My husband and I are going to Spain in a few weeks. We will be going to Barcelona, Seville, and Madrid. My brother-in-law studied in Spain several years ago and gave me lots of warnings about food that I should stay away from. I can't have any non-pasteurized cheese, cured meat, certain seafood, etc.

Has anyone traveled to Spain either while pregnant, or with these food considerations? Any recommendations on specific foods I should look for?

What does your doctor say?

I've never heard of any of my pregnant Spanish friends being advised to avoid these things. Is your brother in law a doctor?

If you’re pregnant, you should avoid those foods everywhere--not just in Spain. The warnings have to do with listeria, which is of particular concern to pregnant women, because they are more susceptible to the bacteria than non-pregnant healthy adults (I'm not a doctor, but I just edited a brochure about this). In pregnant women, listeriosis can lead to miscarriage or premature birth.

Here's a link to information from the International Food Information Council: http://tinyurl.com/lh2ow.

Processed food can be contaminated after processing, but before packaging. In North America, hot dogs are a particular concern, and the recommendation is to avoid any processed food unless it has been reheated until steaming hot.

Margriet - thanks for the link. I'm also pregnant, traveling to France in less than 2 months. I have been avoiding unpasteurized cheeses and cold cuts here in the US (based on what my current OB has said, as well as the OB I had with my first child). BUT, not only did my OB fail to mention that I should avoid smoked fish (like salmon), I specifically asked my husband (also a doctor) while we were at Sams Club: "honey, can I eat smoked salmon" and he said "sure, go ahead" Ooops! I've been eating smoked salmon-avocado sandwiches almost daily!

I think the hardest thing in Spain is going to be staying away from some of the wonderful cured meats and sausages. Cooked chorizo (as in chorizo al vino or al jerez from the hot tapas section) would be OK, since the cooking will kill the bacteria, but I would avoid the chorizo from the cold tapas menu, since it was just sliced and served. And I hate to tell you this, but i would avoid sobrasada - the wonderful paprika flavored meat spread. Regarding cheeses, it's going to be tricky. For example, manchego can be pasteurized or nonpasteurized. I think the great majority of artisanal cheeses in Europe are unpasteurized. Cheeses made in larger quantities to be sold in stores have a greater chance of being pasteurized.

I think hot tapas will all be safe, because they're cooked (so cooked seafood is OK as well, just avoid large amounts of fish that are really large in size like tuna, shark, king fish because of their possible high mercury content). This means that you can enjoy traditional Spanish favorites such as fried or grilled boquerones and gambas (shrimp).

By the way, a good friend of ours is an OB and I asked him about drinking wine while pregnant and he conceded that while no OB in the US will give the "go ahead" to their patients, that in Europe, pregnant women will enjoy very moderate (under a glass) amounts of wine with apparent no ill effects. It goes to show you that some of our recommendations are cultural, based on the all-or-nothing mentality and the 'avoiding lawsuits' mentality. And obviously, eating a food that has a higher chance of being contaminated with listeria does not mean that you'll get listeria, but it's all about reducing your risks, especially since you're in a foreign country and especially since pregnany women are more susceptible.

I’m glad it was a help. When I was pregnant, 23 years ago, the big concern was toxoplasmosis, which meant I couldn’t clean the cat box (Gee, honey, I’d do it, but ...).

The cautions on listeria would have been much more of a hardship. The edit was interesting because of a conflict between the disease people who wanted to get the message out and the nutritionists who didn’t want to appear to be condoning the eating of hot dogs. Sheesh!

As far as I know, here in Spain pregnant women are specially aware of avoiding iberico ham (which is really painful for most of them, because I live in Extremadura and it is so delicious!!!) I guess that they also avoid chorizo, although most pregnant women would choose not to eat chorizo, because of having lot of fats...
Haven't heard about cheese.
Anyway there are LOTS of cooked tapas which you might eat. IMO, the best tapas in Spain are the cooked ones (well, it is true that living here it is really easy for me to eat delicious cheese or chorizo at home...).

I visited Spain whilst pregnant 20 years ago.I don't think listeria was something that we were being advised was a problem then- although no doubt it was.
I ate everything !

Well, living in Spain and having three pregnant friends right now, I can tell you that the big no-no´s are : iberic ham and all the other cured pork products, alcohol, certain soft cheeses ( Torta del Casar, Cabrales ...), foie ...

But people do manage, although I always give a present of 200 gr of iberic ham once the baby is born ... It´s always welcomed !

Rgds, Cova

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It goes to show you that some of our recommendations are cultural, based on the all-or-nothing mentality and the 'avoiding lawsuits' mentality.
>>>>>

baby related recommendations/warnings/paranoias are different here in europe but no less silly in some cases. here in the uk, people are taught to sterilise everything within about two hours of feeding (bottles, pumps, etc) while other countries are much more relaxed. Kiwis commonly wrap the baby's mattress in plastic to avoid creepy crawlies that they think will make the baby stop breathing. then there is the whole winding (burping) thing that is deeply cultural. there are many other examples of this.

how to bring up babies and what you should and should not do is deeply cultural all over the world.