Women where do what?!?

So I keep reading from unreliable sources that women in Europe continue to drink wine during their pregnancy, so having alcohol on occasion is not as big a deal as dr's in the US make it out to be. I also read that woman in Japan eat sushi while pregnant. I know that wine is a common part of people’s diet in Europe and sushi is a common part of people’s diet in Japan, but just how do these ladies know that woman continue to consume these things while pregnant? Now I have no interest or desire to drink or eat sushi or have anything else on the “bad food” list while pregnant, but I decided to google the topic to satisfy my own curiosity. Yes I do have too much time on my hands, or maybe I just use the little bit of time I have unwisely? In any case this is what I found.

Apparently one heath organization in Europe wanted to set new standards saying some alcohol was ok during pregnancy, however, the British Heath Council was not too interested in changing their previous ruling that alcohol should be avoided entirely from conception to birth. You can read all about it here. I was not able to find anything about the final ruling but I did find a couple of articles talking about the warning labels on alcohol in Europe being similar to those in the US. So maybe woman in Europe do drink, but it's not ok’ed by their dr or the heath organization there.

I had a harder time finding info from a creditable source as to whether or not woman in Japan eat or are advised to continue eating sushi while pregnant. I did find this article which says that pregnant woman in Japan are advised to avoid or limit the intake certain types of fish while pregnant because of the risks mercury poisoning. So maybe they do eat sushi while pregnant. I know we are advised to avoid it both because of mercury and possible parasites and bacteria, but I couldn’t find anything saying that was of concern to Japanese woman.

I do wonder though, if woman in other countries sit around talking about how woman in the US continue to smoke crack while pregnant. I mean I know I’ve heard of cases of this, right? I guess my point is just because we hear of woman doing something doesn’t mean it’s ok or that their dr thinks its ok.


On a side note I have had this line rolling around in my head for days, and since I mentioned the "bad food" list I thought I'd post it. If you can tell me what movie it's from you get a cookie.

- I want to talk to you, somewhere outside of here. Maybe we can have a coffee or something?

- I can't have coffee, it's on the bad food list you gave to me. What kind of doctor are you?