Answers to Your Google Searches: Pregnancy and Haggis

I often check in on how my nascent web empire is progressing. I take a look at the number of people reading this site via my stats page (a couple of times a day like a sicko). These charts and numbers stroke my fragile and brittle ego and also provide some illuminating information. What do people read most? Which sites send the most readers my way? How long do people linger? But true intrigue arises when someone comes across the site through a google search. Then the stats page then allows me to click on the link and see what keywords the person used. This can be very interesting. Sometimes they've just typed in "ginger tablet" and so possibly my site has been useful. But sometimes people are searching for some interesting information and decide to give my site a try, and looking back, I can see that they wouldn't have found what they were looking for. I hate it when I know that I didn't answer their question. I like having the right answer. I like getting gold stars. It's a common personality among dedicated cooks and a mandatory one among food bloggers.

To address this situation, I'm going to occasionally provide a (late and probably now useless) response to these anonymous queries. I'm starting with my favourite one of the week:

can i eat haggis during pregnancy

Good question Anonymous Searcher! I have no idea. But, I did a little research myself into this matter. I think there are two things that could be an issue for a haggis-craving pregnant gal. First of all, haggis contains liver and liver contains vitamin A. Apparently you aren't supposed to eat too much of that while you're pregnant because amounts dangerous to your wee baby could build up. Liver is a really rich source of vitamin A and so should be generally avoided. In my extremely non-professional opinion, the amount in one serving of haggis is probably not an issue, though. There's lots of other offal and grains in there diluting the liver content. Besides, not all haggis even has liver in it. And everyone needs a little bit of vitamin A. It's not like anyone is telling the pregnant to avoid carrots or mangoes. Just don't have a haggis supper every night. (Ugh. Can you imagine?)

The other issue is the more serious threat of listeria. That's a bacteria that's found in many soft, unpasturised dairy products and can also lurk in poorly cooked meats. It also thrive in pates (imagine the correct accents please) and the pregnant are told to definitely avoid it in all forms. I am not sure why pate can be such a problem, but I suspect it's because you basically mix raw meats and then cook them slowly at a low temperature. It might never get quite hot enough to thoroughly kill the nasty little guys. Also, many pre-cooked meats can get contaminated while they are being packaged, so it's important for those heavy with child (I will absolutely murder anyone who addresses me in that manner if I ever get knocked up, btw. How horrible is that expression?) to make sure that anything pre-cooked has been really, really heated before eating. Maybe the packaging process is an issue for pate, too.

So could haggis, being a delicious product of many mixed meats, harbour listeria? I contemplated it, but again in my near-ignorance, I don't really think so. Haggis is cooked for ages and ages; you'd simmer one from the butcher for about 3-4 hours and even a pre-cooked grocery store should be re-heated for 45 minutes or an hour. You have to serve this hot. 

If there wasn't a tiny and fragile little guy at stake I would tell Anonymous Searcher that she should probably avoid eating cold haggis pakora from her local Spar (not making this delicacy up), but that a well-cooked portion at her mom's house is probably going to be fine. If she could make sure that it was really, really cooked then all the bacteria should be killed off. As the life of a tiny little dude is weighing in the balance, I hope that Anonymous Searcher asked a medical professional for guidance. There didn't seem to be any answers on the web. I wasn't the only useless one. Phew.

(On a separate, but thematically-aligned note, I just saw Juno and I thought it was a bit flawed. Didn't quite hang together for me. She did the right things, but in a super annoying way and all I was really interested in was her parents. How did they navigate the whole blended family dynamic? Why did they name their kid Liberty Bell? What was it like when they were pregnant? How did they resist the urge to hit their child repeatedly? I wish the movie had been about them instead. Plus movies with pop culture references are always tricky, and it seemed pretty forced here. By the end my face was locked into a tight incredulous grimace that only shifted due to my urge to vomit during the last extremely fucking cloying scene. I really wanted to like this one. Oh well.)

Comments

[Texas Gun Laws]

Ladies, is it a definite NO NO to eat haggis during pregnancy?

[Australian wrap report]

I ate haggis while I was pregnant. It's full of everything and anything but not too much of any of the "banned" foods.

[Misdemeanor]

I ate haggis while I was pregnant. It's full of everything and anything but not too much of any of the "banned" foods.

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Excellently written article, if only all bloggers offered the same level of content as you, the internet would be a much better place. Please keep it up!

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Excellently written article, if only all bloggers offered the same level of content as you, the internet would be a much better place. Please keep it up!

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Haggis is a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours.

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You share some many unbelievable points in your post. I'll tell about this blog to my elder sister because she's pregnant

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Pregnancy was not easy, with 17 weeks the uterus was in a tone and put me in the hospital, where I stayed for a month. I had to try magnesium intravenously / intramuscularly, but-hshu. After the end of preserving "therapy, which is admittedly little for, as a month later I again "lie down", but already in the department of pathology in 1 gorroddom to "conservation". In the hospital (pathology) of magnesium is poured into me again, who absolutely does not help me translate into GINIPRAL (quite a serious drug with adverse effects, such as: heart palpitations, heart pain, tremor of the hands (tremor), slowing of the intestines (with the that pregnant and without gineprala great challenges in order to go to the toilet) and added utrozhestan (the largest dose of 600 mg / day) and all that with my weight 53 kg (at the 7th month of pregnancy I only gained 4 kg) . The doctor himself said that "dose" my horse.

[Lillabet]

Thanks for the info on whether I can eat haggis when pregnant. I will be asking my midwife, although your points are very salient. I asked my midwife about a couple of food items previously (smoked salmon and parmesan) who said that the French think we're nuts by restricting pregnant women so much. Her advice was to be sensible, eat fresh (in date salmon etc) and if you're cooking something, invest in a food thermometer to check it is cooked through!

[Marcus Berns]

so sorry you didn't like Juno. We loved it ...... sentimental old farts.

[dad]

So i really really liked Juno. Agree that the parents were brilliant and CJ (whatever her real name is) was just a fantastic step mom. and we are off to watch the first episode of West Wing (being a valentine's day gift) speaking of CJ.