• Question: Why do women crave stuff when they are pregnant? (I would like a woman to answer)

    Asked by cakeey4 to Antoine, Daniel, James, Julie, Saima on 14 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Julie Speakman

      Julie Speakman answered on 14 Nov 2013:


      Hey cakeey4 – this is one of those things that we don’t really know, although there are lots of theories. One thought is it is related to what your body needs – pregnancy is really hard work for your body – it is set up to give everything to the growing baby that it needs first, and then just what’s left over to the mother. Even if you have a good diet this can leave the mother short of some vitamins and minerals and so it is possible that the cravings are nature’s way of making sure those gaps are filled.

      Pregnancy uses up tons of energy, particularly in the early stages so you can find yourself much hungrier than usual (i used to need about three breakfasts!) so I suppose this could all feed (sorry) in to cravings as well.

      It is generally a crazy crazy time in terms of the hormone levels in your body so no doubt these changing levels of hormones could contribute – but as far as I am aware no one has proven as yet specific links between particular hormones and specific foods that women crave.

      Other people think it is partly related to culture, so you are more likely to crave the food that is available – there is a study from Tanzania where lots of women craved mangoes, whereas American women have been shown to crave dairy food and sweet food etc.

      There is another thing – some women can develop a special kind of diabetes when they are pregnant, where their bodies will find it difficult to cope with too much sugar. Strangely these women often crave sweet things, which is obviously not good! So your body doesn’t always know what’s best for it.

      Another thing that happens during pregnancy is your sense of smell and taste can change – so some people think cravings are your body’s way of dealing with this. So if you have a bitter taste in your mouth your body may try to cancel this out by craving sweet things.

      If you want to know even more!…..there is also a really strange theory that it relates to a special part of the brain called the insular cortex – let me know if you want a link to read about that!

      Hope that helps!

    • Photo: James Hickey

      James Hickey answered on 14 Nov 2013:


      Hi cakeey4.

      I think Julie has nailed the answer to that question.

      Nice one Julie! 😀

    • Photo: Saima Rehman

      Saima Rehman answered on 15 Nov 2013:


      Thanks Julie for explaining it fully 🙂

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