You might think that fruits are a great thing to eat when pregnant but if you’re Chinese, you might have been given a long list of fruits NOT to eat. Balance is key in Chinese beliefs about health and wellness, and the problem with many fruits, especially tropical ones, is that they’re associated with either being too heaty or too cold.
While in medical science, there is no harm to eating fruits in general, as fruits are a great source of nutrients and vitamins, the “cold” or “heaty” descriptions of the fruits above have long been established in TCM. To maintain balance during pregnancy, it is good to avoid getting either too hot or too cold.
The Chinese believe that what you eat manifests itself in your body. This is probably why lychees are linked to scaly skin, like the texture of the fruit, although if you think about it, it doesn’t make sense. Bananas are thought to make your baby slip out but really, it is your cervix that determines this. And watermelons are thought to give your baby a big head, but once again this isn’t really backed up by fact.
Here is a list of common fruits pregnant women are supposed to avoid and why:
- Pineapples: considered overly cold, considered poisonous.
- Watermelon: considered overly cold, makes your baby’s head swell
- Bananas: considered overly cold, can cause baby to “slip out”
- Lychees: considered overly heaty, causes scaly skin
- Longan: considered overly heaty, causes bleeding
- Mangoes: considered overly heaty, causes bad skin
- Papaya: can cause miscarriage or difficult birth
