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Craving Sugar While Expecting

Tips for Tackling Your Sweet Tooth

By Shannon McKelden

Dr. Kulze also mentions a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (November, 2003), which found that pregnant women who eat lots of foods with a high glycemic index (many sweet foods have a high glycemic index) double their risk of neural tube defects like spina bifida.

Even with the above reasons not to overdo the sugary sweets, it's not easy to change habits that you had before pregnancy or the cravings you developed during pregnancy. But there are tricks that can help make it easier.

"Minimize foods known to precipitously drop your blood sugar, which can be a trigger for sugar cravings," Dr. Kulze says. These include the above-mentioned refined, high glycemic "great white hazards" such as white flour products, white potatoes, white rice and sugar/sweets.

Eating three meals with snacks in between can also help prevent the drop in blood sugar that may increase cravings. Breakfast, especially, should never be skipped. Including super nutritious and healthy whole grains, beans, fats and vegetables will satisfy your appetite and maintain blood sugar levels for a longer period of time due to their lack of processing and high fiber content.

Another really important item pregnant moms might not know about is avoiding artificially sweetened foods and beverages. "Artificial sweeteners are exquisitely sweet substances that exploit our highly developed taste for sweets and keep our taste buds on overdrive," Dr. Kulze says. "Taste is malleable – the less sweet foods you eat, the sweeter they taste when you have them – and vice versa."

Want to see more?

• Candida and Pregnancy: When Your Sweet Tooth and Cravings Spell Trouble
• Food Facts, Cravings
  and Cautions: The Formula for a Healthy Diet During Pregnancy
• Snacks Done Right: Satisfying Cravings
  in a Healthy Way
• Check out our Article Library.
• Talk about it!

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