Lasagna, Dumplings, Pizza, Chicken, Potatoes, Tacos…

No, those are not meal ideas for this weekend, they’re ALL CRAVINGS! I am currently craving meals involving those foods and I must have them soon!

During my pregnancy with Grace, I don’t remember having many BIG DEAL cravings. Cravings that I HAD to have right away or else. The strangest thing I had to put up with was eating my husbands Slim Jims. Actually, some times I was the one making sure we had them in stock to take to work and have at home. From the day Grace was born to now, I have had no desire to eat a Slim Jim. I am disgusted at the idea that I ever wanted to eat them.

Well… this time around, there’s a little boy named Darren in my belly and he’s NOT LIKE HIS SISTER! I was very sick at the beginning of this pregnancy. It started out with a typical sinus infection that I get ALL the time. It just didn’t go away and I was on the couch for somewhere between one and two months. During that time, my mouth got really watery and left nasty tastes in my mouth that made me feel extra sick. After Googling those issues I found it was a common thing in pregnancy and that salty foods worked for some people. That’s what led to one of my first sort of cravings this time around. Pistachios. Dave had some pistachios nearby and I devoured the bag in a matter of days. I then went to the store and bought a huge bag of sunflower seeds. Go figure a couple days later the taste and craving of salty things went away.

We eat a lot of chicken in our house but until 5-6 years ago I steered clear of ALL meat. Chicken is what my husband used to get me out of my vegetarian diet. One meat I haven’t been able to get into is hamburger. I eat a few bites of it when we have Hamburger Helper, but always end up setting it aside. I sometimes order a sandwich someplace and take off the hamburger halfway through. Early in this pregnancy I had to have Whopper Jr’s from Burger King. Thankfully there is one about 3 minutes from home, so the day I got hungry and sick out of nowhere and absolutely had to have one, my wonderful hubby was able (and very willing I must add) to drive up there and bring one home to me. I still sometimes take off the meat halfway through but when it’s a big craving I eat the whole sandwich, and sometimes want more!

I’ve craved certain meals that my mom makes and had to ask her to make them for me. (Yes, I probably could have tried to make them myself, but I NEEDED MOMS!) Not all cravings are for specific meals like that. I have what I call ‘bad eating days’. Those are the days that I am constantly hungry and nothing seems to satisfy the feeling. A large meal at home with many options or a trip to Golden Corral usually helps those days since my body is simply wanting a variety or just different foods.

Where do these cravings come from? I’ve read different people’s opinions about this. Some have said there’s nothing to show why pregnant women have cravings. Others say it’s simply our bodies telling us we need more of a certain thing such as iron, calcium, etc. I don’t think I agree with the reason that our body simply needs what that food has to offer because sometimes I crave foods that are in the same category of what I eat a lot of.

What do you think causes cravings? What strong cravings have you, a friend, or family member had during pregnancy?