Pregnant women often crave a whole range of different foods.

Most often this is the work of the innate wisdom of the body guiding our nutritional choices in fact the process is extrememly similar to those intuitive feelings or “hunches” women have when making an important decision or when they feel a heightened sense of alarm moments before danger strikes.

Sometimes however if we are consistently crave one particular type of food there may be other issues at hand.

For example if we consistently craving sweets then it would be wise to sit back and take a few moments for some SELF ASSESSMENT…

Come on I urge you to put the chocolate down or that sweet cup of tea and ask yourself;

Am I actually craving sugar because I am tired? Do I need more rest?

Am I actually not eating that well and not planning my meals ahead of time?

Does my body needing better fuel?

Often when we grab foods on the run we miss out on the nutritional dynamite that comes from foods that require preparation. Snack foods are almost always processed and devoid of vitamins and minerals. Lacking in life force that your “life force” requires to grow another human being.


CRAVING SUGAR?

So if after some self assessment you do indeed feel that you have strong, regular cravings for sweet foods then it is time to check if your diet is low in protein.

i)Consider if you are having a serve (about the size of your palm) of protein in each meal? 

Did you know that the human body is basically one giant protein matrix? So you can imagine how critical proteins are for creating a baby. As protein is the bulk structure of muscle tissue, blood, ligaments, tendons, hormones, antibodies and enzymes and is essential to health for many reasons. 

 

Try having 60g of protein a day to meet the needs of your growing belly.
You could simply increase your usual sources of animal protein (if you are not vegetarian), but why not increase non-animal sources also, such as beans served with legumes? For a‘complete protein’ fix, you will need to combine beans and legumes (see Chapter 22 in “Well Adjusted Babies” for more information).

ii)Another reason we may crave sugar is that our gut may be overrun with yeast (this is more frequent during pregnancy) so grab a Candida Test kit, read my blogs relating to Candida and take a hold of this situation before bubs comes along. Breast feeding is hard enough let alone being complicated by the pain of niple thrush.

CRAVING SALTY FOOD?

If you have noticed you are craving salty foods because they help stop you feeling nauseous then consider the following.

i)You may be lacking in important trace minerals. If you are already taking a quality multivitamin (including B vitamins and selenium) regularly then purchase some rock salt crystals (rather then Table Salt or a packet of Crisps) and use these as a healthy source of salt.

If your body has started to swell (for example your feet, legs or fingers), ask yourself WHY? Observe if you are consuming high levels of salt. When excess salt is consumed the body protects itself by retaining water to recreate balance.

Salt can be consumed via the ‘salt shaker’ or via fast foods or processed foods. Salt is used in many sauces and food items as a flavour enhancer, so try to avoid these.  

Could you be eating better?

Do you need to ask someone to help you plan some meals?

Could you ask someone to have a cook fest with you?

Fill the fridge and freezer with a range of good quality foods, you and your baby deserve the best!!

ii) Alternativley your feelings of nausea (relieved by salty foods) may in fact be simply due to the fact that you are actually tired and need to plan more rest?

Personally this was always a big factor for me. When pregnant I would try to pause before I gobbled down some excess salty food source to curb my nausea, and ASK MYSELF, would it delight me to lie down right now instead of eating??

Where possible – catching a snooze helped me relieve my nausea everytime.

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