While cheese and other dairy products can be a great source of calcium and other nutrients during pregnancy, there are some you avoid completely. Specifically, you should avoid any product that contains unpasteurized milk. Unpasteurized milk may contain Listeria bacteria that can cause miscarriage. That means no unpasteurized or "raw" milk and no imported soft cheeses unless they are clearly labeled as being pasteurized. While the former is pretty easy to avoid (you have to go out of your way to find unpasteurized milk), you may not even realize when you are eating unpasteurized cheese. If you are at a restaurant, ask to make sure that any soft cheese you are served is pasteurized, or just ask them to substitute a hard cheese such as mozzarella instead.

Unless these soft cheeses are clearly labeled as being made with pasteurized milk, do not eat them while pregnant:

• Roquefort
• Feta
• Gorgonzola
• Brie
• Camembert
• Blue cheese
• Mexican-style cheeses, such as queso blanco, queso fresco, queso de hoja, queso de crema and queso asadero

For more information on proper nutrition during pregnancy, see the Healia Health Guide on Pregnancy. If you have questions about whether a certain food is OK to eat, ask the people in the Healia Health Community for Pregnancy.

Related blog posts: Tips for Eating Healthy During Pregnancy: what to eat when you are pregnant
Tips for Eating Healthy During Pregnancy Part 2: 13 foods and beverages to avoid when you are pregnant
Tips for Eating Healthy During Pregnancy Part 3: fish with the highest and lowest levels of mercury

_{Source: American Pregnancy Association, Foods to Avoid During Pregnancy, Updated 11/07 http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/foodstoavoid.html}

_{Photo: JacobEnos, Flickr, Creatvie Commons}