Pregnancy Cravings: Healthy Eating Tips and Foods to Avoid

Source: The Indian Express

During pregnancy, eating healthy and in the right amounts can have wonderful effects on the growing foetus. Due to hormonal changes and majorly due to the depletion of a neurotransmitter called Dopamine, pregnant women experience mood swings and depression. This makes an expecting mother eat more or crave feel-good foods, which may lead to extra weight gain and other complications during pregnancy.

Sometimes pregnant women also crave non-food substances like ice chips, laundry soap, starch, clay, cigarette ash, chalk, antacids, and other substances. These can be very harmful due to toxicity or blockage concerns. So they should be informed of the dangers signs of eating that particular substance.

Craving for non-food substances might lead to many complications like premature birth, spontaneous abortion and neurodevelopmental deficits in the growing fetus. The harmful effects of these substances are sometimes very lethal. Hence, pregnant women need to be educated about the cravings and its effects on both mother and the fetus.

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