Food for thought

Roughly 6 weeks (I really can't wait to have a dating scan so I know exactly how far along I am)

Food becomes something you have to think about a lot when your pregnant, for a start you need to eat lots of vitamin's and calcium and remember to take your folic acid, while remembering that you need an extra 300 calories a day, and eating regularly does seem to help you reduce your morning sickness (rice cakes and ginger and lemon tea are being my saviors right now). so that's lots of fruit and vegetables and milk and cheese eaten at regular intervals. oh, and fish is also really good for you, and you should be careful that you eat lots of fiber and keep your iron levels up... I'm someone who normally only remembers to eat a couple of times a day, and has a bit of an expensive take-out habit...this is a bit of a difference.

but at the same time as trying to eat as well as possible you also need to avoid:

• Fish that's raw (no sushi! but I love sushi!)  
• Fish that's smoked. 
• Deep sea fish (like sword fish and tuna though you can eat some tuna, but only a small amount.)
• Shell fish (no prawns or muscles or oysters unless they are very well cooked.)
• Peanuts (so no snickers bars or peanut butter!)
• Rare meat (so no rare steak! Coyote cooked me a steak and we both felt awful when he had to cook it well done rather than my usual rare-blue and still mooing) chicken and pork especially you need to be careful of.
• Unpasteurized milk and cheese.
• Blue cheese, or cheese with a rind (Stilton and camembert are completely out)
• Uncooked egg (no soft boiled egg or runny poached egg on toast)
• Liver (no chore for me, yuck!)
• Pate (I think duck liver pate is doubly not allowed)
• Food with soil on them (potato's and such need to be very carefully washed before eating)
• Cold cured meat (pepperoni, parma ham, salami) 
• Caffeine (you can drink/eat a little bit, but I feel guilty for even eating a chocolate bar)
• Sweet chilly sauce (I'm really not sure about this one, but a friend made me promise)
• and of course, cigarettes, alcohol (or food with alcohol in it) and drugs (not that I do drugs, but this includes painkillers and such).

all this leaves you looking very carefully at any menu you get handed, and wracking your brains before saying yes to people cooking for you.