Cuprins
Pregnancy: how to manage your culinary desires?
During pregnancy, it is not uncommon to experience unusual and offbeat culinary cravings, such as the famous desire for strawberries in the middle of January, regularly cited as an example. According to a nutritionist psychologist, these pregnant woman’s desires could be explained by the “hormonal context of pregnancy”, which would lead to a better perception of tastes and smells. It is in fact a period when “the woman has a better perception of her nutritional needs”, in an intuitive way. She naturally turns to the foods her body craves (dairy products if it lacks calcium for example), but also at the psychological and emotional level. “This is a period when hormonal games can cause a rather unstable mood”, underlines Laurence Haurat. The prospect of having a child can also give rise to a whole host of questions and concerns, which push the mother-to-be to try to reassure herself. And for this, diet is often a good method. So how do you go about making these cravings part of a balanced diet? Can we reasonably give in to all our cravings?
A guilt that has no place
Unfortunately, in a society that largely favors thinness, a feeling of guilt can quickly invade a mother-to-be, especially if she gains a little too much weight. For Laurence Haurat, “it becomes ridiculous”, since giving in to your desires is not something bad in itself. ” There is a place for these cravings. They exist, they have a reason for being, they are not negative, they are there to bring something », Assures the specialist. Also, rather than stigmatizing them, it is better to make room for them, because frustration is anything but beneficial. By depriving yourself, you take the risk of suddenly breaking down, for example by falling into the Nutella jar or the box of candies. And there, hello excess, hyperglycemia, pounds, and especially guilt, which takes away all the satisfaction of having eaten.
Arrange your meals to make room for your desires
Laurence Haurat therefore suggests starting from the principle that these desires have a reason to exist, and that, since they are there, we might as well adapt and do with it, to avoid frustrations and food compulsions. She therefore suggests “ start from what the pregnant woman feels and adapt things to be as far as possible from her desires and the nutritional aspect Rather than giving ideal recommendations that she will not be able to keep at all. The idea is to organize your meals to make room for your desires, while keeping a nutritional consistency and psychological well-being.
Concretely, how to go about it?
To illustrate this approach, Laurence Haurat took the somewhat extreme example of Nutella. If a woman has a craving for chocolate spread, she might as well incorporate it into your diet for a meal, provided you modify the menu. Rather than the traditional starter-main-dessert, she can opt for a soup as a main course, then indulge herself with a few Nutella pancakes for dessert. Based on flour, eggs, milk and sugar, they will provide enough nutrients. same for me the traditional galette des rois, which is the equivalent of a steak and fries menu in terms of protein and carbohydrate portion. If it is to be avoided after a classic meal, it goes very well after a green salad or a salad of raw vegetables. In this way, the craving is psychologically satisfied, without frustration or guilt, while the nutritional balance is roughly maintained.