Food aversions not pregnant

Causes and How It Works

Conditioned Taste Aversion: Causes and How It Works

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By Tessa Sawyers on November 21, 2018

A taste aversion is a tendency to avoid or make negative associations with a food that you ate just before getting sick.

Many people have taste aversions and they’re often the subject of conversations about food. When someone asks, “What food do you dislike?” many people can come up with a story about a run-in with a food that they now refuse to eat.

An example of a conditioned taste aversion is getting the flu after eating a specific food, and then, long past the incident, avoiding the food that you ate prior to getting sick. This can happen even though the food didn’t cause the illness since it isn’t spread this way.

This is called a conditioned taste aversion because you’ve trained yourself to avoid the food even though it wasn’t related to your illness. This is considered a single-trial conditioning since it only took one time for you to be conditioned to avoid the food.

Taste aversions can occur both unconsciously and consciously. Sometimes, you can unconsciously avoid a food without realizing why. The strength of conditioned taste aversion usually depends on how much of the food you consumed and how sick you were.

Typically, taste aversion occurs after you’ve eaten something and then get sick. This sickness usually involves nausea and vomiting. The more intense the sickness, the longer the taste aversion lasts.

Certain conditions or illnesses, unrelated to the food you’re eating, can trigger nausea and vomiting that contribute to your taste aversion:

chemotherapy
anorexia
liver failure
bulimia
ear infection
motion sickness
rotavirus
pregnancy and morning sickness
stomach flu
drinking too much alcohol
overeating

Food aversions are, for the most part, psychological. You’re not allergic to the food, your mind is just associating the food with the time you got sick. Here are a few ways to try and combat food aversions:

Make new associations. You may associate coconut flavor with the time you got ill after eating coconut cream pie, so you associate coconut with vomit. Instead, consciously try associating coconut with tropical islands, vacations, or relaxing on a warm beach.
Make the food in a new way. If you got sick after eating fried eggs, try to prepare your eggs in a different way — such as an omelet — to avoid associating eggs with sickness.
Increase your exposure. Slowly increasing your exposure to the taste you have an aversion to can prevent you from feeling sick or disgusted about the taste. Try just smelling it first, then taste a small amount.

Taste aversions can be a sign of a more serious issue such as an eating disorder. If you have taste aversions that affect your ability to eat a balanced diet, talk to your doctor about the possibility of an eating disorder.

Taste aversions usually occur when you get nauseous or vomit after eating something and then associate the food with the sickness. Sometimes, a taste aversion will fade over time. However, some people report having taste aversions many years after the incident occurred.

If you’re experiencing an extreme taste aversion that stops you from getting proper nutrition, make an appointment with your doctor. They can point you in the right direction for specialists or treatments that can help you put your taste aversions behind you.

How we reviewed this article:

Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.

Chambers KC. (2018). Conditioned taste aversions. DOI:
1016/j.wjorl.2018.02.003
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2018). Nausea and vomiting: Causes.
mayoclinic.org/symptoms/nausea/basics/causes/sym-20050736
Lin J-Y, et al. (2014). Conditioned taste aversion, drugs of abuse and palatability. (2014).
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4134772/
Lin J-Y, et al. (2017). Conditioned taste aversions: From poisons to pain to drugs of abuse. DOI:
3758/s13423-016-1092-8

Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

Current Version

Nov 21, 2018

Written By

Tessa Sawyers

Edited By

Ginger Wojcik

Share this article

By Tessa Sawyers on November 21, 2018

Causes and How It Works

Conditioned Taste Aversion: Causes and How It Works

Health Conditions
- Featured
  - Breast Cancer
  - IBD
  - Migraine
  - Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
  - Rheumatoid Arthritis
  - Type 2 Diabetes
- Articles
  - Acid Reflux
  - ADHD
  - Allergies
  - Alzheimer's & Dementia
  - Bipolar Disorder
  - Cancer
  - Crohn's Disease
  - Chronic Pain
  - Cold & Flu
  - COPD
  - Depression
  - Fibromyalgia
  - Heart Disease
  - High Cholesterol
  - HIV
  - Hypertension
  - IPF
  - Osteoarthritis
  - Psoriasis
  - Skin Disorders and Care
  - STDs
Discover
- Wellness Topics
  - Nutrition
  - Fitness
  - Skin Care
  - Sexual Health
  - Women's Health
  - Mental Well-Being
  - Sleep
- Product Reviews
  - Vitamins & Supplements
  - Sleep
  - Mental Health
  - Nutrition
  - At-Home Testing
  - CBD
  - Men’s Health
- Original Series
  - Fresh Food Fast
  - Diagnosis Diaries
  - You’re Not Alone
  - Present Tense
- Video Series
  - Youth in Focus
  - Healthy Harvest
  - No More Silence
  - Future of Health
Plan
- Health Challenges
  - Mindful Eating
  - Sugar Savvy
  - Move Your Body
  - Gut Health
  - Mood Foods
  - Align Your Spine
- Find Care
  - Primary Care
  - Mental Health
  - OB-GYN
  - Dermatologists
  - Neurologists
  - Cardiologists
  - Orthopedists
- Lifestyle Quizzes
  - Weight Management
  - Am I Depressed? A Quiz for Teens
  - Are You a Workaholic?
  - How Well Do You Sleep?
- Tools & Resources
  - Health News
  - Find a Diet
  - Find Healthy Snacks
  - Drugs A-Z
  - Health A-Z
Connect
- - Breast Cancer
  - Inflammatory Bowel Disease
  - Psoriatic Arthritis
  - Migraine
  - Multiple Sclerosis
  - Psoriasis

By Tessa Sawyers on November 21, 2018

A taste aversion is a tendency to avoid or make negative associations with a food that you ate just before getting sick.

Certain conditions or illnesses, unrelated to the food you’re eating, can trigger nausea and vomiting that contribute to your taste aversion:

chemotherapy
anorexia
liver failure
bulimia
ear infection
motion sickness
rotavirus
pregnancy and morning sickness
stomach flu
drinking too much alcohol
overeating

Make new associations. You may associate coconut flavor with the time you got ill after eating coconut cream pie, so you associate coconut with vomit. Instead, consciously try associating coconut with tropical islands, vacations, or relaxing on a warm beach.
Make the food in a new way. If you got sick after eating fried eggs, try to prepare your eggs in a different way — such as an omelet — to avoid associating eggs with sickness.
Increase your exposure. Slowly increasing your exposure to the taste you have an aversion to can prevent you from feeling sick or disgusted about the taste. Try just smelling it first, then taste a small amount.

How we reviewed this article:

Chambers KC. (2018). Conditioned taste aversions. DOI:
1016/j.wjorl.2018.02.003
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2018). Nausea and vomiting: Causes.
mayoclinic.org/symptoms/nausea/basics/causes/sym-20050736
Lin J-Y, et al. (2014). Conditioned taste aversion, drugs of abuse and palatability. (2014).
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4134772/
Lin J-Y, et al. (2017). Conditioned taste aversions: From poisons to pain to drugs of abuse. DOI:
3758/s13423-016-1092-8

Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

Current Version

Nov 21, 2018

Written By

Tessa Sawyers

Edited By

Ginger Wojcik

Share this article

By Tessa Sawyers on November 21, 2018

why your favorite foods disgust you - HealthInfo

You've heard about the crazy food cravings that women experience during pregnancy. Legendary midnight trips for pickles and ice cream. Sudden, overwhelming desire to eat watermelon or chips. You may even have experienced these feelings yourself.
But this appetite also has a downside that fewer people know about. Once you've been diagnosed with pregnancy, you can stop craving your morning latte that you used to drink every day. You might not even be able to walk past the local coffee shop because now you can't stand the smell of coffee.
About half of all mothers-to-be end up with one or more food aversions. Suddenly they can't digest certain foods, even the ones they used to love.
“People have all sorts of aversions. They are all different,” says Jennifer Wu, MD, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. The cup of coffee tends to top the list of food aversions. Other foods you no longer need are meat, eggs, spices, or fat.
If you have an aversion to food, then there is a chance that you have morning sickness, morning sickness and vomiting, which poison the mornings, afternoons, evenings and nights of pregnant women. Food aversions and morning sickness tend to often start during the first trimester of pregnancy, one week apart.

While food aversions and cravings for certain foods are at their peak during the first half of pregnancy, in general they can last nine years or more. Also, these sensations may go away and then come back. This remains one of the many mysteries of pregnancy.
"No one knows exactly where food aversions come from," says Anjali Kaimal, MD, a perinatal pathologist at the Massachusetts Hospital in Boston, USA. But like so many things during pregnancy, the story probably starts with hormones. “We believe that beta-hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is the culprit for this condition,” Kaimal says.
During pregnancy, this hormone performs many functions. Its concentration peaks during the first trimester of pregnancy. “Gonadotropin peaks around the 11th week of pregnancy and then starts to decline,” Kaimal says. This coincides with the period of time when women experience those same nausea and vomiting. "It looks like it's related."
Other hormones may be responsible for changes in smell and taste in many pregnant women.

“Women have an increased sense of smell and taste during pregnancy, and anything with a strong smell can make them feel disgusted,” says Dr. Wu. But this is not a hard and fast rule. “For example, many people have an aversion to chicken even though it doesn’t smell as strong,” Wu says.
Hormonal changes also cause increased salivation, which can lead to a metallic taste in the mouth in some pregnant women. "You can't get rid of that taste in your mouth," Kaimal says. "While it has nothing to do with aversions, people don't want to eat at all."
For many experts, hormones are the beginning and end of all food aversion stories. Basically, they believe, the reluctance to eat certain foods is a side effect of hormonal changes. However, other researchers believe that food aversion, as well as nausea and vomiting, serve the purpose of discouraging women from foods that could harm the mother or baby. “You can imagine that being able to easily identify what has started to go bad can be useful,” notes Dr. Kaimal.
Statistics support this theory: women who have morning sickness tend to have fewer miscarriages, stillbirths, and premature babies.

Timing also makes sense. The first three months of pregnancy, when pregnant women are prone to food aversions, is the time when the baby is at its most vulnerable stage of growth. Food aversion is rarely harmful to the mother or baby, even if you sometimes avoid foods that are good for you.
"The key is to make sure food aversions don't cause women to avoid certain nutrients or aspects of their diet that they need," says Kaimal. “You have to respect aversions and look at the overall diet. It's hard to say, "I'm sorry you don't like this food, but you still need it."
If a woman is not getting enough nutrients, such as those found in fish and seafood (another common pregnancy food aversion), or the iron found in red meat, iron supplements and fish oil supplements may help.
"I tell [women] to listen to their bodies," says Dr. Wu. “Our main goal is to try to provide them with calories. Eating a lot of plain bread is not the ideal solution, but we also need to get enough calories.”

Everything you need to know about food aversion during pregnancy - Drink-Drink

What is food aversion?

Sending your partner out at midnight for ice cream? Grab a jar of pickles for breakfast? Food cravings are so expected during pregnancy that it's a familiar cliché.

But what about food aversion? If you were expecting to eat anything that caught your eye during pregnancy, then your sudden hatred of what used to be your favorite treat may take you by surprise.

Here's why you can't eat what you used to love and how you can deal with food aversions during pregnancy.

What causes food aversion during pregnancy?

Food aversion, like food cravings, may be due to hormonal changes during pregnancy. The amount of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), the hormone that caused a positive pregnancy test, doubles every few days during the first trimester.

HCG levels peak and level off around the 11th week of pregnancy. Up to this point, rapidly rising levels can be the cause of symptoms such as nausea, cravings, and food aversion. However, your hormones will continue to affect your appetite throughout your pregnancy.

Your aversion to food may also be related to morning sickness. This may be because both are caused by hCG. However, it could also be because you associate morning sickness with the foods you eat at that time.

According to the Mayo Clinic, nausea and food aversion may be early symptoms of pregnancy that persist into the first trimester. These early symptoms sometimes persist even throughout pregnancy.

What the study says

A review of the literature published in Frontiers in Psychology suggests that nausea and food aversion may be related when they occur during pregnancy. The authors of the study stressed that this conclusion is largely based on outdated research and more research is needed.

A literature review in the Journal of Food and Nutrition Research confirmed an association between food aversion and nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

Researchers have hypothesized that this association may be caused by a bodily mechanism that protects against potentially harmful elements in certain foods. Relationships can also be the result of complex cultural and psychological causes.

When is food aversion most common?

You are more likely to have an aversion to food during the first trimester. However, you may experience food aversion at any point during your pregnancy. New aversions can also appear at any point during pregnancy.

In most cases, the aversion to food disappears after the birth of the child. It is also possible that disgust can continue indefinitely.

What are common food aversions during pregnancy?

During pregnancy, you may experience aversion or craving for any food. It is even possible to have an aversion to a certain food at some point during pregnancy and crave that same food later. However, the most common aversion is towards strong smelling foods.

The total disgust for pregnancy include:

meat
milk
onions
GDs
Tea and coffee
Acute food

Some pregnant women are also eager for the above. What foods you hate - or crave - during pregnancy are not necessarily related to your pre-pregnancy diet.

Because pregnancy wreaks havoc on your hormones, you often want to eat things you didn't like before and hate foods you used to love.

How to deal with food aversion during pregnancy?

In most cases, it is good to listen to your body during pregnancy. This means avoiding your aversions and eating the foods you crave, but in moderation. Try not to overdo it.

A study published in the journal Appetite found that excessive food cravings during pregnancy are associated with excessive weight gain.

If you have an aversion to foods that are important during pregnancy, make sure you get these nutrients in other ways. For example, if you have an aversion to meat, eat plenty of other high protein foods like nuts and beans.

You can also get around disgust by "hiding" the food you don't need in other foods. For example, if salads make you sick, try adding leafy greens to a fruit smoothie. There you will not notice any taste or texture.

What is a Conclusion?

Both food aversion and food cravings are normal during pregnancy, so there is usually nothing to worry about. However, if you cannot eat most foods, your child's growth may be affected. If so, discuss weight gain with your doctor.

During pregnancy, aversion to food is sometimes accompanied by a craving for ice or other non-food items.

Pregnant women may crave harmful non-food items such as dirt or chalk. This condition, called pica, can be a sign of an underlying medical problem. If you experience this, call your doctor.