It is true that pregnant women do sometimes have desires for unusual foods such as pickles, ice cream, strawberries, or melons out f season. Everyone has cravings for food once in a while. The cravings of pregnant women are probably intensified because of special emotional or physical circumstances. A pregnant woman may ask for special foods or for greater amounts of favorite foods if she is excited, fearful or upset about some aspects of her pregnancy. Occasionally, a craving may indicate a nutritional need. For example a desire of orange may suggest her body needs vitamin C. Unusual foods and non food cravings characterized by compulsive eating habits including eating such substances as dirt, clay and cornstarch, for example, is called pica. Pica does seem to be more common in pregnant women as well as among certain cultural groups. Pica may also occur in patients with an iron or zinc deficiency.

Cravings During Pregnancy

Most women will experience food cravings at some point or another during pregnancy. In fact as many as half of all women will crave some type of cuisine or unusual food product during pregnancy. The most popular cravings include sweet and salty foods, while other women report craving spicy or fatty foods. Why all the cravings?

Causes of Food Cravings During Pregnancy

There are many reasons that women experience food cravings during pregnancy. Perhaps the simplest explanation is your body is working twenty four hours a day seven days a week to grow a healthy baby. Some cravings are simply the result of your body's needs for additional calories during pregnancy.

Other cravings may signal nutritional deficiencies. Some women for example, even vegetarians, might experience unusual cravings for steak and red meat during pregnancy. This could simply be a sign that their bodies need more iron to help support their growing baby. Many women will crave food they will loath or wouldn't dream of touching when not pregnant.

Many women describe their pregnancy cravings as overpowering. While scientists haven't yet established why cravings are so strong among pregnant women, they certainly acknowledge that food cravings during pregnancy are the norm rather than the exception to the rule.

Dealing With Cravings During Pregnancy

Many women find it simpler to give in to their pregnancy related cravings. This doesn't suggest you have to overindulge (say eat a whole chocolate cake). But, if you are carving sweet foods, why not indulge a little and enjoy a small treat? Typically this is the best way to deal with cravings. There is nothing wrong in most cases with indulging even bizarre cravings (pickles and ice cream for example). Hormones can do many interesting and wonderful things to the body, but also produce some rather bizarre food cravings. Just don't expect your partner to jump on the bandwagon and join you when you start eating foods that are out of the ordinary.

Occasionally women experience weird cravings that signal they are deficient in certain nutrients. Vary rarely women have strange cravings for substances that are bad including dirt or other undesirable substances. This condition, often referred to in the medical community as "pica" usually signifies that someone is deficient in iron. Substantial cravings for ice may be a sign of an iron deficiency. Still other women may experience chocolate cravings which may be normal or a sign that women need more B vitamins. Still other patients desire large quantities of protein. Fortunately protein is very good for pregnant women and in most cases there is nothing wrong with indulging your cravings.

If however you find you are craving clay or dirt (pica) consult with your doctor. Other common strange cravings among women with this disorder include coffee grounds, plaster, toothpaste, paint chips or other unusual substances. Your doctor can test you for a condition called iron deficiency anemia, and may recommend additional supplementation to help relieve your cravings. Whatever you do don't indulge in these weird cravings. Your body will not benefit by eating laundry starch or paint chips! Quite the opposite!

Remember, by and large most cravings are harmless and easily cured by a little attention to one's diet and occasional indulgence. There is no reason to deprive yourself after all during pregnancy!

Foods to avoid

When you are pregnant, you will come across a lot of advice about what you should or shouldn't eat. Although this advice is usually research based, you may not be able to follow it either because of your personal tastes and preferences, or perhaps because of the cost. Other information about diet may catch the attention of the media although the evidence to support this may not always be authoritative. Women frequently have to decide which advice they can follow and it may be that their personal circumstances will impact on these decisions. For example, a woman who eats a vegetarian diet will have to find alternative sources of iron, as she cannot obtain this from eating red meat. Where this is the case, a woman can be left feeling guilty and anxious that she has not done the best for her baby.

There is now reliable information about foods to avoid when you are pregnant and breastfeeding.

Liver and vitamin A supplements. Very high intakes of one form of vitamin A (retinol, found in liver, liver pate and sausage, fish liver oils and some supplements) have been linked with the baby being born with birth defects. The other form of vitamin A is called 'beta carotene' and this is safe to take in pregnancy, but always check with your doctor or midwife before taking any vitamin A supplements.

The Department of Health suggests that you may choose not to eat peanuts or peanut products while you are pregnant, especially if you or your baby's father or any brothers or sisters have a history of allergies. Studies suggest that a baby can develop peanut allergy before birth or while breastfeeding, but the evidence is uncertain.

A survey by the Food Standards Agency has found high levels of mercury in some fish. As mercury can affect the developing nervous system of the unborn baby, it is advised to limit the amount of tuna you eat to two medium cans or a single fresh steak a week and to completely avoid swordfish, marl in and shark This applies when you are planning a pregnancy, actually pregnant or breastfeeding.

Listeria is a bacteria that grows in some specific foods and can cause miscarriage, stillbirth or serious illness in the newborn baby. Other bacteria such as salmonella can also cause serious illness to you and your baby. While hard cheeses are mostly safe to eat in pregnancy, it is advised to avoid soft mould-ripened cheeses like Camembert, Brie and all blue-veined cheeses. You should also avoid eating all types of pate and oven-ready meals that are uncooked or undercooked as well as raw or part-cooked eggs.

Studies show that high levels of caffeine are linked with miscarriage and stillbirth. It is better to choose decaffeinated drinks or keep to no more three cups of brewed coffee or four cups/three mugs of instant coffee.

Eating disorders

Two major eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Anorexia is characterized by a loss or lack of appetite with a refusal to maintain a normal minimal body weight with an intense fear of becoming fat, even feeling fat when extremely emaciated (thin). Bulimia is characterized by binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting.

New studies have found that the effects of the mother’s eating disorder on the fetus can be devastating. Anorexia has been shown to result in multiple complications in both the mother and the fetus. In bulimic patients, the risk of fetal loss is twice that of normal pregnant women.