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
Related articles
Common nutrition-related problems
The influence of hormonal changes, and the effect of the changes in the size of the growing uterus, can lead to eating complications during pregnancy.
5 mins to read
The Ninth Month of Pregnancy
Your pregnancy: weeks 36-40. It’s time for the final preparations before the big day.
2 mins to read
The Seventh Month of Pregnancy
Your pregnancy: weeks 28-31. The changes in your body continue to take place as you enter your third trimester! As baby prepares for its future exit: its eyelids are uncovered and eyelash
2 mins to read
The Fourth Month of Pregnancy
Your pregnancy: weeks 14-17.
2 mins to read
The Sixth Month of Pregnancy
Your pregnancy: weeks 23-27. Your baby develops movements that will later help it take its first whiff of air in the world, inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid.
2 mins to read
Nutrition checklist
NUTRITION CHECKLIST
Are you eating enough nutritious food with sufficient nutrients, kilojoules, vitamins?
1 min to read
Checklist - maternity ward suitcase
*Check whether the maternity ward has a list of the items you will need.
Items for hospital stay
5 mins to read
Medication for pain relief
In a normal, uncomplicated labour and delivery, the use of medication is not always necessary. Your own resources are often enough.
5 mins to read
Labour
As labour starts, a mother’s mood changes and she becomes less aware of what is happening outside her body, and more aware of what is happening inside her body.
5 mins to read
Criteria for prenatal classes
Instructor’s credentials, for example, midwife, physiotherapist.
Instructor’s specialised training in childbirth education.
5 mins to read
Conception
The fertilised egg divides into two identical cells – then four, then eight, then 16, and then many billions, and 266 days later – your baby.
1 min to read
Food choices for a healthy pregnancy
-
5 mins to read
The Eighth Month of Pregnancy
Read more about weeks 32 to 35 of your pregnancy below.
2 mins to read
The Fifth Month of Pregnancy
Read more about weeks 18-22 of your pregnancy below.
2 mins to read
Checklist - preparing to bring baby home
Clothing
5 mins to read
Signs of labour
The following signs of labour may occur in any order.
1. Progressive contractions
5 mins to read
