Posted on February 20, 2010.
Women who want ... check it out!? For many women, powerful food cravings for certain foods come with the territory during the pregnancy. You've probably heard stories of relatives being sent every hour to find a certain brand of bacon cheeseburger double or rocky road ice cream to suppress the desire of a pregnant mother. Perhaps you've felt an urge to splurge firsthand.
The truth is, nobody knows why some women have pregnancy cravings. "Some experts say desires, and their reverses, food aversions, are protective, even if there is no scientific data to support that theory," says Siobhan Dolan, MD, assistant medical director of the March of Dimes Foundation birth defects and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and women's health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
For example, you may not want to drink alcohol during pregnancy, which is beneficial since avoiding beer, wine, liquor and other favors the development of your baby's mental and physical.
Others believe that the preference of a pregnant woman to certain foods such as salt-laden chips is nature's way to help meet his daily quota of sodium. However, it is highly unlikely that cells translate so-called lack of nutrients in food cravings. Have a specific food tends to distinguish pregnancy cravings women have cravings when they do not expect.
Cravings in pregnancy are a class apart
While cravings are probably all in your head, a product of pregnancy hormones. Hormonal changes during pregnancy increase the sense of smell (which strongly influences the taste) and are powerful enough to influence food choices.
"It may be that women who are nausea, bloating, tired or moody due to the effects of pregnancy hormones seek food to increase their comfort level," says Elisa Zied, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "Some women who deprive themselves when they are not pregnant think of pregnancy as a time to indulge in foods they typically avoid."
When waiting Zied penchant for foods she loved as a teenager, but ate much less often in the years preceding her two pregnancies. A combination of kielbasa and melted cheese atop toasted English muffins were big with Zied during her first pregnancy. Where, because of his second child, she preferred Cheez nothing else.
How a nutrition professional who knows better manage the cravings? By eating small portions of low fat versions of favorite foods. "When I want these foods, I really wanted, so I give in, always conscious of how much I was eating," she said.
Cravings are not all bad
Women tend to want to foods are, indeed, good choice. Take dairy products, for example, rich in protein, calcium, and several other nutrients, which are among the top foods women want during pregnancy, according to the March of Dimes. When Dolan was pregnant, cranberry juice was all she wanted to drink. Fortified cranberry juice can be an excellent source of calcium or vitamin C and contains an array of other nutrients needed during pregnancy.
The lack of food in general differ from pregnancy to pregnancy. They may also change from day to day. Do not be surprised when the food he had to be rejected yesterday you today. Sometimes a change of food preferences permanently pregnancy. After the service, love cranberry juice Dolan turned to disgust. "Now I will not even come close," she said.
Some women find themselves with a yen for non-food items, including ice, dirt, clay, paper, and even paint chips, a condition known as pica. Pica may indicate iron deficiency. Pregnant women can also get an urge to eat flour or cornstarch, which.
