Monday, February 7, 2011
Countdown to sushi
If you have never been pregnant, you might not know about the exhaustive list of foods that are forbidden during those special 40 weeks. I've been good about caffeine by indulging only occasionally in a half-caf or london fog. While I'm not really a drinker, I do love craft beer, but I've also sacrificed that indulgence for the little guy. And I've cut out canned tuna and most of the high-mercury fishes. I've admittedly half-assed it with some of the rules. There have been a few cold cut sandwiches, albeit only from places that I trust to store the stuff properly. I've eaten cheeses that were probably unpasteurized. And even though they were cooked, some mushrooms have snuck into my diet.
The one food that I've cut out entirely, mostly out of fear of food poisoning but also because of the mercury issue, is sushi. I've been a fan of sushi for a good many years, now, but it's just one of many foods that I like to eat. Inexplicably, though, I have been missing and craving it daily since finding out I was pregnant. I constantly miss the heat of a spicy tuna roll, the tang of good yellowtail, the smoke of a philly roll. I even miss my personal ritual of eating sushi: open chopsticks, rub them together (to smoothe them), pour the soy, put the wasabi in it, mix it up, put the ginger in the soy to soak, place one piece of ginger atop each piece of sushi and dig in. So precise. So tasty.
It's gotten to the point where I am keeping two time lines: how far along I am in the pregnancy and how much longer I have until I can eat sushi. I'm 29 weeks pregnant which means sushi shall be mine in about 11 weeks. Do you think I could just have a few rolls delivered to the recovery room in labor & delivery?
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Go get some vegetarian sushi! No fish, but lots of ricey,gingery,wasabi-soysauce goodness to hold you over until you can have the real thing.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, Deb. I think I need the fishy fish. But maybe!
ReplyDeleteDid you know, as I just found out, that it takes 6 months for mercury to build up in one's system to any kindof dangerous level? Barring mention of the amount you'd have to eat to hit that? So, while I certainly don't want you to do anything you're not comfortable with, my OBGYN friends all had occasional sushi (and one had a daily glass of wine) during their pregnancies - all to no bad effect. You be comfy honey, but if you want a nice piece of salmon, Little Boy T should be a-ok!
ReplyDeleteGood to know, Jill! I think the concern is also possible food-born illness from eating uncooked protein, and that's what I certainly fear more than anything. But maybe it just means that I need to go eat some GOOD sushi at a fancy place. :)
ReplyDeleteI have been craving sushi too. It's so funny how you really want what you can't have. This comment thread is very interesting to me. Hmm, I have about 20 weeks to go.
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