Cravings!

When I was pregnant with my first son I craved $12 lobster rolls from George's Surf and Turf.  I would get one at least once a week on my drive home from work.  The thing is, I hate lobster.  I have never liked lobster...ever.  As a matter of fact, I used to love shrimp.  After gorging on lobster for the entire summer, I also hate shrimp now.  I thought it was psychological, so I ordered my favorite shrimp dish at Outback Steakhouse a year after giving birth.  I literally spit the shrimp back onto the plate.  Oh, those poor patrons next to us...sorry for the hideous sight during your otherwise lovely meal. 

I cannot understand cravings.  Apparently, no one else can either.  There are also those who crave non-food items, a phenomenon called pica.  In a study at The University of Sheffield's Centre for Pregnancy Nutrition, "There was little evidence to support the theory that such cravings helped to satisfy a nutritional deficiency, she added, as the body was unlikely to be able to absorb nutrients from items such as coal or mud."

What's interesting are the unusual things that are craved during pregnancy. 
UNUSUAL CRAVINGS

Ice: 22%
Coal: 17%
Toothpaste: 9%
Sponges: 8%
Mud 7%
Chalk: 6%
Laundry soap: 5%
Matches: 3%
Rubber: 1%

Percentages of women reporting unusual cravings, around 31% of total.

Chocolate was the most common food craving, followed by ice cream, sweets, spicy food, pickled onions, tropical fruit, curry, doughnuts, marmite, peanut butter, potatoes and nuts.

Mothers-to-be reported cravings for odd combinations of food, the most common being pickles and peanut butter, followed by marmite and ice cream.

Other combinations mentioned included tuna and banana, and fried eggs with mint sauce.

Women reported that cravings mostly struck in the afternoon (40%) or in the evening (38%), with only 8% sneaking off for midnight snacks.

In looking at the food items that are craved that are usual, many of them are high in fat and carbohydrates.  "The evolutionary advantages of craving high-calorie, energy-dense foods are clear, if no longer quite as beneficial in the age of obesity. "Physiologically, we're hardwired to want to eat fat because if our ancestors ate a lot of fat, they were more likely not to starve," says Brian Wansink, an expert in food psychology and consumer behavior and the author of "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think." "Psychologically people often have cravings for food in response to a lack of equilibrium, whether they have the flu or things aren't going well at work. It's an effort to compensate for something missing."
 
Another study, conducted in Sri Lanka, reported the following:  One of the few studies that ever attempted to determine why women might crave different foods was conducted in Sri Lanka and published in the Indian Journal of Public Health in 1994. Of 1,000 women surveyed for the study, 47.3 percent reported craving certain foods: 65 percent craved sour food, 40 percent unripe fruits, 47 percent meat and fish, 30 percent ripe fruits, and 22 percent breadfruit.

Interestingly, the study also noted that "pregnancy cravings [were] significantly higher in women who married after a love affair than in those who had [an] 'arranged' marriage," as well as in "women who were superstitious (e.g. believed in devil dancing) than in those who were not."

These studies give not much more information than what women crave.  The why's don't have it this time.  Does it really matter anyway why I wanted lobster rolls?  I bought them, ate them and provided my growing baby with fish oils he wasn't getting otherwise.  However, if I was ingesting fiberglass insulation or plaster, I'd probably want to know why.  Even in pica, no one really knows why it occurs, either.  Some guess that it's a craving for texture.  Others surmise that it's an iron or zinc deficiency.  However, those who eat paint are not craving a metal that their body is deficient in.  Unless they're eating glitter paint...




 
 
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7370524.stm
Devra First http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2008/10/08/cravings/
Paige Bierma http://www.bluecrossma.com/living-healthy-babies/pregnancy/nutrition/cravings.html