Food and cultural traditions

Several friends mentioned to me that they read my previous post about the cultural traditions and asked whether or not I ate the foods that went along with pregnancy and post-pregnancy. This made me realize that I neglected to share more specific details regarding the food I ate during and after pregnancy.

During pregnancy, it was really important that I eat things that were not too "cooling" or "hot." For example, I couldn't eat melons, especially watermelons, cantaloupe, and honeydew, which killed me because I was pregnant during the hot summer months and because I really like to eat melons. Also, I couldn't eat any shellfish, including the "safe" ones (as advised by many US doctors) such as shrimp, crab, and especially lobster. According to Chinese, shellfish, lobster especially, has high level of toxins.

The post pregnancy food regimen was very strict. To aid with my recovery, I could not drink or eat anything cold (or use cold water even to wash my hands). I was supposed to eat specific dishes that were high in sodium to aid in repair such as Chinese sausages, aged meat, salted fish and salted pork. Instead, I ate a lot of chicken soup made from freshly slaughtered chicken, another concoction of chicken soup and wine with bamboo shoots (to aid in breastmilk production), and pigs feet in red vinegar (to aid in uterus repair). I was unable to eat the other high in sodium food because the swelling in my hands in feet were so severe that my carpal tunnel got worse. I had to wear a wrist guard for support because at one point, I couldn't even hold up utensils to eat meals. Once I cut out most of the sodium, my swelling was able to slowly go away.

What's funny about my family is that it has been so long since there has been a newborn that they were very excited to eat the chicken and wine soup and pigs feet in red vinegar. Over the holidays, they even requested that my mom bring some of the pigs feet to xmas dinner!

Friends of mine wondered if I was going to eat the chicken and wine and the pigs feet dishes after the birth. I knew that these two foods were part of the recovery period because I remembered my aunts' experiences during my childhood. Even though some friends made faces when I told them about the dishes, I was actually looking forward to it because I enjoyed eating both foods growing up.

Post-pregnancy recovery was not that horrible at all in terms of food. There seems to be a logic to the food as well as the other practices such as not showering that I previously discussed.