Which Vegan Foods Should I Avoid During Pregnancy?

If you are a vegan and you are pregnant, you might think you’re all set. But there are a few vegan foods you still want to avoid. Are there vegan foods that I should avoid during my pregnancy? Which vegan foods should I avoid?

In short: yes, you have to avoid certain vegan foods. You probably already have an idea which foods that must be. Most important vegan foods to avoid include: alcohol, caffeine, raw sprouts, unpasteurized juices and unwashed produce. But you also want to consider heavily processed foods such as potato chips, desserts, candy and overly processed cookies.

It is obvious why you should avoid alcohol, although there is some research that light drinking might be safe, but more research is needed. So stay safe and don’t drink during your pregnancy.

Experts say that current data about the consumption of more than 300mg/d caffeine is limited and conflicting. Therefore their suggestion is to limit caffeine consumption by no more than 1-2 cups of coffee a day.

Raw sprouts carry a risk of foodborne illness if contaminated with bacteria, e.g. salmonella, E. coli and listeria. Raw sprouts include alfalfa, radish, clover or mung bean sprouts.

Unpasteurized juices and unwashed produce can carry a risk of foodborne illness too if contaminated with bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. Once contaminated it is difficult to sanitize the fruit or vegetable. Yes, a vegetable can be contaminated with salmonella. Better be safe than sorry and wash your fresh produce.

What about the heavily processed vegan foods? Are they safe to consume during pregnancy?

Which vegan foods to avoid during pregnancy?

Raw sprouts

Raw sprouts carry the risk of foodborne illness if contaminated with bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli or listeria. As a pregnant woman you are immunosuppressed, which means your immune system is suppressed so your body doesn’t reject the baby as its ‘foreign’ to your own body. Therefore, you are more prone to infections that don’t normally cause illness. Keep this in mind and don’t consume raw sprouts.

Especially alfalfa should not be consumed during pregnancy. Alfalfa sprouts are considered dangerous of the risk of food poisoning; the FDA and CDC recommend not eating raw alfalfa sprouts.

Alcohol

Let’s keep it safe and don’t consume alcohol while pregnant. At least, if you know you are pregnant. If you drank something while not knowing you were pregnant, don’t blame yourself harshly for the rest of your pregnancy. It’s going to be a rough pregnancy if you’d blame yourself continuously for drinking on that one evening. This will go hand in hand with an amount of stress hormones, and that’s not really helping your pregnancy and growing baby.

Remember this: you cannot go back into the past, so focus on the future and the now. What can you do now to have a healthy pregnancy?

Caffeine

While you’d better not consume alcohol, caffeine is tolerated if we’d listen to the experts. No more than 2 cups of coffee a day is what they say. But is that a good way to approach coffee consumption? In a single cup of coffee there is an average amount of 100 mg of caffeine per cup. If you limit your coffee consumption to 2 cups a day this will be an average consumption of 200 mg of caffeine per day.

But coffee isn’t the only product with caffeine in it. Therefore, if you consume some of the other sources of caffeine everyday, you will get more caffeine in your body. Other products with caffeine are for example black tea, green tea or chocolate. But also: sodas, energy drinks, chocolate ice cream and even decaffeinated coffee.

Nevertheless, caffeine is a stimulant and a diuretic. Being a diuretic means that it deprives the body of fluids as fast as possible. For a pregnant woman it is important to keep hydrated and drink at least eight to ten 8-ounce glasses of water, or 1,5 to 2,5 litres (6-10 glasses of 200ml).

So if you decide to consume caffeine, especially coffee, at least drink that extra glass of water. Or don’t consume coffee at all.

Unpasteurized juices

When fruits or vegetables are cut, peeled or squeezed, harmful bacteria from the outside can find its way to the inside of the produce. If the juice or smoothie has not been pasteurized these bacteria might still be present in the juice. Pasteurized juices are most common and if pasteurized it should be written on the label. Check the label! Unpasteurized juices are found in farmers markets, health-food stores or the refrigerated section of the grocery store. 98 percent of the juice sold in the US is pasteurized; in the UK this is 99 percent.

Tip: Make your own juice with a juicer.

Unwashed produce

Same as for unpasteurized juices: harmful bacteria or parasites from the outside, for example on the peel, can spread to the inside of the fruit or vegetable you are about to eat. Another reason is the pesticide residue on the fruit or vegetable. It is especially important to wash your fruits and vegetables. How to properly wash your fruits and veggies?

Well according to Dr. Michael Greger, researchers have found that dedicated fruit and vegetable washes do NOT enhance the removal of pesticide residues that tap water could also have done. A very cheap and helpful fruit and vegetable wash is salt water. Just mix 1/10 salt with 9/10 water and rinse thoroughly after the produce soaked in the salt-water solution. That’s it!

Which vegan foods could be avoided but are not necessary?

The best way to eat during your pregnancy is a diet you can maintain. And if that diet makes you eat a bag of potato chips once in a while, that is okay, if the majority of your diet is healthy. But if you are eating that bag of potato chips everyday you might want to consider your eating behaviour.

Potato chips & French fries

Pregnant women according to dr. Michael Greger should better not eat potato chips or French fries. Deep-fried foods generate carcinogens that are not good for the pregnant body. Deep-fried plants form acrylamide which is not good for you and your growing baby, it causes inflammation says one study. Acrylamide is found in French fries and potato chips, as well as other chips. So either cut back on these products or leave them out of your diet.

Processed foods: cookies, sweets, desserts

According to dr. Pierre Dukan, pregnant women should limit processed foods. Specifically invasive carbs and sugars, also known as fast sugars. In his book The Most Important 60 Days of your Pregnancy (2017) he explains that invasive carbs and sugars aren’t very good for the insulin levels of the woman and her baby. Instead he recommends consuming carbs that have a low Glycemic Index value. Or as he states: Eat like you grandma did when she was pregnant. Examples of such carbs are brown rice, wholemeal pasta or rye bread (>60% rye). You can find the Glycemic Index values of different foods here.

So limit your intake of potato chips, French fries and products with invasive carbs. But if that stresses you out too much, think about it twice and stick to a diet that does work for you. There is no harsh line to what is good or bad and you’ll probably know intuitively what foods are best for you. Soak in knowledge about healthy food but also trust your inner knowing. Your doing great mama!