Can I eat Pineapple in Pregnancy?!
Knowing what you can and can’t eat during pregnancy can be confusing. Senior NHS Midwife, Hannah O’Sullivan answers one of the most Googled questions when it comes to pregnancy diet - can you eat pineapple?! Read on for the answer to that question along with more pregnancy nutrition tips.
Good nutrition is one of the ways we can often hear we need to look after our health in pregnancy, but when you’ve spent the last few weeks feeling sick at the thought of anything other than dry crackers or similar, it can feel daunting to even consider if your nutritional needs are being met. I survived the first trimester of my first pregnancy only able to stomach Dominos Double Pepperoni pizza. Eating lots of veg was not high on the agenda - but oh! I craved the salt!
As a midwife, a person, and a parent, I am fully in agreement with the framework of Intuitive Eating. With my newborn baby, I trusted her to breastfeed on demand; to tell me when she was hungry and feed until she was full. So it seemed clear to me to allow her the same self-awareness when it came to eating solid food. Hungry? Eat. Not hungry? Wait until later.
As adults though, in a world so full of advertising and surrounded by diet culture, it is very hard to listen to your body and hear what it actually needs. We have lost faith in ourselves knowing what and when to eat. So yes, I can tell you a few foods that we recommend you avoid in pregnancy but more importantly I want you to be able to trust and listen to your body.
How do you feel after eating a meal? Energetic, bloated, sluggish? When you feel hungry are you experiencing physical signs of hunger (rumbling tummy, irritable, tired) or are you actually bored or sad? If so, recognise that eating can salve emotional hunger too - eating food can be a great source of joy. Don’t apply moral judgements to food - there is no ‘good’ food and ‘bad’ food: there is only food.
Remember that, particularly for those of us who have been socialised as women, we are deeply influenced by diet culture. Capitalist, patriarchal Western society makes a lot of money and keeps a lot of power by making women obsess about calorie-counting and dieting. Learning to listen to your body’s cues will improve your relationship with food, will support you on your journey to parenting a little human who will learn about food by watching you eat, and also helps to slay the patriarchy - what’s not to love?!
You will undoubtedly hear lots of comments about foods to avoid, or foods that can help you get into labour etc. Make sure that you are relying on evidence-based information that comes from a reputable source - like your midwife or the NHS website.
Remember that as new research is carried out, advice can change. For example, for many years pregnant women and people have been advised to cook eggs until the yolk is hard, to reduce the likelihood of catching Salmonella. However, in the UK we now have flocks that are tested and are Salmonella free. The eggs from these chickens are stamped with the Red Lion mark and it is safe to eat these egg yolks runny. Hooray for dippy eggs!
Likewise there has been changing advice about the chance of picking up food poisoning from cured meats, or rare beef. Currently the NHS recommends that you are cautious with cured meats, and avoid raw or partially cooked meat due to the possibility of parasites that could cause Toxoplasmosis - an infection that can lead to miscarriage and pregnancy complications, especially if caught in early pregnancy.
There are also always ‘old wives tales’ about foods that can start labour - pineapple, spicy curry, castor oil (blergh). There is no evidence to back these up - although never underestimate the power of a placebo to give you confidence and help to reduce anxiety about labour; that really could help!
Pineapples contain Bromelin, an enzyme which breaks down proteins in tissues and so it is hypothesised to soften the cervix. There is no evidence to link it to causing labour - pre or post term. The side effects of eating lots of Pineapple, like tummy ache and diarrhea, potentially could irritate the uterus into action - same theory for castor oil and spicy food - but it’s not enjoyable and there is no evidence that it will work.
A small study, meanwhile, looked at eating 6 date fruits a day from 36 weeks, to reduce the likelihood of ‘prolonged pregnancy’. Those who ate the dates all went into labour before 42 weeks of pregnancy, and had a higher average cervical dilation on their first vaginal assessment in labour. So although a small study - quite good outcomes and the only one with any back up from research!
