Beware: the coming rush of hormones will turn your gastronomic preferences upside down. At least for some of us. What is the reason for expectant mothers to suffer at night, either for a well-fried barbecue, or for cherries, or even for something completely exotic?
Is this bizarre desire to eat salty with ice cream an attempt to tell us something important, or should it be resisted with all your might? Why do some pregnant women’s tastes change radically, while others remain almost unchanged? We are unlikely to ever know for sure. According to various studies, about 80% of pregnant women have food “fads”. Experts are still arguing about their possible causes.
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One of several studies on this topic was conducted in Sri Lanka and published in the Indian Journal of Public Health. Of the 1000 women who took part in the study, 47,3% had very specific requests: most wanted sour, meat and fish shared second place, then came fruits (including unripe ones), and baked goods completed the list.
It is curious that, according to the observations of scientists, this kind of “whims” “was much more common among women who married for love, and did not marry by agreement of their parents,” as well as “among superstitious women.”
Marcia Pelchat (PhD), PhD, who also works in physiological psychology and is a research fellow at the Monell Chemical Sense Center in Philadelphia, notes that there are many theories about what causes certain addictions in pregnant women, but they have evidence few. Cravings for ice cream and fruit can signal a lack of vitamin C and calcium, which are essential for a child’s development. But there is no scientific evidence for this, Marcia Pelshat emphasizes once again. Moreover: “The probability that our quirks are explained by the needs of the body is extremely small. Of course, we all like to think that we are only doing better for the child by indulging ourselves in salted potato chips, and perhaps we are, but we are not sure about this.
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But Kay Daniels (MD), MD, a midwife at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California, is convinced that the body is wiser. “I’ve heard enough stories over the years that women often want the same thing over and over – especially during the first trimester – so I believe it’s really what the body needs.”
Some believe that the passion for meat, sweets and carbohydrates is explained by the Darwinian mechanism: it seems like the body requires high-calorie food so that the energy received is enough for both the child and the mother – especially if she has severe toxicosis. Others suggest that women subconsciously try to “seize” bad health.
Sometimes cravings for carbohydrates and sweets appear in women a few days before the onset of menstruation and in its first days, Marcia Pelshat notes, when many of the hormones that are activated during pregnancy are activated.
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“There is ample evidence that changes in eating habits are caused by hormones, but how exactly this mechanism works is not clear,” says Marcia Pelshat. “There is also a possibility that this is just a habit: a woman feels bad, and in order to somehow “comfort herself”, she begins to eat, for example, chocolate.” This is followed by the release of endorphins and/or serotonin, and as a result we feel better.
True, it happens differently: some mothers complain that when they were pregnant, they didn’t want anything harmful at all, on the contrary, they ate a lot of fruits, vegetables and protein with pleasure. But after the birth of the child, their previous food preferences returned, and they again began to eat what they should not have.
Another American study on changes in taste preferences in pregnant women was published in The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. According to the results, the range of preferences is quite wide, but there are some common ones:
- Salty. According to Marcia Pelshat, this is due to an increase in blood volume and, accordingly, an increased need for sodium.
- Bitter. Sometimes with the development of pregnancy in women, aversion to bitter decreases.
- Sour. Especially in the second and third trimesters. The authors suggest that in this way the body tries to add variety to your diet during pregnancy.
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The fact that many fruits are both sour and sweet and sweet and sour is part of the reason for cravings for them, explains Kay Daniels. In addition, sour-tasting foods help curb nausea. During pregnancy, mom Kay Daniels literally went crazy for cherries, although she didn’t eat them either before or after. And for Kay herself, for nine months, rice with vinegar was her favorite dish. “I remember sitting at the dinner table surreptitiously pouring vinegar on my rice bowl,” she recalls with a laugh. – One day my husband caught me doing this and in horror asked: “What the hell are you doing this?”. I honestly answered that I don’t know, but I really want to, so let him leave me alone. ”
“Also, in ‘normal’ life, I was a real fan of chocolate, but during my pregnancy I didn’t want it at all,” says Daniels. Nevertheless, immediately after the birth of her son, not yet leaving the postoperative ward, she demanded a bar of her favorite chocolate.
See more at Health Day publications.