Listeriosis

Listeriosis is an infectious disease caused by bacteria called listeria. Similar to toxoplasmosis, it is a disease transmitted by infected food. Pregnant women, the unborn child, the elderly and people with a severely weakened immune system are particularly at risk.

As a rule, an infection triggered by food leads to abdominal pain and diarrhoea. In addition, various organ systems can be affected. As the disease progresses, it can lead to inflammation of the brain and meninges (meningitis).

As a result, paralysis, trembling, malpositioning of the body and dizziness may occur. In pregnant women, listeriosis can lead to miscarriage in the worst case. Furthermore, intrauterine death of the fetus can also occur, i.e. death of the fetus while still in the womb.

If the unborn child survives, it can also suffer considerable damage. The symptoms can occur immediately after birth or much later. Despite intensive medical treatment, early infections often have a very poor prognosis.

Later infections after birth often manifest themselves as meningitis. With appropriate therapy, the chances of recovery are not so bad. The mortality rate of the fetus is also particularly high in the first trimester.

But later infections can also lead to abortion (miscarriage). In addition to raw meat, listeria can also be found particularly frequently in various types of cheese. These include cheeses such as Brie with white mold rind, Camembert, blue cheese and Gorgonzola. Pregnant women should not eat these types of cheese. In addition, when preparing red meat, care must be taken to ensure that it is well cooked through.

Vegetarian diet

Vegetarians usually want to follow their usual diet even during pregnancy, so they continue to abstain from meat. Meat provides a lot of iron, which is an important mineral for the body because it is needed for many metabolic processes, proteins and enzymes. During pregnancy, the need for iron is higher because both mother and child need it.

Vegetarians therefore have to take all the more care to ensure that they take in sufficient iron with other foods, even without eating meat. Milk and dairy products, as well as wholemeal products, legumes and spinach should definitely be integrated into the diet. In order for the iron to be better absorbed in the intestines, it is also important to ensure a sufficient supply of vitamin C. Vitamin C promotes the absorption of iron.

So it can already be beneficial to drink orange juice with your meal. In addition, the iron values should be checked regularly by a doctor. If the values are too low, they can be normalized with iron preparations.

A purely vegetable, thus vegane nutrition is to be regarded against it already more critically, because very many food is omitted, which contains vital materials and minerals. To replace these is very difficult. The renouncement of meat and animal products holds therefore increased risks that the unborn child is less supplied with necessary substances.

This can damage the health of both the child and the expectant mother. If a Veganerin would like to follow despite everything its nourishing way, it should be cared for and examined regularly and closely by a physician. So deficiency symptoms can be discovered faster and treated accordingly to avoid complications. A Ernährungsberaterin can likewise create remedy.