It’s completely normal to have pregnancy cravings, particularly sweet ones. But often overindulging in these cravings can result in poor outcomes, especially when the cravings are answered with an abundance of sweets or processed foods. This can lead to unnecessary weight gain, increase in insulin and glucose levels, and nutrient deficiency in pregnant woman and possibly hamper the growth of your baby.
Here are some easy-to-implement solutions to help keep your sweet tooth in check:
Infographic Click Here | Eat a good breakfast: Eating a good nutrient-dense, whole food breakfast can help reduce your urge to pick something sweet up from your pantry. |
Eat often:
Eat smaller meals, frequently. This can keep you mindful of your intake and even distribute your nutritional needs throughout the day. Thus, making it less likely that you reach out for sweet, processed food.
Add protein:
A protein rich diet can keep you satiated and nourished for longer. Lentils, nuts, tofu, mushrooms, quinoa are all versatile and tasty protein packed foods.
Increase fibre:
Fibre is the secret to fullness, eating meals with a good fibre content can help you feel full for a long time. Incorporate whole grains, vegetables and fruits into your daily diet. Fibre-rich foods release energy slowly and keep you satiated for longer and reduce your need to munch on sweet snacks.
Skip the snack Isle:
Next time you are out restocking your pantry, skip the snack isle. The best way to stay healthy is to not have any tempting unhealthy snacks to binge on in your pantry.
Stay hydrated:
It’s surprisingly common for people, pregnant or otherwise to mistake thirst for hunger. Next you’ve just eaten and are back to feeling hungry a few minutes later, take moment to introspect if that’s hunger or thirst. The best way to keep your cravings at bay is to sip on some water throughout the day.
While managing your craving before they occur is optimal, your cravings can be pretty unpredictable. There’s no good reason to completely deny yourself.
Here are some substitutes to processed sweet foods that will fill you with yummy nutrition:
Ice cream
Binging on a tub of store-bought ice cream may not be the healthiest thing to do. Instead, try making your own plant-based ice-cream from either frozen banana or blueberries. It’s just as delicious, packed with nutrition and just takes a few minutes to whip up in the kitchen. Top or flavour it to your liking and indulge your sweet tooth.
Chocolate bar
If thoughts of a chocolate bar haunt your mind, try your hand at an easy chocolate avocado mousse, plant based chocolate yogurt or a chocolate chia seed pudding. Although these are healthy alternatives, your tongue won’t know the difference. These desserts are decadent and almost sinfully good.
Cookie dough
A lot of women crave cookie dough during pregnancy. And even on a regular day, cookie dough can be quite bad for you, but with a few easy substitutions this craving can turn into a healthy, nourishing and utterly satisfying chickpea cookie dough. To start, you’ll need to substitute flour with chickpeas, and the sweetness comes from either agave nectar or some decadent dates. The best part is, there are no raw ingredient to give you an E-coli infection and the end result is a protein packed snack that will leave you wanting more. Just in case you are wondering, it doesn’t taste like beans.
Sweet soda
While it might be tempting to drink some carbonated sweet beverages, they are really bad for you, and worse still is that many of them contain caffeine, which is a big no-no. We have a tamer solution to this craving- fruit water. Yes- it’s exactly what it sounds like, a handful of fruit or berries steeped in cool water. If this doesn’t quite cut it for you, you could crush up some fruit and add it to some sparkling water to better emulate that soda feeling!
Donuts
Sometimes, you really just want to bite into some sugar glazed fried dough and that’s alright. But we’ll do you one better, make them at home- gluten, sugar and soy free baked donut! These are so good you can’t tell the differences. They are also much healthier than the store-bought alternative, thereby making for a more pleasant guilt-free experience.
Conclusion:
Pregnancy doesn’t have to feel like a punishment, it’s perfectly fine to indulge your sugar cravings from time to time. But, on the days that you don’t want to, these solutions and substitutes may be handy.
References:
Gluten, Dairy, Soy (And Possibly Egg) Free Baked Donuts! Better Batter.
https://betterbatter.org/gluten-dairy-soy-possibly-egg-free-baked-donuts.
Accessed on 28-06-2021
Pregnancy Cravings: What Do They Mean and What Should You Do? Houston Methodist. https://www.houstonmethodist.org/blog/articles/2020/feb/pregnancy-cravings-what-do-they-mean-and-what-should-you-do/.
Accessed on 28-06-2021
Food cravings during pregnancy. Pregnancy Birth Baby.
https://www.pregnancybirthbaby.org.au/food-cravings-during-pregnancy.
Accessed on 28-06-2021
Pregnancy Cravings: When You Gotta Have It! Web MD.
https://www.webmd.com/baby/features/pregnancy-food-cravings#1.
Accessed on 28-06-2021
