Seriously, there are MORE foods I can't eat.
Over the weekend I bought beef jerky. For several years it was my #1 favorite snack and I ate a TON of it. I overdosed on it though and haven't had any for a while. Well, here I am, eating goldfish crackers and I thought, I can do better. So I bought fresh fruits and veggies to keep at work and I'm doing well with eating that kind of food. But meat has been a challenge, and I need more protein and iron. So I got beef jerky.
And then I went and looked it up this morning. There are two concerns with Beef Jerky. The first is Toxoplasmosis, which can be gotten from undercooked meats and from cats (cat boxes in particular). Well, that one is ok, because like chicken pox, once you've gotten it, you're immune. In my 25 years of pre-pregnant life I've probably eaten 100 lbs or more of beef jerky and cleaned a cat box in excess of 1000 times. If I was going to get it, I've already gotten it. But the second concern is Listeria. My god, Listeria may be my new least favorite thing in the world (right now). Soft cheeses, lunch meats, and now Beef Jerky are all on the list for issues with this stupid bacteria. I'm really cranky.
I'm still asking my mom what her thoughts on beef jerky are, but it looks like this large costco sized package (that admittedly I did eat a small piece of while I started to look it up) will go to waste. I'm so freaking frustrated. Knowledge is not power, knowledge is annoying.
As I add to the list of foods I'm not allowed to have, I keep watching Mad Men, where the pregnant women ate shrimp and drank alcohol and I remember that for thousands of years these silly rules weren't in effect. Are we just being overly cautious? Am I also suffering more than others because I research everything I'm even remotely curious about? In my searching I found pregnancy discussion boards where women were like "Absolutely, have beef jerky, it's great" and "I can't see a reason why not to." But I can't either, and yet I looked it up and now I'm nervous.
Days Pregnant: 103
Days to go: 177
This never came up in any of the books I read and I never thought to look it up. Quick internet search shows that it isn't a completely obscure thought either. I guess I'll skip the beef jerky next pregnancy and have more... I don't know what. Baked potatoes. :)
ReplyDelete-Amber