The Most Common Pregnancy Craving

  

I promise not to bore you with statistics and just cut to the chase on a couple of the theories.

One true fact is that a woman’s taste changes throughout the trimesters. For instance, during the first trimester women traditionally have a heightened sense of smell and many food aversions due to changes in hormones and morning sickness – this can extend throughout the pregnancy for different types of foods. Many friends and clients I have spoken to usually turn off coffee and wine (probably a good thing!)

I know I couldn’t bear to even smell some foods, especially coffee or my husband’s tandoori chicken, which I made him eat outside! I couldn’t even eat chocolate during the first trimester but alas I overcame that aversion during about week 17 when the morning sickness finally eased. I also went back to having my one cup of coffee for the day. This example is backed by a study that states pregnant women tend to have an intensified perception of bitterness during the first trimester, when the fetal development is at its most crucial. The thought process behind this is it’s like evolutionary protection – warning the mother not to eat dangerous toxic plants or fruits, even alcohol which all taste bitter.  By the third trimester this aversion is lessoned as the baby is more developed and out of the danger zone.

The most common pregnancy craving is actually fruit and milk (I concur). I couldn’t get enough fruit especially oranges and strawberries. The other food I couldn’t get enough of was cheese. I ate so much cheese I am surprised I didn’t bleed cheese when I delivered! There are a couple of reasons/justifications for this:

The good old fashioned notion that you crave what your body needs. Yes listen to your body and it will tell you what it needs. In most instances it’s an increased need for calcium and vitamin C (hence cheese, milk and oranges)

The need for sweet snacks is prominent in pregnant women. Scientists believe this is linked to the need for ingestion of more calories during the 2nd and 3rd trimesters in particular. Thus why we also want chocolate. Like we need to justify that one!!

Similarly, in the later trimesters we tend to have a greater craving for salty foods. Scientists (who are these people anyway?) state that this is due to our increased blood volume and thus the need for increased sodium. Hello pretzels and sour cream and onion Pringles, welcome to my pregnancy heaven.