Last Updated on by San San

When you’re expecting a baby, it does not matter how long you’re due. You could be in your first trimester or your last, but it’s always understandable when your main concern will be your diet. It’s normal, you’re going to become a mother. All you want is the best for your coming child.

With that being said, that includes your diet. So, if you’re one of the expecting mothers asking, “can I eat potato salad while pregnant?” Then this article is for you.

Can I Eat Potato Salad While Pregnant or Not?

It seems that many pregnant women want this answered, “Can I eat potato salad while pregnant?” They want to understand if it’s safe to eat potato salad. 

A potato salad can comprise sweet potatoes or regular potatoes. Sweet potatoes have vitamin A. Vitamin A is essential for developing strong bones.

If vitamin A is deficient in a pregnant woman, she may give birth to a baby with hampered bone growth. Then again, if it is too much in the mother, it may result in congenital disabilities. 

Sweet potatoes also contain antioxidant properties, which help to maintain blood sugar levels.

They also have vitamin C, dietary fibre, iron, and potassium. White potatoes are not that healthy since they increase blood glucose levels. It is because they get digested faster than other foods. They are only okay when consumed in moderation.

Can I Eat Potato Salad While Pregnant

Can I Eat Potato Salad While Pregnant? Here’s a Potato Salad Recipe

Potato salads are delicious, and the best way to have them is by preparing the salad yourself. Aside from you getting to choose the better ingredients, you also get to improve the recipes you come across over time.

The bad thing with prepared foods, in this case, potato salad from a grocery store or deli counter, is that they sit at room temperature way too long. They are always there, just waiting for you to pick them up. Besides, most of their potato salads consist of the likes of eggs and the rest. They are likely contaminated with listeria if not prepared and handled well. As a result, listeriosis affects pregnant women mostly. The sad thing is that the placenta can’t protect the fetus from this listeria if it infects the mother.

Listeriosis is terrible for pregnancy since it could lead to stillbirths and involuntary abortions.

If potato salad isn’t refrigerated or reheated, it may cause many problems for you, the pregnant mother. To avoid all these stresses, prepare yourself a plate of potato salad right at your home. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of potatoes, washed and diced

1/4 cup mayonnaise

3/4 cup plain non-fat yoghurt

1 cup minced red onion

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Add the potatoes to a large skillet of water and bring to a boil for 15-20 minutes. In the meantime, mix the mayonnaise and yoghurt in a dish.
  2. Check for the doneness of the potatoes by piercing them using a fork. They are ready if the fork pierces easily through them. Remove from the heat, drain, and let them cool off a bit. 
  3. Mix the red onion, salt, and pepper with the potatoes. Add the mixture of mayonnaise and yoghurt and toss the mixture well. 
  4. Serve and enjoy while still warm.

When not eating it, have it refrigerated. Reheat it well when ready to eat it once again.

Can You Eat Macaroni Salad When Pregnant?

Just as with a potato salad, macaroni salad from a deli counter could have bacteria since it’s pre-prepared. There could be poor handling of it during its preparation, or it could have stayed too long in warm temperatures.

Then again, it could have been improperly refrigerated or worse – still not refrigerated for hours or days since it’s been prepared. A bacterium called Staphylococcus aureus is very dangerous, which results from this. It has a potent toxin that is responsible for vomiting, nausea, and even diarrhoea. Its symptoms are rapid to appear in 2-4 hours, lasting briefly for 1-2 days.

Pastries that have cream are culprits for producing this kind of bacterium. Proper handling of the macaroni salad is also vital. So, you could eat that macaroni salad from the deli counter, and it ends up causing adverse reactions to you and your baby.

To be safe, prepare it at home, observing all the safety guidelines for preparing food. You can trust yourself and your hands on this to enjoy that macaroni salad you want to enjoy unless otherwise.

Can You Eat Coleslaw Dressing When Pregnant?

Coleslaw dressing contains mayonnaise, vinegar, onions, salt, pepper, etc. It goes together with a mixture of cabbage, lettuce, carrots, etc. All these are veggies that are highly beneficial to a pregnant mother.

The risk comes in the mayonnaise present, especially if it has eggs. You don’t want any bacterial infections in you and your baby. To be safe, use non-mayonnaise coleslaw dressing. Or better yet, use coleslaw dressings that get commercially made.

If not, prepare your coleslaw dressings at home. You can add the right ingredients considering your pregnancy that won’t harm you or your child. If it’s refrigerating, do it properly.

Can I Eat Potato Salad While Pregnant? The Conclusion

Pregnancy comes with many difficult challenges for women. A woman usually has many questions running through her mind. Can I eat potato salad while pregnant? Can one eat macaroni salad while pregnant?

Can one also eat coleslaw dressing while pregnant? All these questions and others can make one go crazy. But what do we say? It’s all in the name of protecting the little infant in mummy’s tummy. So one is usually strict with the kind of food she eats lest it harms her and the child.

Nevertheless, pregnant women are not all the same. One may be very comfortable eating a potato salad while the other may be very stressed about it.

All these salads, having potato and macaroni salad together with coleslaw dressing are not that bad for you. Their handling in deli counters is what matters because they could have stayed there for too long. That is when bacteria crop up and cause harm to you and your baby.

If you are down for it, it would be best to prepare the salads yourself. Aside from it is fresher that way, you can decide the portion sizes.

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