Food Cravings During Pregnancy
Pregnant women will tell you they experience almost irrepressible cravings for certain foods – salty, sweet, spicy or fatty foods. Some think it’s the body signaling what the growing baby needs. More likely, they’re due to hormones playing havoc (again!) with your senses of smell and taste – and your dietary habits.
It’s okay to give in… within reason
Cravings are normal while you’re pregnant. As long as you maintain a varied and balanced diet and your weight remains normal, you can indulge occasionally in the foods you crave. By increasing your interest in certain foods, cravings can help you meet those additional energy needs while you are pregnant, its just when you go overboard and indulge too much that problems may arise.
Tips to help manage your cravings:
- Don’t deprive yourself. Allow yourself some small pleasures.
- Never replace healthy food with junk food;
- Eat three balanced meals a day and allow yourself one or two snacks;
- Opt for whole-grain cereals, whole-grain bread, legumes, etc. which release energy over a long period and help with digestion;
- Cook real food and cut down on processed food;
- If you have to watch your weight, get into the habit of keeping your dessert to have as a snack.
Avoid unhealthy foods when craving, including sugary or fatty foods, artificial sweeteners (often found in diet foods) and caffeine.
Some people feel cravings are the first conversations that you have with your child. It can be the nutritional requirements of the baby that give rise to these new demands or perhaps simply physiological needs increased by hormonal changes. Eating regular meals and snacks over the day can help combat cravings.
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