140g per can). This is because of the levels of mercury in these fish. At high levels, mercury can harm a baby's developing nervous system.

Have no more than two portions of oily fish a week. Oily fish includes fresh tuna (not canned tuna, which does not count as oily fish), mackerel, sardines and trout.

But remember that eating fish is good for your health and the development of your baby, so you should still aim to eat at least two portions of fish a week, including one portion of oily fish"