BECAREFUL EAT HONEY AND PEANUT WHILE PREGNANCY
Honey is one of healty food that is always suggest for everyone. The benefit
of honey will give good heath for everyone who consumption the honey. But for
pregnant woman and also new born baby, some effect of honey should be consider
to know, so we should more careful to give the honey for pregnant woman and
baby.
The honey issue is fascinating. The safety concern about honey arose because
honey often contains spores that, under the right circumstances, can cause a
rare deadly disease discovered in 1976, called infant botulism. Infant botulism
is spread by these spores, not by pre-formed botulism toxin.
Botulism spores are found throughout nature, in soil, in dust, and on the unwashed
surfaces of unpeeled fruits and vegetables. The spores are present in about
10 percent of the samples of honey tested. These spores are tough to kill. They
are quite heat-resistant; some can survive boiling for several hours. Honey
is naturally resistant to many bacteria. Sometimes, honey is pasteurized –
usually it is not. Pasteurizing does not reliably destroy botulism spores. Some
honey is filtered, some is not. Filtering does not reliably remove botulism
spores. There are advantages and disadvantages to pasteurizing and filtering.
I don’t feel strongly either way, but this is one food I prefer un-pasteurized.
No honey, though, is best for infants.
The CDC recommends that children younger than 1 year of age should not be given
honey unless the product has been certified free of spores.
Babies’ intestines are an ideal environment for the spores. When babies
swallow them, the spores can turn into growing, multiplying bacteria that pump
out a poison called botulinus toxin. This toxin is absorbed through their immature
intestines, and causes infant botulism. Some cases of infant botulism are mild;
some are fatal. The peak age that babies are susceptible is when they are 2
to 4 months old. They may be at risk from about 1 week until 9 to 11 months.
This is the reason babies under one year old should not be fed honey. Because
the spores are so heat-resistant, there is a theoretical risk for babies eating
even processed foods containing honey. Commercial canning, however, usually
destroys the spores.
Normally, swallowing spores is not a problem for healthy adults or older children.
The spores usually remain spores. The bacteria do not grow well in mature intestines
teeming with beneficial bacteria. Pregnant women, other adults, and older children
are routinely exposed to spores without being affected.
The safety of honey as a food for healthy adults and older children is unquestioned.
Adults can get botulism, though, from other sources. The pre-formed toxin can
be found in improperly canned or processed foods. The botulinus toxin is among
the most lethal of all naturally occurring substances. A trace amount can be
deadly. Thankfully, toxin production can be prevented with proper refrigerating,
freezing, drying, or adding the correct amounts of salt, sugar, or sodium nitrate.
The toxin can be destroyed by heat (20 minutes at 176 degrees or 10 minutes
at 196 degrees). It can even be harnessed (BoTox is in vogue to reduce wrinkles).
Eating peanuts while pregnant is another issue. In general, the results are
mixed about how mom’s pregnancy diet affects allergies in the baby. When
it comes to peanuts, however, the results are consistent. The chance that a
baby will develop peanut allergies goes up with the amount of peanuts that a
pregnant mother eats. It makes sense to me for mothers to avoid them if their
child is likely to be prone to allergies (in a family with allergies, eczema
or asthma).
Some have also raised concerns about aflatoxin, produced by a fungus that grows
on some peanuts. The government has set “allowable” levels of aflatoxin
for peanuts and peanut products. There are not enough data to make a general
public health recommendation that pregnant women avoid all peanuts for this
reason. Nor are there enough data to recommend peanuts for pregnant women without
caution. (by Alan Greene MD FAAP - BABY.TopResource.NET Reference)
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