Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do …
That’s the way I felt about eating the best quality cheeses, especially brie cheese, when I was pregnant.
Like other expecting mothers, I was warned during prenatal consultations to avoid soft cheeses like brie due the risk of Listeria monocytogenes, an organism that can trigger a food borne bacterial infection which carries the potential risk of miscarriage.
The trouble was, I craved brie cheese like crazy when I was pregnant!
So what did I do?
I concluded that the risk from eating brie was probably incredibly small and overblown due to the misguided, prejudiced view against unpasteurized dairy products by government health authorities which are responsible for putting together these types of frequently foolish recommendations.
So I indulged my craving and ate brie cheese to my heart’s content figuring there was something in this particular traditional food that I needed even though I didn’t know what it was at the time.
I am so glad I followed my instincts!
In a podcast as co-host with Fearless Parent Radio awhile back, I interviewed Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue, author of Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life. It is, without a doubt, one of the best health books I have read – ever.
Dr. Kate goes over the huge benefits of Vitamin K2 to health (including straight, cavity free teeth and plaque free arteries), why nearly everyone is deficient, and those foods that are highest in it. You guessed it, brie is one of the best sources and is critical to healthy development of an infant! Incidentally, gouda cheese is another food extremely high in K2.
Turns out Dr. Kate craved and ate brie cheese when she was pregnant too! I encourage you to read this book if you have pregnancy related brie cravings too!
More Information
The Vitamin Deficiency That is Written All Over Your Face
So weird you posted it. I’m 22 weeks pregnant and have been eating brie almost every single day for the past three months. I’m on my third baby, haven’t been sick even for a minute or had any particular cravings with all pregnancies, except for this brie thing this time around. So interesting, thanks for sharing 🙂
I’m pregnant and just had some yummy brie! Woo hoo. Now I just need some salmon roe to add on top. Yumminess……..
Sarah, is Brie ok for people who can’t tolerate dairy? I can have raw Gouda and Parmesan but milk, even raw causes horrible acne on me. Hope Brie is ok, it is so delicious.
Brie is made from dairy, so if you have a dairy allergy, then you can’t eat it unfortunately.
Fantastic. I craved (raw) oysters this last time round. I ate a dozen before I’d put my groceries in to the car the first time. Also liver, the midwives freaked out.
I think cravings are something very underestimated by whatever nutrition and science is on the subject. We not only get hungry for calories, but I think we also will crave foods with missing nutrients. But food is so nutrient poor these days, we get fat trying to get enough. Sometimes I just need some particular food – and after I’ve eaten it I don’t want it anymore for a long while. Sometimes I want salad, other times dairy, or maybe some vegetable I don’t normally like or eat. Other times I just don’t want to eat something I normally like.
Pregnancy – both the nausea and cravings – are the body saying what it needs and must avoid. That is just louder.
thank you for this article! i am a big Weston A Price fan! keep them coming..
How about Gouda cheese that’s Dutch? Would that also work to get vitaminK2 and calcium?
Gouda is fantastic and also loaded with K2! I just didn’t crave it when I was pregnant interestingly enough. Only Brie.
Can you recommend a farm/shop that offers raw milk brie? I have not been able to fin one.
Thank you!
I prefer Ile DE France brie. Can you recommend a brand that is most Nutritious and the healthy?
Brie is nutritious and high in K2 by virtue of the type of friendly bacterial culture that is required to make it. I prefer grassfed brie that is made from raw milk which is typically an artisanal product of small farms, not a big brand name.
Sarah, you are so wise. I love how you totally ignore conventional, Monsanto-funded advice and do what you know to be right!
If you are ever in Oklahoma, I would love to have you over for dinner!
Thanks Tarah. Actually, when I was stuffing my face with brie when I was pregnant, I wasn’t entirely sure I *was* right, to be honest! I was pretty sure I was, and that was good enough for the time being. When you are a mother, you have to be able to make decisions with less than 100% perfect information, otherwise, you will be scammed and misled at every turn as the industrial medical complex will suck you and your child in and never let you out if you permit it to happen.