What are we NOT supposed to eat?

Sorry for the stupid question - I keep reading posts where people mention things we're not supposed to eat when pregnant. Some are obvious, but some are not so clear to me. (Why can't we have Greek Salad?)
Can we start listing them here??

Things You Should NOT Do
You Should Not Smoke or be Around People Who Do
Smoking is such a well-known hazard to the mother that it only follows that it is also harmful to the baby. Yet hundreds of thousands of pregnant women still smoke. Secondhand smoke from smokers who live or work with a pregnant women can also affect the fetus. Exposure to smoke can result in spontaneous abortion, pre-term births, low-weight full-term babies, and fetal and infant deaths. See this article, this article, this article, along with thousands of others on the web, for more information.
You Should Not Drink Alcohol
Alcohol has a variety of negative effects on your developing baby depending on the dose and frequency. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is the worst-case scenario, leading to severe retardation and other abnormalities. A quote from this article describes the dangers: 'FAS is linked to birth defects and is the leading known cause of preventable mental retardation. It is characterized by a number of congenital birth defects which include prenatal and postnatal growth deficiency, facial malformations, central nervous system dysfunction, and varying degrees of major organ system malfunctions. ' Also see this article.
You Should Not Take Illegal Drugs
A quote from this article states: 'In utero drug exposure is associated with an increased rate among newborns of low birth weight, central nervous system damage that may delay or impair neurobehavioral development, mild to severe withdrawal effects, and physical malformations such as cleft palate, heart murmurs, eye defects, and abnormalities of facial features and other organ systems.' See also this article.
You Should Not Take Presecription Drugs or Over the Counter (OTC) drugs, Including Aspirin, Unless Told to Do So by Your Doctor
Drugs that are safe to take when not pregnant can cause devasting effects to a fetus when you are pregnant. If you are even thinking of becoming pregnant, you should discuss the use of any drugs you currently take with your doctor beforehand. See this page for general information on OTC drugs in pregnancy including a list of safe OTC drugs to take. They recommend not taking any OTC drugs during the first 8 weeks of pregnancy when the heart, lung, and brain is being formed. See this article about effects of Accutane, see this article about the diet drug fen-phen, see this article about taking drugs during breastfeeding.
You Should Avoid Hot Dogs
Hot dogs have been implicated in several studies. (Note: It has also been found that children under the age of five who eat more than 1 hot dog a week may have an increased risk of cancer). See this article and this note.
You Should Avoid Caffeine
Caffeine taken during pregnancy is thought to increase the probability of a child contracting diabetes. See also this article about coffee and tea.
You Should Avoid Contact with Reptiles
Be sure to tell your doctor if you have any contact with lizards, iguanas, turtles, or snakes as the salmonella virus is transfered through their feces and can affect your pregnancy. Also, children under the age of 5 are also at risk for contracting salmonella if they are in contact with reptiles.
You Should Avoid Tick Bites
Tick bites open you to the risk of lyme disease, which can be deadly to your developing baby. A great book to check on this topic is, 'Everything You Need to Know About Lyme Disease and Other Tick-Borne Disorders', written by Karen Vanderhoof-Forschner, a woman who developed Lyme disease while pregnant.
You Should Avoid Fish
This warning comes from the November 27 issue of Time Magazine (page 31). Fish concentrate methylmercury, which is known to affect the developing child's brain.
You Should Not Eat Junk Food
The basic problem with junk food is that it fills you up but does not provide vitamins or protein. As your stomach size decreases during pregnancy, junk food takes up room and prevents you from eating the foods you really need for your and your baby's health.
You Should Avoid Vitamin A Supplements
By consuming as little as 4 times the RDA of vitamin A, you greatly increase the risk of having a baby with birth defects or other problems. Exposure during the first trimester is the worst. Natural sources of vitamin A are OK - it is foods that are artifically supplemented that cause the problem, and most foods are. You need to start reading packages to make sure you are not getting too much Vitamin A. Other fat-soluable vitamins such as D,E, and K can also accumulate in the body organs and tissues and high-dosage supplementation should be discussed with your doctor. See this article, this article, this article, this article, and this article.
You Should Avoid X-Rays
According to the book What to Expect When You're Expecting, the risks posed by X-Ray exposure are fairly small, with the greatest risk occuring early in the pregnancy. Informing your doctor or dentist of the fact that you are pregnant is probably the best way to control your risk. If an X-Ray can be postponed until after the pregnancy, then that would eliminate the risk.
You Should Avoid VDTs
In this article is the following quote: 'Kaiser's researchers tracked 1,583 pregnancies ... [and] were surprised to find a statistically significant 73% increase in miscarriages in working women using CRT-style VDTs (cathode ray tube style video display terminals), compared to other working women.' Older VDTs are especially suspect. However, later studies have been less conclusive or contradictory. See also this article and this article.
You Should Avoid Microwaves
An excerpt from this page, states, 'Particularly vulnerable to excessive microwave radiation is the developing fetus.' For more information also see this article.
You Should not Use an Electric Blanket
Electric Blankets give off low-level electromagnetic fields which may be harmful to a developing baby. See this article, this article and this article.
You Should Not Use a Water Bed
The heaters used in water beds give off the same electric fields as those found in electric blankets (see previous) and should therefore be avoided for the same reasons.
You Should Avoid Drinking Tap Water if Possible
Recent studies have shown that drinking tap water during the early months of pregnancy can increase your risk of miscarriage. If this concerns you or you have a history of miscarriage, you may want to discuss drinking bottled water with your doctor. This article discusses research that showed California tapwater was linked to miscarriages. Also see this article. This article discusses why tap water may cause problems for all people (does not directly discuss miscarriage).
You Should Avoid Stress
Stress at work is defined as, 'high psychological demands from work activities, and low decision-making powers on the job'. See this article and this article for more information. This article is also interesting.
You Should Not Expose Yourself to Pesticides
Pesticides (including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and so on) can have a variety of effects on your unborn baby depending on the type of chemical, the length and intensity of exposure and the age of the fetus. In general it is best to avoid exposure to all pesticides. The problem is that pesticide use is extremely widespread in the U.S. You can be exposed to pesticides in your home (ant and roach bait traps, no-pest strips, houshold pest control products and services, flea collars on dogs and cats...), in your yard (lawn care services, do-it-yourself herbicides and insecticides on the lawn or garden), in your neighborhood (especially in rural areas, but also from suburban neighbors spraying their yards), from various food sources... The most you can do is attempt to avoid these dangers as best you can. See this site, this page and this page.
You Should Avoid Fumes from Paint, Paint Thinner, Household Cleaning Products and so on
This article and this article discuss the large numbers of toxic products and by-products found in the home and yard. As with pesticides (see previous) the best you can hope for is educating yourself and trying to limit your exposure.
You Should Avoid Raising Your Body Temperature
There is a potential danger to the developing fetus if your body temperature rises above 102 degrees. You can raise your body temperature to this level by getting a fever, by exercising too strenuously, working outside on hot summer days, and so on.
You Should Not Use a Sauna, Hot Tub or Take Long Hot Baths
Hot tubs and hot baths have a tendency to raise your body temperature and therefore are to be avoided. See the previous item for details.
You Should Avoid Cleaning Cat Litter Boxes. You Should Avoid Uncooked Meat.
Both cat litter and undercooked meat present the risk of toxoplasmosis, which causes birth defects. See this article and this article for details.
You Should Avoid Herpes
Herpes when transfered to the baby during delivery, can lead to severe complications. The easiest way to avoid this possibility is to avoid contracting herpes. If you do have herpes, you should be sure to tell your doctor. See this article for more information.

Here is what 'they' say you should NOT eat (although like my Mom said she was allowed to drink wine, smoke and eat whatever)
-no cold cuts
-no soft cheese such as brie (although I did eat a piece last weekend) or blue cheese. But you CAN have cream cheese.
-no hot dogs (although I did have 2 this summer off the grill)
-no artifical sweetner (so no diet sodas)
-limit your sugar intake in order to not gain too much weight and typically sugar foods are empty calories anyway
- limited or no caffine, depends on who you talk to.
-no smoking or alchol, of course

Do you like to eat mold ripened cheeses such as blue cheese,Camembert,Brie, and blue veined varieties such as Gargonzola? Studies show that you are prone to contract a infection from such foods that may not harm you but may harm your baby. Here is a list of other foods you need to avoid while while pregnant. If you have any questions about foods you should avoid, talk it over with your doctor. :

Raw and undercooked meat,poultry,sushi,pate,raw eggs: undercooked meat and raw eggs are as much of a danger to people not trying to conceive as it is to women trying to conceive and who are pregnant. As we all learned in school raw meats have a strong likely hood of carrying salmonella. Getting food poisoning from salmonella causes high fever and other problems which can be hazardous for pregnant women.

Certain Cheeses: Any type of soft cheese accept for cream cheese and cottage cheese should avoided while you are pregnant. Both soft cheeses and pate can carry a harmful bacterial called Listeriosis. When infected with the disease it is much like the flu and can be treated with antibiotics. While pregnant it can cross the placenta like many harmful things causing problems or even miscarriage or still birth. This disease how ever is less common than toxoplasmosis and often does not cause problems. How ever it is advised by doctors that you keep these things out of your diet while trying to conceive and are pregnant for safety sake.

TUNA: Mercury may be found in tuna fish. When I was pregnant I had no idea I should not eat any tuna until my sister in law told me after my mother in law made some tuna salad sandwiches. I talked to my doctor about this and she too agreed that because of the level of mercury found in tuna its advised that women who are pregnant avoid this type of fish.


SUGAR SUBSTITUTES: On the day of my first check up,after I found out I was pregnant, I was automatically told to stay away from anything that had saccharin in it and try to avoid Aspartame as much as possible. There has only been some study on the substance but studies have shown that pregnant mice who intake saccharin pass on cancer to its offspring. Aspartame is a safer substitute but doctors still caution c pregnant women against drinking anything with aspartame such as Nurtasweet and Equal. Drinking your tea with a little bit of honey makes the drink taste just as sweet and is a safer alternative. Just because you are pregnant doesn't mean you have to go sugar free. It just means you need to watch how much sugar you intake and use less.


CAFFEINE : As everyone knows caffeine is considered a very powerful drug. I personally find I have problems waking up in the morning without a can of caffeinated soda in the morning. Coming from experience I know you do not have to go cold turkey and quit drinking anything with caffeine in it. I myself have been told by my doctor that one cup of coffee is equal to three caffeine sodas. I only drink two a day which is safe. When you are pregnant it is recommended that you limit yourself on at least one to two cups of tea. Tea contains tannin which can keep you from absorbing the iron you need. When you are pregnant you do not need to go caffeine free. I was told by my doctor that it is ok to drink caffeine when you are pregnant as long a you limit it. Only three sodas are allowed per day or one cup of coffee or one cup of hot chocolate. I kept in those limits and many other women I know have to and all of our children were born normal and healthy without any effects from the little caffeine we drank. If you are worried still about caffeine effects on pregnancy than you can switch to herbal teas which are normally caffeine free and are not harmful to trying to pregnancy. You can also switch to decafe coffee or do some research on what sodas are caffeine free.

Oh, God! Sushi, coffee, brie!!! All my favorites! How cruel!

You really should check with your own doctor, because schools of thought vary from doctor to doctor.

I see an extremely liberal doctor who allows me (in moderation) to do many of the 'do nots' listed above.