New Centrum Pregnancy Care Range

Did you know that us Brits spend up to 5 years planning for a baby but we don't count looking after our health as part of the plan? Centrum Pregnancy Care carried out a survey amongst 3000 women and found some interesting data.

The majority of women in the UK planned to have their first child between the ages of 26 - 30 and over a quarter of the women surveyed said that they wanted to save at least £5000 before starting a family. Over a third of the women wanted to reach certain career goals before starting a family and where they lived was also a key factor in making the decision to conceive with 41% saying it was important to move to a larger house. Now all of the above are important things to think about and the women surveyed are obviously taking great care over their decision but the survey also found that one of the most important areas is being forgotten and that is the health of mother and child.

The Centrum Pregnancy Care survey found that 20% of women would not consider altering their diet or taking supplements in order to help them try to conceive, during pregnancy or whilst breastfeeding. Also only 1 in 10 said that they would cut down alcohol during their pregnancy.

One of the results that came out of the survey was that 1 in 6 women don't know about the importance of folic acid and aren't taking a supplement before they conceive and aren't taking one during the early stages of pregnancy. Folic acid has been proven to dramatically reduce the chances of your baby developing neural tube defects such as Spina Bifida and is easily taken in tablet form.

So how did I fit into the results of the survey? Well I would have loved to have had a baby by the time I was 30 but all the factors above weren't in place - I wanted to live in a bigger place and I didn't have the savings I felt we'd need. So I was 34 when I had my first baby and by that time we had moved to a house and we'd managed to put some savings together. I am one of the women who did know about the importance of Folic Acid but I put that down to my former obsession with magazines, I'm a bit of an information junkie and so I did take supplements while trying to conceive and also throughout pregnancy. It does amaze me that the importance of Folic Acid isn't on every one's radar but then I think we can be reminded of it all too late. Typically when a woman goes to the GP to tell them about their pregnancy, the GP will ask them they're taking folic acid and if they're not then they will be reminded to take it but that is a little late in the day at that stage.

Centrum have now developed Centrum Pregnancy Care and Pregnancy Care Plus with Omega 3 containing a unique blend of 19 vitamins and minerals including folic acid to support healthy foetal growth and help the baby's bone, brain and eye development. If you want to give your baby the best start then supplements including Folic acid are a must.

Centrum Pregnancy Care costs £5.29 for 30 tablets and is available from supermarkets and pharmacies.

Young's Seafood Cooking Event

A few weeks back I was lucky enough to be invited to a cooking event hosted by Young's Seafood. It was taking place at a fantastic cookery school location 'L'atelier des Chefs' in London, only down the road from where I work. I've really enjoyed the food events I've been to recently so I was really looking forward to this one because I love fish but am stuck in a rutt with the kinds of things I do with it - my two staples are salmon fillet with an asian kind of marinade and the other one is just plain old boring smoked haddock on its own cooked in butter. And in terms of Isla's fish consumption, this is limited to the odd fish finger and I was keen to find out if these are considered nutritious!

On the day I met some other lovely mummy bloggers and we all got stuck in to the eating of Chef Serge Nollent's creations and at the end split into two teams to see if we could easily follow the two recipes he had made. We also had the fantastic Seafood specialist, Duncan Lucas on hand to show us how to skin, fillet and de bone fish.

Before we got started watching the demos we were treated to a little platter of some of the products that Young's sell, and they really were delicious:

Chip Shop Mackeral, King Prawn, Mango & Pomegranate salad, Whole Scampi & breaded Cod

Next up Young's Nutrition director Clare Leonard told us some good reasons why we should include fish in ours and our children's diets:

• It's good for heart health! Omega 3 keeps your blood cholesterol in check. Omega 3 isn't easily made by our bodies, so fish is a good source.
• Omega 3 is also good for children's brain development - studies show that children who eat more fish have improved concentration, spelling and reading are better and they supposedly behave better! Gotta be worth a try....
• Fish is quick and easy to cook and therefore a great choice for time poor mums! It is also much healthier than the other quick meals us mums resort to like sausages, pizza, chicken dippers. Fish fingers are in fact a great healthy option
• Good source of protein - so helps the body to heal
• Good source of Vitamin D - a vitamin that people in this country do not get enough of as typically people get it from sunlight
• We should all eat fish at least twice a week - but for us pregnant ladies we should make sure we don't eat fish that are associated with heavy metals like Swordfish and Marlin.

So that's the end of the fishy facts, now lets get to the part that was really delicious... Serge cooked us 3 different dishes:

- Salmon Fillet, with garlic and herb butter, wilted spinach and saffron cous cous

- Smoked haddock, Cheese and Tomato bake - on the Young's website

and my favourite of the day was:
- Roast Cod with Cider Braised Leeks, Peas and Pancetta - separate post for this recipe coming soon - my attempt at home left the plates clean, so I can only assume the OH loved it!

They were all so quick and easy to make and prior to each dish, Duncan prepared the fish for Serge to cook. They were a great duo and had an excellent working relationship. The eating was the best bit and all were divine!

At the end we were split into two teams, Team Cod making the cod dish and Team Haddock making guess what.... the haddock dish! We both got stuck in and quickly saw that there is no excuse not to cook more fish at home - it really is so fast to knock up something tasty.


Team Haddock

Team Cod

The session was rounded off nicely with a big goody bag full of Young's Fish and also a hefty big piece of fresh cod that Ducan had sliced up that day. It was a very fun, informative and mouth watering session and really made me see that there is so much that can be done with fish and you don't need to be master chef to do it - Serge made it look so easy!

If you want to look up the recipes I've mentioned or check out any of the many other fish recipes Young's have on their site, then check them out - Fish Recipes

Thanks to all at Young's for inviting me and to Serge, Duncan and Clare for making it a great session!