It may be a cute joke in movies, or among your non-pregnant girlfriends, but getting between a pregnant woman and her current food craving is certainly no joke! You don’t even want to try it! Also, your little jokes about which number bananas and pickles she’s on will absolutely fall on temporarily deaf ears. But don’t think it won’t come back to haunt you later! So which foods do pregnant women crave overwhelmingly?
Foods Most Craved by Pregnant Women
There’s likely an endless list of foods that pregnant women have craved at some point. But there are some basics that are picked up at some point in the pregnancy. Check out this handy graph from SheKnows.com.
Although this first general ten items are fairly generic in description, they still do not fully represent what many pregnant women experience as cravings. There are a few more!
Other Pregnancy Cravings
Aside from being more detailed, such as dill flavored pickles, or bananas as the specific craved fruit of choice, there are still a few more food items that pregnant women typically report craving.
Sweets – Aside from wanting chocolate, ice cream and sodas as sweets, pregnant women can grow a sweet tooth even if they never really had one pre-pregnancy. You can almost always expect them to be rather strange as well. During my second pregnancy I craved those orange circus peanuts. Absolutely hated them before the pregnancy, haven’t touched them since. During? I had to avoid stores that sold them or I knew myself and my oldest son would be chowing down on them before dinner.
Beans and Greens – While some women do crave the … ahem, unhealthier foods, there are also women who suddenly find themselves unusually craving green beans, mixed greens, and other veggies and whole grains. Since these items are rich in what a body growing a baby needs, feel free to indulge as much as you want.
Salt – Not always the healthiest condiment to add to your foods, but don’t be surprised if your pregnancy drives you to want to put salt on items that may not traditionally call for salt. Both of my sisters discovered salted watermelon (which I hear is a big thing here in the south??) during their pregnancies. Also salted apples. Blech. But who am I judging? I drank so, so much milk.
Milk and Other Dairy – I can’t even describe how strong my craving for milk was during my second pregnancy. Fair to say I drank it like my life depended on it. Some days I topped out at about a gallon. Luckily, I was long since used to the 2% version. That probably saved me from gaining 20 unwelcome pounds.
Crazy Combinations of Anything and Everything – Look. Don’t judge! And try not to gag if you see your favorite pregnant Mom munching on bananas dipped in pickle juice. Some scientists have ventured as far as to say that these wild food cravings are the pregnant body telling the mother what to consume to provide the widest range of vitamins and nutrients to the growing baby. Just just grit through the ugly ones… and keep any fun-poking very light-hearted!
Non-Edible Foods
If you ever find yourself craving non-edible food items such as dirt, metals or plastics, please contact your medical professional as soon as possible!
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