Diet taboos before pregnancy

The core taboos of pre-pregnancy diet are actually not as exaggerated as the dozens or hundreds of taboos posted online. In summary, there are only three core principles: absolutely avoid foods that are clearly teratogenic, minimize foods with risks of infection/endocrine disruption, and do not deliberately diet and picky eaters for unwarranted "taboos" - instead, nutritional imbalance is the biggest obstacle to pregnancy preparation.

Let me start by saying that there is no controversy. No matter which department you ask, the doctor will tell you to stop drinking and drinking alcohol. Don’t believe the folk saying that “a small amount of red wine can invigorate blood circulation and warm the uterus”. Last year, I accompanied a little sister who was preparing for pregnancy to the reproductive department for consultation. She usually drank 3 degrees alcoholic fruit wine, and I specifically asked the doctor if drinking one cup a week would be okay. The director directly gave her fetal alcohol syndrome. Even a very small amount of alcohol may affect fetal neurodevelopment through the placenta, and in severe cases may lead to developmental malformations. Whether it is low-alcohol fruit wine, fermented rice dumplings, or even meat braised with rice wine, it is best to avoid it during pregnancy preparations, and do not bet on luck.

As for the most controversial question "whether raw and half-cooked food can be eaten", the guidelines in different regions do have different opinions. According to the dietary guidelines of many European and American countries, as long as they are sterile-processed raw foods and soft-boiled eggs, you can eat them normally during pregnancy preparation and pregnancy. However, most clinicians in China still recommend eating fully cooked foods as much as possible. This is mainly because when we usually eat out, it is difficult to confirm whether the food processing is up to standard. Infections of ordinary people such as Listeria and Toxoplasma may just cause diarrhea, but infections during pregnancy or early pregnancy have a high probability of causing fetal malformation and miscarriage. I had a patient who came for consultation before who was infected with acute gastroenteritis after eating arctic clam sashimi from a popular Japanese restaurant while preparing for pregnancy. She had originally scheduled artificial insemination that month, but had to postpone it for three months until her body had completely metabolized it before restarting the plan. If you are really hungry and want to eat raw food, you can either find a reliable high-end store with formal sterile qualifications, or simply wait until the baby is born before eating. It never hurts to be more cautious.

When preparing for pregnancy, many people always think about "taking a supplement", but instead fall into the trap of supplements. This is actually a hidden dietary taboo that many people do not notice. For example, many elders like to give supplements such as donkey-hide gelatin and saffron to girls who are preparing for pregnancy. They have heavy menstrual flow and are prone to getting angry. Taking them will cause menstrual disorders, which is not conducive to pregnancy. There are also Internet celebrity anti-sugar pills, whitening pills, and fat-reducing enzymes that many girls now love to stock up on. I once met a 28-year-old girl who took imported whitening pills for half a year before preparing for pregnancy. When the six hormones were checked, the estrogen level was twice the normal range, and the follicular development was slowed down for a whole week. It took almost four months to return to normal levels. Many of these Internet celebrity supplements do not have clear ingredient labels, and there are many that secretly add estrogen. It is best not to use them randomly during pregnancy preparations. If you want to supplement nutrition, just ask a doctor to prescribe regular folic acid and multivitamins. Don’t pay IQ tax by eating Internet celebrity products blindly.

As for what young people are most concerned about, "whether they can drink milk tea and coffee", there is no need to kill it with one shot. The current authoritative recommendation from the WHO is that daily caffeine intake should not exceed 200mg, which is about the amount of a medium cup of regular American or a cup of normal tea-based pearl milk tea. I have a friend who works in the Internet industry. During the pregnancy preparation period, he drank a glass of iced Americano every day, and he continued throughout the entire pregnancy. The prenatal check-up gave the green light, and the baby he gave birth to was also very healthy. But if you drink coffee and your heart beats faster, you suffer from insomnia, or you have problems with irregular heartbeat and low progesterone, then definitely don’t drink it. Standards are dead, people are alive, and your own physical feelings are the most important.

In fact, I have seen too many girls who are preparing for pregnancy. They have memorized a page full of taboo lists. They dare not eat spicy strips, dare not touch hot pot, and even struggle to eat a crab for half an hour. Instead, they make themselves stressed every day, endocrine disorders, and they are not pregnant for half a year. You really don’t need to be so nervous. Except for the types of foods mentioned above that are clearly high-risk, eating an occasional bite of spicy strips or two bites of crab to satisfy your craving will not be a problem at all. As long as you don’t eat high-fat and high-salt foods every day, the impact is not as harmful as the harm of being anxious every day.

To put it bluntly, the core of pre-pregnancy diet is not "don't eat this and don't touch that", but try to eat fresh and balanced foods to keep your body in a comfortable and relaxed state. Only when you feel comfortable will the baby be willing to come.