Food: What foods to avoid and WHY?

What to eat, or what not to eat.. That is the magical question during pregnancy.
Personally, I decide what to eat based on three goals:
1. Provide enough food, vitamins, and nutrients for the baby
2. Do not give the baby anything that is known to cause birth defects or abnormal growth
3. Try not to get sick

Unless told otherwise from your doctor, there is no need to add extra calories until the final trimester. Cravings are your body’s way of letting you know that you are lacking something, not necessarily hungry. For example, if you are craving ice cream or creamy foods, you are probably deficient in calcium. Eat broccoli. Boring, I know! But, better for you. 

There are foods proven to have a direct causation in harming your unborn baby; containing high levels of mercury, caffeine or vitamin A. I strongly suggest avoiding those.
However, foods like deli meat, raw fish/eggs or undercooked meats are only “bad” if they make you sick. Of course, we all know by now that eating an italian sub everyday for lunch is not the best choice for anyone, pregnant or not, but how many people do you know to have developed crippling food poisoning after eating one? Or went to the hospital from a sunny side up egg? The main reason for those foods to be avoided during pregnancy is to not become sick and risk a fever or harm to the baby.
My advice: Be careful, be extra cautious, and be mindful of what you put in your body, and realize your baby is eating the same as you, but live your life and have some prosciutto on your eggs benedict. 

Now for the hottest topic of them all.. Drinking! Taboo. Don’t do it, or you are the worst, most horrible mother in the entire world. Should you get black out drunk, of course not. Should you even get tipsy every night, no. Can you have a glass of champagne to ring in the new year, yes. What about a glass of wine with dinner on a special occasion, yes.
The correlation (very different from causation), between drinking and fetal alcohol syndrome, is binge drinking mixed with other drugs, such as cocaine. In Europe, it is very common for an expecting mother to have a glass of wine with lunch. If this one glass of wine had a direct negative causation on their baby, we would see much lower IQs in European children. This simply is not the case. Remember, when slowly drinking a glass of wine (to be enjoyed, not downed to get drunk) with food, the alcohol needs to be absorbed, processed through your liver, then absorbed in the fetus and processed in their liver.. The remaining alcohol is what causes damage.
Disclaimer: Everyone is different, and I am not here to give out medical advice or play doctor. Just trying to put everything in perspective as I learn more and more about pregnancy. 

In the end, eat your free-range eggs and grass-fed meat; limit antibiotics and processed food; enjoy your sushi and soft cheese.

cbxo