Craving for food in pregnancy
Food cravings during pregnancy | Pregnancy Birth and Baby
Food cravings during pregnancy | Pregnancy Birth and Baby beginning of content4-minute read
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What are food cravings?
Food cravings are sudden urges to eat a certain type of food or non-food (pica). They are a real experience and affect many females during pregnancy.
Sometimes you might crave common foods such as chocolate cake or apples. Sometimes you might want to eat unusual food combinations or a foods that you normally don’t like.
Common food cravings include ice cream, chocolate, other sweet foods, fish, dairy products, and fruit.
Why do cravings develop?
No one really knows why food cravings develop. However, there is no evidence of a link between cravings and nutrient deficiency.
Many pregnant women also develop a sudden dislike for certain strong-tasting and strong-smelling foods.
Food cravings and sudden food dislikes may have something to with the effects of pregnancy hormones, which can change the way some foods taste and smell.
What to do about food cravings
It is OK to give in to the occasional food craving, as long as you continue to eat a good variety of healthy foods.
If you are craving a lot of unhealthy foods, such as sweets or chocolate, try not to over-indulge. Too much sugar can cause excessive weight gain and dental problems. Also, if you have gestational diabetes, it won’t help you manage your condition.
Your doctor, midwife, dietitian or maternal and child health nurse can provide more information about healthy weight gain during pregnancy. Generally, a healthy weight gain during pregnancy is 5kg to 12kg, depending on your starting weight.
Some tips for managing cravings
The following suggestions will help you to manage your food cravings:
- eat regular, healthy meals, to help prevent sudden feelings of hunger
- keep your pantry stocked with healthy snacks
- don’t do the grocery shopping when you are hungry
- choose healthy, low glycaemic index (GI) foods that keep you full for longer (such as unsweetened rolled oats (porridge), wholegrain breads, baked beans, and fresh fruit)
- get plenty of sleep (research has shown that people who are sleep deprived tend to crave junk food more often than healthy foods)
- remain physically active
- drink plenty of water
- clean your teeth regularly
If you would like to learn more about nutritional needs during your pregnancy you can see a dietitian.
What foods should I avoid?
When you are pregnant, there are a few foods that you should avoid.
Things like:
- raw or unpasteurised dairy products
- soft cheeses e.g. brie, goats cheese
- sushi
- raw eggs
- pate, meat spreads and smoked seafood
- ready to eat sliced deli meats
- undercooked food – especially meat
These can contain harmful bacteria, including salmonella and E. coli. and lead to harmful illnesses such as listeria or toxoplasmosis.
Make sure you prepare and store foods safely.
Read more about the foods to avoid during your pregnancy.
Alcohol
There is no safe level of alcohol that you can drink during your pregnancy. Alcohol can harm your unborn baby.
Whether you are planning a pregnancy, already pregnant or breastfeeding, not drinking is the safest option.
Non-food cravings
Some pregnant women develop a craving to eat substances that are not food, such as chalk, clay, laundry starch or soap. This is a condition called pica.
Pica may indicate a mineral deficiency or severe anaemia. Pica is rare in well-nourished women from developed countries such as Australia.
See your doctor, midwife, or nurse if you develop cravings for non-food items.
Speak to a maternal child health nurse
Call Pregnancy, Birth and Baby to speak to a maternal child health nurse on 1800 882 436 or video call. Available 7am to midnight (AET), 7 days a week.
Sources:
NSW Health (Common concerns in pregnancy), Australian Government Department of Health (Your Healthy Pregnancy), Dietitians Australia (Pregnancy and breastfeeding), Australian Government Department of Health (Healthy eating during your pregnancy)Learn more here about the development and quality assurance of healthdirect content.
Last reviewed: June 2022
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Related pages
- Healthy diet during pregnancy
- Foods to avoid when pregnant
- Alcohol and pregnancy
- Food preparation and safety
- Guide to food and drink during pregnancy
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When You Gotta Have It!
Pregnancy and food cravings go hand in hand; 3 experts offer suggestions for healthy cravings.
Written by Colette Bouchez
Pickles and ice cream. Cheese Whiz on steak. Brownie mix -- straight from the bowl. While these may not exactly seem like gourmet fare, if you're pregnant they can seem like heaven on a plate.
The reason: Pregnancy cravings - those seemingly unquenchable longings for oftentimes eclectic combinations of foods that you might never otherwise even dream of eating!
But what's behind these mysterious food fantasies, and can they ever be harmful? Doctors say the answers depend a lot on what you are craving.
"No one really knows why pregnancy cravings occur, though there are theories that it represents some nutrient that the mother may be lacking -- and the crave is the body's way of asking for what it needs," says Andrei Rebarber, MD, associate director of the division of maternal-fetal medicine at NYU Medical Center in New York.
When that overwhelming desire for pickles or processed cheese hits, Rebarber says it could be the body asking for more sodium. That aching for a Big Mac and a plate of fries may be your need for more protein, sodium, or potassium. The burning in your belly for a double helping of chocolate double latte ice cream may be signaling a need for more calcium or fat.
"It's not that the body actually needs the specific food you are craving, but it may need something in that food. And your taste buds just interpret it as a craving for something specific," says Rebarber.
What's more, many experts say our taste buds do actually play a role in how we interpret our body's needs. Studies show that the high hormone levels present during pregnancy can alter both a woman's sense of taste and smell. So certain foods and odors can not only be more enticing but in some cases more offensive; a problem that often plays out as a pregnancy food aversion.
"Food aversions are most often associated with early pregnancy -- when they are likely to touch off a bout of morning sickness -- with nausea and vomiting," says Rebarber.
While some pregnancy cravings can certainly seem a bit odd, in most instances, they don't represent any real threat to mother or the baby. This, however, can change dramatically, when the craving is for a nonfood item. The condition, known as pica, can lead to an overwhelming desire to consume any number of substances, some of which can be extremely harmful to both mother and baby.
"During pregnancy a woman can crave -- and eat -- things like dirt, laundry starch, crayons, ground up clay pots, ice scraped from the freezer. As bizarre as it seems, the desire can be overwhelming," says Peter S. Bernstein, MD, MPH, medical director of obstetrics and gynecology at the Comprehensive Family Care Center of Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y.
While pica -- eating non-nutritive substances -- is not well understood, Bernstein says sometimes these cravings represent a nutritional deficiency, particularly a need for iron, though he says there are no studies to prove this is always the case.
In some instances, Bernstein tells WebMD that the cravings can also have a cultural or ethnic component, one which actually fosters eating these dangerous nonfood items.
"The craving is there, and then fulfilling it is encouraged within certain cultural communities," says Bernstein.
Among the most dangerous aspects of pica is the consumption of lead -- particularly when women eat dirt or clay. This can lead to infant and child developmental problems with low verbal IQ scores, impaired hearing and motor skill development. Other research has shown an increased risk of learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders in infant exposure to lead before birth.
"I've had women and their babies develop lead poisoning from eating dirt during pregnancy; the neurological damage can be overwhelming," says Bernstein.
If you do find yourself craving any nonfood item, experts say see your doctor immediately and be tested for iron deficiency anemia or other nutritional deficiencies such as zinc, which has also been linked to pica.
For most women, pregnancy food cravings fall into just a few categories: sweet, spicy, salty, or occasionally sour. Surveys show only a scant 10% of pregnant women crave fruits and veggies during pregnancy, with a desire to gobble down foods such as peaches, blueberries, or broccoli not high on the "must have" scale.
And in fact, that's one reason doctors sometimes raise a red flag about pregnancy cravings.
"My biggest concern is when food cravings replace good nutrition -- in other words, a woman will fill up on the foods she craves and skip the nutritious foods her body and her baby really need," says Rebarber.
Not only can this cause serious deficiencies in both baby and mom, since oftentimes the foods we crave during pregnancy can be laden with empty calories, it can also lead to gaining too much weight; a problem that doctors say is on the rise.
Rebarber explains that because the population, as a whole, weighs more, it's not uncommon for overweight women to get pregnant -- meaning there is an even greater need to ensure they don't gain an excessive amount of weight during their pregnancy.
Indeed, a Scandinavian study of 600 pregnant women published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2002 showed that excessive weight gain during pregnancy increased the risk of preeclampsia (a life-threatening condition often characterized by a rapid rise in blood pressure), as well as a series of labor and delivery problems.
According to the Institute of Medicine, if you are of normal weight before pregnancy, you should aim to gain between 25 and 35 pounds while pregnant. But if you're overweight at the time of conception, your goal pregnancy weight should be no more than 15 to 25 pounds.
Bernstein tells WebMD that how you handle your cravings could make a big difference.
"If you are craving high-fat premium ice cream and chocolate doughnuts and eating them all the time, you could see your weight blossom to an unhealthy level quite early on," he says.
If you are at risk for gestational diabetes (diabetes diagnosed during pregnancy that can affect the health of both baby and mom), giving in to high-sugar cravings could cause even more problems.
"With gestational diabetes you not only have to watch weight gain, but also what you eat -- so again, cravings can easily get out of hand," says Bernstein.
The good news is that you don't have to spend your pregnancy with a yen you just can't fill. Clinical nutritionist Samantha Heller, MS, RD, says it's easy to quench a pregnancy craving with healthy alternatives if you simply know what it is you really want.
"It's all about understanding what your craving is really for and then finding a more healthy version of that same food, and make a simple substitution," says Heller, a clinical nutritionist at NYU Medical Center in New York City.
Nutritionist Liz Lipski, PhD, CCN, agrees: "If the food you are craving is pretty healthful, I'd give in to the cravings; but if it's lacking healthful nutrients, I'd look for healthier alternatives."
The key say both experts, is to not automatically reach for the food you think you want -- but instead take a few minutes to understand what your body is telling you.
"If you crave, for, example, some yummy premium strawberry ice cream, try to break your craving down: Are you longing for something cold, smooth, creamy, and sweet, or is it the taste of strawberries you really want?" says Heller.
Once you understand what you really want, it's easier to choose a healthy alternative.
"Maybe a strawberry sorbet will fill your needs, or a dish of fresh strawberries with low-fat topping or maybe even a strawberry yogurt. If you just stop to think about what you're really craving, it can be easy to find something healthy and tasty," says Heller.
"If it's the calcium you are needing, you can take a calcium supplement or use other dairy products such as cheese, buttermilk, yogurt, and kefir to fill the bill," Lipski tells WebMD.
To help get you started thinking in the right direction, our experts offer these suggestions for healthy food fixes that can satisfy your craving and keep you well.
If you crave | Try eating ... |
Ice Cream | Nonfat frozen yogurt, sorbet, or sherbet |
Cola | Mineral water with fruit juice or lime |
Doughnuts/pastry | Whole-grain bagel with fresh fruit jam |
Doughnuts/pastry | Whole-grain bagel with fresh fruit jam |
Cake | Low-fat banana or zucchini bread |
Sugar-coated cereal | Whole-grain cereal or oatmeal, with brown sugar |
Potato chips | Low-sodium, low-fat chips, popcorn, or pretzels |
Sour cream | No-fat sour cream or non-fat plain yogurt flavored with herbs |
Sundae toppings | Fresh berries or bananas |
Canned fruits in heavy syrup | Fresh fruit, frozen unsweetened fruit, fruit packed in water, juice |
Lunch meats | Low-fat or fat-free meats, turkey or soy Bologna, beef hot dogs |
Whipped cream | Ice cold no-fat milk whipped with a hand-held immersion blender |
Colette Bouchez is the author of Your Perfectly Pampered Pregnancy: Health, Beauty and Lifestyle Advice for the Modern Mother-To-Be.
Cravings during pregnancy: myth or fact?
Almost everyone believes that this is a common occurrence associated with pregnancy cravings.
There are many myths about pregnancy. Among them, traction is often discussed. Let's find out more about them and find out if they are a myth or a reality.
Cravings are defined as a strong appetite and are hardly worthless for some nutrition. Cravings can be sweet, refreshing, unusual, or aberrant in a normal diet. Women are in constant hormonal change , which may be indicative but has no scientific basis. There may be psychological reasons, anxiety …, Or wishes for attention and body care.
Almost everyone thinks that pregnant women have food cravings, from mouth-watering strawberries and cream to the wildest pairings , like pickles and chocolate. The figure of the father always appears, the one who, at odd hours, gives his beloved the opportunity to enjoy a moment of gastronomic pleasure.
Index
- 1 History of cravings
- 2 More frequent cravings
- 3 Features of cravings
- 3.1 Truth of cravings
- 4 Relationship between desire and weight gain
- 4 Relationship between desire and weight gain 900 900
History of cravings
Some pregnant women crave certain foods, which can happen to other people at any point in their lives and without further complications. What is convenient is to be moderate in this regard, i.e. one should not give free rein to desires and eat uncontrollably whatever you want. In health, especially for the expectant mother in the first place.
Around the 1960s and 70s, something affected the proper nutrition of pregnant women, which negatively affected the development of children. Years later The idea that pregnant women should overeat was still there to prevent it from happening again.
Today, pregnant women are fully supervised, they are even advised to gain weight and informed about the list of the most harmful foods for 9months. At this time, it may happen that during pregnancy the so-called "hunger hormone" is increased. This contributes to the regulation of energy metabolism.
More frequent cravings
The sweet taste of chocolate or pastry transcends the taste aspect and reaches the pregnant woman's brain for pleasure.
El the sweet taste surpasses the taste aspect and reaches the brain of a pregnant woman, giving pleasure That's why chocolate or pastries are so popular among pregnant women, and not only for them. Some examples :
- Ice : When taken, heat is better tolerated and they provide sugar. Cold helps with annoying nausea.
- Chocolates and chocolates : Enjoyment is guaranteed with them. This is a good antioxidant.
- Pretzels . They help to better cope with nausea.
- Pickles : Pregnant woman can choose any canned food. A strong aroma can cause appetite. It's the same with spicy food. They should be used with caution because they can cause stomach discomfort.
- Fruit, especially sour as in the case of strawberries. They contain a lot of vitamin C, and it is this level that decreases during pregnancy. He also provides the mother with sugar.
- Cheese and dairy products : It probably tastes so good that pregnant women need calcium. However, during pregnancy, you need to be very careful with cheeses and unpasteurized milk. They should be consumed in moderation. Yoghurts are healthy, fast and appetizing food.
Features of cravings
- There is such a thing as "Pica", in which pregnant women feel the desire to eat substances that are not food. eg dirt, chalk or stones. It has not been proven to have anything to do with the state of pregnancy.
- The traditional saying guarantees that the sex of the unborn child if she is a girl, this is due to the consumption of sweets such as cakes or chocolate. If I were a child, cravings would be more salty and spicy, like chili peppers, tabasco, pipe... Obviously, a person's gender does not depend on food.
- Legends say that this unusual appetite causes child and if it is not satisfied, the child may develop spots of the shape or color of inedible food.
- Another idea is that in order to be considered a craving, you must desire junk food .
True cravings
- Baby no will suffer the consequences of as a result of not eating the desired food.
- La the body's need for nutrients, minerals or Vitamins , weakness ..., can make you crave special foods rich in them.
- Longing desire may be healthy .
- Pregnant women should not indulge in appetite and self-control. They must not eat for two .
Relationship between desire and weight gain
They say that in order to be considered a craving, you have to crave junk food.
A pregnant woman should take care of herself, follow a meal plan and eat the healthiest food possible. Gaining many kilograms is not optimal for either the mother or the child. , especially next day delivery. Ideally, gain about 10-12 kilograms, but medical control and the fact that it is he or she is important. The matron are those who guide the mother and help her in this process.
It is important to differentiate the age and starting weight from one pregnant woman to another, weigh whether she is doing sports normally, whether she leads an active lifestyle, whether she suffers from any disease, such as diabetes, obesity, and in this case, take the weight should be less than . .. Cannot use the same scale for all . Even before pregnancy, a woman is advised, if she has not already done so, to start exercising and try to live as healthy a lifestyle as possible.
Drink plenty of water, eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. ... And avoid as many complex carbohydrates as possible, you need to eat rice or bread. Everything you need to fully nourish the table and meet the needs of mother and child. Weight is gained not only from eating, but also from the placenta amniotic fluid, baby, breast augmentation… everything will eventually make up the final weight, and on the day of delivery, some of this weight will disappear, and another in the following days, weeks or months.
How to deal with cravings?
In case of food cravings, it is best to make a meal plan and choose between foods with a higher nutritional content . You need to choose foods rich in proteins, vitamins . .. and eradicate "junk food" that does not do anything good. It is extremely important that pregnant women eat 5 meals a day (and that breakfast is the best meal of the day) so that their meals are not superfluous.
It is important and necessary to exercise daily, drink plenty of water, if possible 2 liters a day, try to lead a quiet life and seek support from family and close friends. Some simple and healthy cravings options are:
- Yogurt creamy.
- Black chocolate , some daily portion. Lower sugar content.
- Unsalted nuts . They promote fluid retention.
- White bread and pastries - by user whole grain flour and cereals . Promotes intestinal transit.
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The cause of pregnancy food whims: it's not because their body lacks something
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Image copyright Getty Images
What's behind pregnancy's weird eating habits? Most likely, not at all what we are used to thinking about.
We have all heard stories a thousand times about a pregnant woman who, in the middle of the night, wanted a pickled cucumber with ice cream so much that she sent her husband in search of the desired products. Or who passionately wants chocolate - but not any, namely one that cannot be found in stores nearby.
However, why "heard"? Perhaps you yourself experienced an inexplicable desire to eat something special when you were pregnant.
Often they try to explain this by saying that the food whims of pregnant women occur due to the fact that their body (or the body of a developing fetus) suddenly needed certain nutrients, and there is even something attractive, touching in such an explanation.
In the end, bearing a child is a difficult, long, not always pleasant and sometimes mysterious process. And if a burning desire to urgently eat a burger, or even two, has such a good reason - well, so be it.
However, when you look at the scientific research on this phenomenon, things turn out to be much more complex and fascinating.
Researchers found that the food whims of pregnancy (as a concept) did not exist in all cultures.
And in those non-English speaking countries where pregnant women sometimes report their sudden food cravings, they want something completely different than, for example, women in the US and the UK. For example, in Japan, most often they want such a prosaic thing as rice.
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Going further, studies that have tried to find out whether the body gets the special nutrients it needs from the foods that pregnant women most often want to eat have found no evidence of this.
In fact, women who reported cravings for food ended up gaining much more weight than is considered healthy during pregnancy as a result, which could lead to more complications.
This, however, does not mean that women invent all their desires. And the fact that the reasons for their whims are completely different, they are not dictated by biochemical need.
Understanding why people suddenly crave certain foods in the first place can help, says Julia Hormes, a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Albany, who studies food cravings in a variety of ways.
For example, she says that about 50% of women in the US report craving chocolate during the week leading up to their period.
The scientists decided to investigate whether this craving is due to certain nutrients in chocolate that are important for menstruation, or whether it reflects hormonal changes.
Image copyright, Getty Images
Image caption,Food vagaries may be related to the psychology or cultural traditions of a particular society
In one experiment, a psychologist gave women a box and asked them to eat its contents when they suddenly felt like eating something.
Some of the boxes contained milk chocolate, which had all the usual chocolate ingredients and also had a nice melt-in-your-mouth sweet sensation.
Others have white chocolate that does not contain cocoa solids (which give milk and dark chocolate its dark color) but still has a pleasant texture.
Third, cocoa candies with all the nutrients of cocoa, but without the mouthfeel that chocolate does.
It turned out that white chocolate had the greatest success in satisfying desires, which suggests that whims are not spurred on by any particularly useful cocoa ingredients.
Other studies of "chocolate whims" have not been found to be associated with hormone levels.
In fact, even during menopause, women continued to feel the desire to eat chocolate, Horms emphasizes, they simply began to attribute it to other reasons.
All this brings us to the conclusion that the source of food vagaries is in psychology or in cultural traditions. A craving for a cookie, a chocolate bar, or a bag of chips can start as a simple thought and then grow bigger and bigger, becoming an obsession that is hard to resist.
At the same time, thoughts of something delicious can coexist with feelings of guilt.
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In particular, if you hold yourself back for a long time and you already have a barrier in your head (you are not allowed to eat this food!), it will be extremely difficult to resist and not lose control of your desires when you reach for a forbidden treat.
And then, after eating a piece of cake, instead of feeling satisfied and doing something else, you eat three more pieces.
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that women during pregnancy can limit themselves to certain foods - either by following a healthier diet or following the recommendations of a doctor.
Image copyright, Getty Images
Image caption,Eating a piece of chocolate regularly can keep you from falling into uncontrollable devouring of tiles
All of these circumstances give rise - at least in some countries of the world - to situations in which food cravings are more frequent and more likely to occur and are harder to control, which can lead to, say, weight gain.
In addition, during pregnancy, a woman's whims in eating are not customary to condemn.
"In our culture, there are certain moments and situations in life when women are not judged for eating foods that are normally supposed to be avoided," says Horms. "PMS and pregnancy, for example, are considered such situations in society."
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Understanding what leads to a craving to eat something can prevent the transition from just thinking about cake to eating cake, Hormes emphasizes.
One way is to use distractions, both visual and, for example, olfactory. The other is, with the help of self-contemplation and awareness achieved in meditation, to recognize the presence of desire and let it go, let it go.