Mercury which can be damaging to the developing fetus [10]. In Ghana, females are expected to avoid particular foods when pregnant in particular cultures out of worry and belief that these could harm unborn children [11]. Some other Ghanaian dietary taboos are that pregnant women will not be anticipated to consume snail to avoid providing birth to drooling babies and kids. Amongst the Kassena and Nankana from the Upper East Region, pregnant girls are restricted to vegetarian eating plan; they ought to not eat meat and groundnut as this could result in the birth of ‘spirit children’ (kids deemed to possess spirits). In her study among the Akwapims, [12] observed that expectant ladies were forbidden to get tomatoes, pepper, okra and eggplant from the industry. If they did, it was believed that their children are going to be infected with severe rashes and will consequently suffer from some form of disability. Youngsters on the other hand are prohibited from consuming egg. Proponents argue that giving eggs to kids is associated with thievery once they grow up [9, 13]. Similar taboos and restrictions happen to be identified among the individuals of Anyamtan in the Dangme West District. Other regional justifications (primarily from folkloric sources) exist in help of prohibitions of snails, okra, ripe plantain, and coconuts. Snails and okra are perceived to cause the baby to slime, though ripe plantain and pineapple are said to bring about waist pain, early labour or abortion. Coconuts however are believed could make a infant blind, a condition described as “white eye [12]. Whilst acknowledging the above, along with other studies around the subject in Ghana [147], it have to be noted that the many social, cultural, and linguistic groupings in Ghana could possibly have different food taboos, affecting vulnerable populations including young children, and pregnant girls. Knowledge about these group-specific practices are relevant for effective public health interventions in communities exactly where such practices are popular. The nutritional hazards and well being implications of meals taboos and preferences have been extensively discussed [1]. When practiced in pregnancy, adverse consequences which include depletion of crucial nutrients needed bythe mother as well as the unborn are probably. A lot of the tabooed foods are crucial sources of protein. Protein, the nutrient, offers cell-building tasks for the growing infant, in particular in brain development. As shown by the Cyanine3 NHS ester In stock literature presented above, high caloric foods, foods rich in vitamins and minerals for example banana, snails and peanut are equally forbidden. Such foods play essential roles within the advertising, and preserving health throughout the several phases of life. Brito and Estacio’s recent function clarifies the impact of food taboos which includes on prenatal nutrition. To our expertise, neither the extent of your practices of food prohibitions in pregnancy within the Upper Manya Krobo, nor the well being implications of the practice has been accomplished. While food taboos have deleterious consequences for maternal and kid health outcomes, such taboos as well as the motivations behind them have rarely been documented within the literature. Applying qualitative data from a rural Ghanaian district, we contribute towards the existing but scant physique of literature by documenting these taboos and PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2129546 the motivators for such practices. Additional, the study analyzes the conventional mechanisms for transmitting and enforcing meals taboos.MethodsStudy type, population sampling and summary of field proceduresThis was an exploratory cross sectional study applying qual.