The warning comes from US researchers who believe that public health officials should do more to advise pregnant women to avoid foods and beverages including caffeine, canned goods, certain types of fish and tap water - which they suggest could all be putting the development of babies at risk.
Writing in Nutrition Journal, the research team US researchers found that the diets of pregnant Hispanic women included tuna, salmon, canned foods, tap water, caffeine, alcohol and over-the-counter medications that contain substances known to cause birth defects.
"Unlike alcohol and nicotine, which carry a certain stigma along with surgeon general warnings on the packaging, tuna, canned foods, caffeine, and a handful of other foods and beverages with associated developmental effects are not typically thought of as unsafe," explained Sarah Santiago from the University of California San Diego.
Santiago commented that their study is unique in that it highlights 'unseen dangers' of consuming potentially dangerous compounds in food and beverages - especially where these compounds are not typically thought of as unhealthy.
"Our main findings are summaries as percentages of women reporting consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages during pregnancies," revealed the researchers. "For example, we found high numbers of Hispanic pregnant women consumed methylmercury through tuna, PCBs through salmon consumption, BPA through canned goods, DBAs containing tap water, caffeine containing beverages, and alcohol containing beverages during pregnancy."
"We also found that large percentages of pregnant Hispanic women reported eating high sugar sweet desserts and high fat and salt fast foods more than once a week," the team said.
Santiago said she hopes that her study will encourage health care providers "to keep pregnant women well informed as to the possible dangers of unhealthy consumption habits."