Red wine marinade while pregnant?

Question

I know that you can not drink wine while pregnant, but while I was over my brother in laws house for dinner, they made steak. After I ate dinner, I asked what they marinated the steak in because I thought it was good. They told me they marinated it in a few things, but one of them was red wine!! I am two months pregnant, and this is my first. Is this a really bad thing, or do you think the wine was cooked off? I ate about five pieces of sliced steak. And please no mean answers, this is a real question, I am just trying to make sure I am doing everything right.

Answer 1

"The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recently conducted a large study including 400,000 American women, all of whom had consumed alcohol during pregnancy. Not a single case of fetal alcohol syndrome occurred and no adverse effects on children were found when consumption was under 8.5 drinks per week."

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/FetalAlcoholSyndrome.html

"Some studies go as far as to indicate that light to moderate drinking may actually improve the chance of successful pregnancies. A 1993 study published in the "American Journal of Epidemiology" by Ruth Little and Clarence Weinberg concluded, for example, that there were fewer stillbirths and fewer losses of fetus due to early labor among women who consumed a moderate level of alcohol. That some alcohol can be protective against preterm birth is also supported by Dr. Martha Direnfeld of Haifa University who points out that when used properly, alcohol is known to stop unwanted uterine contractions, and thus has "saved many pregnancies that might otherwise have spontaneously aborted." More than this, Dr. Robert Sokol of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse in Detroit has shown that it is light drinkers and not abstainers who have the best chance of having a baby of optimal birth weight and in their book "Alcohol and the Fetus" and Doctors Henry Rosset and Lynn Wiener have presented data that shows that children of moderate drinkers tend to score highest on developmental tests at the age of 18 months."

http://dovercanyon.typepad.com/women_wine_critics_board/2006/01/wine_and_pregna.html

(sigh)

Okay -- now try to *enjoy* your pregnancy, okay? Really -- relax.

Answer 2

Red Wine While Pregnant

Answer 3

It's fine. What wasn't cooked off would be such a minor amount you wouldn't have to worry. Even a single glass of wine at this point wouldn't be awful awful, if you know what I mean, though I wouldn't recommend it! Doing the right thing means not drinking, but you really don't have to go overboard and worry about every tiny bit of alcohol you might be exposed to. You probably have more in your mouthwash than you got in your steak last night. K? K.

Answer 4

Cooking with wine/alcohol is fine because it basically evaporates. While there are myths of drinking in pregnancy, did you know that Americans are the only culture that truly hold this belief. A glass of wine once in a while is not such a bad idea if you can handle it. Don't however drink like a fish.

Answer 5

The wine was most likely cooked out, and even if it wasnt all cooked out, it was likely a very small amount that remained. Several studies have been done on the affect of alchohol and pregnancy, and from what I have read, you would need to consume large amounts of alchohol (aka, more than one drink) on a regular basis to affect your childs health. With both of my children, I drank alchohol before I knew I was pregnant.. my doctor said not to be concerned because it was an accident, and was a one time thing.
A marinade isnt going to hurt you.. a glass of wine probably would. Dont stress! Almost every woman I have ever talked to about it, admitted that they drank while pregnant before they knew they were pregnant.. and we all have healthy beautiful kids. Good luck to you through the rest of your pregnancy :)

Answer 6

You will be just fine. If anything, you have to worry about eating your steak raw more than the wine as the fetus can not fight off bacterial infections from raw food.

and anytime alcohol is used in cooking, it loses the alcohol part of it.....

Answer 7

The alcohol was cooked off just leaving the flavor. It's a good thing you are concerned though; don't worry everything is fine.

Answer 8

You're fine a) the alcohol probably largely cooked off. b) even if it didn't you probably got less than a tsp c) medications in alcohol elixers are sometimes prescribed to pregnant women and those dosages are much higher than a tsp per day.

Take care!

Answer 9

don't worry. when food marinated in wine is cooked, most - if not all - of the alcohol evaporates off

Leg of lamb left overnight in red wine and rosemary before cooking - gorgeous.... :D

even if it didn't, the minute traces wouldn't be strong enough to cause any harm... you might want to avoid christmas pudding soaked in brandy though :P

Answer 10

No worries.

While it's a good idea not to drink when you're pregnant, a little once in a while won't hurt anything.

As for your marinade, there wasn't enough alcohol left after cooking to give a mouse a buzz.