Thai Fruits

Ok, I actually wrote and spoke about this, but I still recieve questions about it, so here we go:

Thai women don’t eat durian when they are pregnant. And Thai people say they should not, because it’s not good for you.

Now, I haven’t seen any scientific research about this. But I do realize that traditional knowledge often “knows” stuff that science discovers 200 years later.

So, my personal believes tell me that: you shouldn’t OVEReat durian when pregnant, and unless you have a durian craving just stay away from it. If you have a craving, just eat it in moderation. I guess everything that you overeat is bad for you.

Now one thing that IS true is that durian has lots of “heating” qualities (in traditional medicine). That is why it’s best to eat it in combination with cooling fruits (like mangosteen, also known as “mankud” in Thailand). This balances out the hotness.

I read of one instance where a pregnant mother ate LOTS of durian in her last trimester, and her babies skin was a little rough (which according to some practitioners of traditional medicine might be caused by “too much heat”).

Also, people often say that durian makes the babies “big and fat”. In fact some moms even report that the doctor told them their baby was “a little small”, then they ate lots of durian and next time the doctor did a ultrasound check they found the baby was “too big and overweight”.

To me, the fact that doctors in many of the countries where Durian is eaten do advice pregnant women to either indulge in or refrain from eating durian is quite an indicator of the validity of the effects durian has on pregnancy.

But again: there are mothers who drink and smoke during pregnancy and they give birth to perfectly healthy children, but remember that you can always put the odds in your favour by abiding to some small little rules.

If you have a durian craving you can eat a little durian – just don’t overdo it. And if your doctor tells you to absolutely stay away from durian, listen to his/her advice. They probably know what they’re talking about, specially if they have some years of experience under their belt.

If you want to read a whole discussion on durian and pregnancy, check out the Singapore Motherhood forum.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 10:29 am and is filed under durian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.