Craven cravin' and the Bugle of the Broad Bean

[jenP_97]

Tabouli documented her cravings, mentioned possible link of 
pregnancy cravings to nutritional deficiencies, and then asked
"mothers" out there about their pregnancy cravings.

Ah... a subject near and dear to my stomach.

I've now suffered ... er ... endured ... er ... joyously 
awaited (ha - that sounds nice) the birth of two children 
(well, I'm still awaiting one), and have had just a few really
noticable cravings.  One is cheese.  When Ginger was cooking, 
I was a cheese-a-holic.  I swear, I must have eaten a pound of 
the stuff every week.  Okay, maybe not that much, but you get 
my drift.  Pizza - extra cheese.  Sandwich?  Grilled cheese. 
Enchiladas?  Cheese-filled, with extra cheese sprinkled on top.  
Need I say more?  And for the first few months of that 
pregnancy, I couldn't eat any meat.  It was horrible.

Now with the current pregnancy, I'm craving mostly fruit.  
Strawberries were good while they were "new" (meaning before 
they got all small and mushy like they are now), now I'm 
hankering after cherries... and I ate almost HALF a seedless 
watermelon the other day.  I can't WAIT until the peaches, 
plums and nectarines come into season... and though it's not a 
"fruit", I'm really looking forward to the peak of corn-on-
the-cob season.  Again, meat doesn't taste as good... except
burned/burnt hot dogs.  And they have to be almost black on 
the outside.  Unfortunately, by not eating meat (and iron-rich
veggies)... and by not drinking as much milk as I should, I'm 
fearing that tomorrow when I go have blood drawn at the lab, 
they're going to find that I'm anemic.  Wouldn't be a surprise, 
as I'm always borderline anemic anyway, but this means I have 
to take another iron supplement in addition to my prenatal 
vitamin, which makes me gag.  Not nice.

Now, if we're talking about really WEIRD pregnancy cravings, 
there's a condition called "pica".  Women with pica tend to 
crave inedible things like laundry starch, drywall, pencil 
sharpenings and dirt.  These cravings have definitely been 
linked to nutritional deficiencies, although the studies waver 
on whether or not it has to do with psychological problems, too.  

I'm not sure where I stand on the "cravings = your body 
telling you that you need something" question.  I guess that 
I believe it in my heart... I mean, I'm not a big fruit eater 
normally, and I've been skipping a prenatal vitamin here and 
there because of nausea, so it would make sense that my body 
is telling me that I need some extra vitamin C or fiber or 
water.  But I guess that I don't have hard evidence, so my 
"logical" mind (whatever that means) can't say for certain 
that it's *true*.

In any case, my body *can't* be needing all this extra fat 
I've been consuming.  I mean, I know that this is a big time 
for baby brain development and fat-store buildup, but come on.

Jen, who is so pregnant right now that she can't pick up more 
than a bag full of trash around the house without breaking into 
a sweat and gasping for breath.