What You Can’t Eat in Pregnancy
After my last post, I’ve been thinking about food and I’ve determined what it is that I miss the most. I miss my soft serve ice cream.
When I first got pregnant and started learning about all the things I couldn’t eat, most of the restrictions seemed fairly easy to live with. I’d expected alcohol to be off limits, of course, since that seems to be something everyone knows these days. I occasionally think it would be nice to have a glass of wine with a meal (especially when we happen to have Italian pasta, for some reason), but it isn’t any major craving.
Some things on the list surprised me. Deli meats being off limits seemed strange at first, until I found out it is because cold cuts can harbor the Listeria bacteria. No more ham sandwiches for lunch unless the ham is thoroughly cooked and reheated!
Caffeine is occasionally difficult, but with a limit of 200-300 mg of caffeine allowed daily, I’m ok with one cup of coffee or a few cups of tea. Tea is so prevalent in the culture here, I think it would be hard if I had to avoid it entirely.
One I hadn’t thought much about until the last few weeks is hot dogs. Beijing has recently been hit with a huge hot dog craze, with hot dog stands and restaurants serving hot dogs springing up all over the place in the last month or two. I wasn’t missing them when they weren’t around, but now whenever my friends stop at a stand and get one, they seem to smell really good!
With my cheese cravings, soft cheeses being on the off limits food list has been tough at times. It helps that there are so many other hard cheeses I can choose from, though. And our local western grocery stores seem to be well stocked with a wide variety. So whenever a particular craving for, say, blue cheese or Camembert comes up, I can easily substitute a good parmesan or cheddar and distract myself.
Sushi seemed like it might be a problem at first, since my friends tend to like to eat at Japanese restaurants. But there are enough vegetarian sushi options that don’t involve raw fish that I adapted quickly. I’ve become hooked enough on avocado rolls that I’ll probably still eat them after raw fish are allowed back in my diet.
But of all these things, none is more missed than my soft serve ice cream. The Dairy Queen near the subway station taunts me now, with their dipped cones and Blizzards. Hard ice cream never seems to truly satisfy the soft-serve lust, either. I suppose I only have a couple more months to go, so I can wait just a little longer. Hmm…I wonder if they’ll let Justin bring me a Blizzard in the hospital after I have the baby?
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