Cheese ravioli is a delicious Italian dish that’s popular in a lot of places! It’s a simple, filling meal full of calcium, protein, and Vitamin A – but can you enjoy cheese ravioli while pregnant? Or will you have to drop the dish for nine whole months?
The good news is that even pregnant women can enjoy cheese ravioli! You need to be extra attentive to the ingredients being used, along with how well they’re cooked.
The ravioli must be fresh and properly cooked to lower the risk of food poisoning, while the cheese in use needs to be fully pasteurized – using “fresh” cheeses may introduce Listeria bacteria into your body, which would be extremely dangerous for you and your baby!
Can I Eat Cheese Ravioli while Pregnant?
Pay Attention to Your Pasta!
Overcooking and Undercooking
Overcooked ravioli reduces the nutrient content of the pasta, while also increasing its glycemic index value. This means overcooked ravioli will increase your blood sugar levels more than their properly-cooked counterparts.
Regulating blood sugar is crucial for prospective mothers, as huge spikes and other fluctuations can affect the baby. In extreme cases, it may even cause birth defects.
Undercooked pasta should, on paper, be considerably safer than its overdone counterpart, as it only makes it a little harder for your body to digest. The complication comes due to the possible presence of certain bacteria like Bacillus cereus.
This specimen produces toxins in the body after ingestion and is responsible for most cases of food poisoning. Symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain – all of which, even individually, would be extremely dangerous for a pregnant woman and her baby!
The worst part is that this bacteria will persist, even after reheating! That means that there’s no salvaging a contaminated dish after the fact. Be sure to use fresh ravioli pasta that’s been cooked thoroughly, cooled promptly, and stored properly to avoid having to deal with this problem.
Can I Have Any Kind of Cheese on my Ravioli?
While you can eat cheese ravioli while pregnant, you need to make sure that the cheese used has been fully pasteurized. Cheeses like Brie, Feta, and Blue cheese are right out!
While you might be able to find pasteurized variants, these cheeses (by default) use raw milk, and have a small chance of harboring Listeria bacteria.
Listeria bacteria is pretty bad on its own. While it’s relatively rare, it’s also known to have a pretty significant mortality rate. The symptoms patients experience from listeriosis include stiff joints, high fevers, and muscle pain – but things only get worse for pregnant women.
Pregnant women are at significant risk of Listeria infection, as they’re ten times more susceptible to this than most of the general population! Listeriosis is infamous for increasing the risk of miscarriages, stillbirths, and other dangerous pregnancy complications! Thankfully – and unlike the earlier Bacillus cereus in pasta – you can at least kill Listeria bacteria with high heat.
So while you can have cheese ravioli while pregnant, not all cheeses are fit for consumption. Thankfully, most ravioli filling is made with parmesan, mozzarella, or ricotta cheese – all of which are pasteurized, and fully safe for pregnant women to enjoy!
Final Thoughts
“Can I have cheese ravioli while pregnant?”
Yep, you absolutely can – pregnancy won’t stop you from enjoying good cheese ravioli. You will need to be more mindful of the ingredients being used along with how they’re being cooked. If you’re considering adding olives to your ravioli or any other dish, it’s good to know that olives, when properly brined and stored, are safe for pregnant women to eat in moderation.
Ravioli is fine, but be sure to stick with fresh pasta (and cook it thoroughly!) to mitigate the risk of food poisoning. You will have to steer clear of using “raw” cheese as ravioli filling while pregnant, but you’ve still got plenty of delicious, pasteurized options to choose from!
