Pregnant women have been known to crave all sorts of strange things, from dirt to ice cream topped with pickles. But why do pregnant women crave pickles? The answer may surprise you.
What are Cravings?
Cravings are nothing more than transient and usually capricious desires for some kinds of foods. Cravings and pregnancy are undeniably two inseparable things that happen together. Eighty-five percent of women say they experienced cravings for a specific food during pregnancy, and the amusing thing is that sometimes it is a food that they either disliked or paid no special attention to before.
Top 4 Reasons Why Pregnant Women Crave Pickles
Pregnancy cravings are the weirdest. You suddenly want pickles and ice cream, or some other gross combination of foods. There are a few theories about why pregnant women crave certain things, but we still don’t know for sure why it happens. Some doctors think pregnancy cravings are normal, but that doesn’t mean you should indulge every unhealthy craving you have. To this day science has not given a clear and consistent explanation as to why pregnant women crave pickles and other kinds of food. Some of these theories are:
1. Food properties
Several studies and surveys involving pregnant women had been conducted to know what foods pregnant women crave and when they crave them. They found out that these women crave more salty, sweet, bitter, spicy and sour foods at different stages of pregnancy or sometimes and sometimes in different combinations.
For instance, in the first trimester or early stage of pregnancy, pregnant women tend to crave more sweet foods and avoid anything bitter. It is assumed that bitterness signals the presence of a substance that is toxic to the growing fetus. Pregnant women tend to crave pickles and other salty and bitter foods in the late stage of pregnancy.
2. Nutritional deficiency
Another reason why pregnant women crave pickles is that their body needs certain nutrients that are lacking. Several experts have claimed that when the body lacks some essential nutrients, minerals and vitamins, the body makes the foods containing those nutrients highly appealing in other to compensate for the deficit. This claim is correct in the case of pica syndrome in which people or animals crave or eat odd things that are naturally harmful to the body such as glass, wood, sand or dirt when there is iron deficiency in their body.
3. Hormonal changes
A theory linked the cravings experienced by pregnant women to hormonal changes in the body. This is backed by the fact that some women have cravings for unusual foods when menstruating as the levels of hormones during this period are extremely high. Nevertheless, the reason for changes in cravings from one pregnancy to another has not been explained by the theory of this hormonal change. For instance, a woman may crave pickles all through her first pregnancy and crave another food in her next pregnancy.
4. Psychological reasons
Pregnancy cravings have also been linked with psychological reasons. Psychology has a lot of influence on our relationship with food. Perhaps, the backstage functioning of the human brain is the reason why some pregnant women salivate at the thought of pickles, while other pregnant women crave spicy food.
Although pregnant women are commonly believed to crave pickles and ice cream, these cravings are actually quite uncommon. Some pregnant women, no doubt, crave pickles and ice cream, but they don’t like eating both together. However, this does not mean that they don’t crave other odd or weird food combinations.
