Food Cravings During Pregnancy | ExpatWoman.com
 

Food Cravings During Pregnancy

Posted on

25 February 2014

Last updated on 19 April 2017

Pacific Prime UAE Medical Insurance
 

Understanding And Dealing With Food Cravings
During Pregnancy

Pregnancy CravingsWhile the cause of pregnancy is well known, the cause of cravings is still fairly unclear from a medical standpoint. This is not because it hasn’t been studied since the countless case and population studies by doctors from around the world have looked into pregnant women’s cravings. It is just that their findings have yet to be proven as absolute or concrete.

Some doctors, and even more homeopathic healers, strongly believe that cravings are the female body’s way of “crying out” for the vitamins, minerals, or compounds such as protein or fats that it needs when she fails to get enough of them through her regular diet and supplements during pregnancy. This would seem to explain why some women crave foods they seldom or never ate before becoming pregnant.

Others, however, remain skeptical and suspect that the cravings are a byproduct of the new ,and often very high, levels of hormones that a woman experiences during pregnancy. These hormones may have effects on her, such as mood swings and energy surges and drops, that many mothers-to-be must deal with. Thankfully, though, most women find that their strongest cravings usually peak around the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy, and then become less and less of a problem as the pregnancy progresses.


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Are Food Cravings Dangerous?

For the most part, food cravings don’t pose serious health risks, particularly when the woman is craving broccoli, bananas, or grilled chicken, all of which are healthy for both mother and fetus. Unfortunately, most women don’t tend to crave these healthier food items, instead of seeking out junk food, high-fat snacks, and even non-food items. And this is where the potential danger comes from how often and how much food is craved, how the woman deals with cravings, and especially what is being consumed.

Cravings for fattening or high-calorie foods is common, and if indulged in with controlled moderation, the risk is fairly minimal. Thus lots of western women have sent their husbands on the stereotypical supermarket wild goose chase for mint-chocolate-chip ice cream and dill pickles at 3:00am. Oftentimes the tired father returns just before sunrise to find the craving is gone and mom is fast asleep.

Interestingly, fathers aren’t immune either. Male sympathetic pregnancy – known as Couvade syndrome – can even be accompanied by unexplained food cravings. While it may just sound like a good excuse to eat more ice cream and snack cakes, it could also be a sign of extreme stress or possibly even a psychiatric disorder a man is facing before his child arrives. So guys, if your cravings are too strong, consider a trip to your own doctor for a check-up to make sure you aren’t vitamin and mineral deficient or overly stressed out.

Pregnant Craving

When To Be Concerned...

Cravings are a commonplace among pregnant women of every race, nationality, and even age group, so their occurrence should not be alarming. When warning bells should go off is when the craving is for something that is dangerous for mother or baby. Craving non-food items (usually referred to as pica) like tree bark, soil, ashes, laundry detergent, diesel fuel, markers, disinfectant, toothpaste, leather, or anything else unfit or unsafe for human consumption should be self-denied. For some women, however, the psychological urge to eat overcomes their logical reasoning and after eating something unsafe they exposed themselves and their baby to dangerous levels of toxins, such as lead which leads to brain and nervous system damage.
Another dangerous set off cravings that some pregnant women acquire, even if they did not regularly or ever use or experiment with them before, are alcohol, tobacco, and even drugs. Some report experiencing very strong cravings for beer, wine, and liquor while others, including non-smokers and non-drug users, have wanted cigarettes or even narcotics. All of these substances should be avoided by pregnant women no matter how strong the craving, as they pose serious developmental risks to the unborn child.

Finally, but thankfully not quite as serious is that cravings can cause excessive and even dangerous amounts of weight gain. For many women who are already overweight, when they become pregnant it is not uncommon for them to continue to eat unhealthily, if not more so, or even binge eat during periods of strong cravings which can lead to excessive pregnancy weight gain. One plan to fight this is to keep tasty and healthy foods such as fruit, sorbet, or low-fat chocolate milk around the house for when the cravings do hit, and then eat a reasonable amount very slowly, enjoying each bite as a reward for your control.

Ideally, a fit and healthy pregnant woman should only gain about twelve to seventeen kilograms of weight when sticking to a balanced diet during her pregnancy. And an overweight mother should gain even less, between five to nine kilograms.

Thus, any woman who experiences any type of craving that they feel they cannot control, especially if it is potentially harmful to herself or her baby, should inform their OBGYN right away for additional care.

Something To Laugh At… Later

In the end, most pregnant women’s cravings are very manageable, even if it does take a decent amount of self-control to keep them in check when they are at their strongest. The key is to understand that they are simply desires and not needs and that the health of baby and mother must come before any urges that could potentially threaten either of them. Just remember, they can be controlled and dealt with, and after the baby arrives those crazy cravings are usually worth a laugh at!


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