Decode Your Cravings

Whether you want to nibble ice cubes or scoff pickles, understanding your pregnancy cravings means you”ll handle the urges better

- Jo Dunbar

When was the last time you felt an all-consuming urge to eat or drink something specific, right now? Now you’re pregnant, we’re guessing it wasn’t very long ago at all! Maybe you’re devouring Marmite on toast like it’s going out of fashion? Or perhaps you’ve got an overwhelming compulsion to eat anchovies? Well, you’re not alone. “Eighty percent of pregnant women report having cravings of some kind,” explains Professor of Nutrition, Susan Roberts, “so it’s completely normal!” Some cravings can be explained by your body’s nutritional demands: for example, the compulsion to eat lamb chops or steak can be linked to an iron deficiency. But for many others, all sorts of fascinating factors are at play and it’s the taste, texture, or way it affects your emotions that your body craves, rather than a particular nutritional kick.

Matters of the heart

Our pangs can be sorted into three categories: stomach hunger, mouth hunger and heart hunger. Stomach hunger, quite simply, is the need to feed and fuel your body. And this, now you’re growing a baby, can be far stronger than you’ve been used to.

Mouth hunger is about the sensation of something – a texture or the experience of chewing it and how it feels in your mouth. For example, you might desire the crisp bite of an apple or the crunch of a toasted bagel.