An Adaptionist Approach to Morning Sickness

JustBored10

https://anthropology.ua.edu/bindon/ant570/Papers/Edwards.htm

I had an interesting conversation with the lady who owns a local health food store in our area who regarding this.  I found a few articles and I think that this is very interesting.  Why we crave bland foods during certain weeks.  What do you think?

ElleKH

The material is interesting. I just wish that whoever wrote it (Jessica Edwards/Dr. Bindon) had written it in a more interesting manner. It's so dry. But that's always been one of my beefs with anthropology. I majored in it and it's such a great subject, but some anthropologists can take a super interesting topic and turn it into a long, boring lecture. It's very unfortunate. That said, I had a hard time making it all the way to the end. But there were very good points brought up on both sides. 

As for my own two cents, I think Profer is certainly right about our instincts kicking in to steer us away from potential toxins during all the major developments happening in the first trimester. But I don't think that's the sole reason we experience morning sickness, and I don't think that that was her claim. So if we both agree that it's a contributing factor to morning sickness, then yes, I'm on board with that.

But having experienced only nausea and fatigue in my first full term pregnancy, and having experienced those plus constantly changing food cravings and aversions in this one, I honestly think that morning sickness is also our bodies reminding ourselves to eat. I know that sounds contradictory, but hear me out.

I feel the most sick when I haven't eaten anything in a while. If I remember to snack throughout the day, my nausea is much more manageable than if I don't. So in a way, I feel that some pregnancy instinct is conditioning my mind and body: "Eat something. If you don't eat, you'll feel sick."

So instead of sitting down to three big meals, which my body doesn't like at this point, it is getting nurtients throughout the day from various sources. The food cravings and aversions are interesting here in this pregnancy. I'll crave a certain food, eat it, then want nothing more to do with it. Leftovers go ignored because, now that I've eaten what I had been craving, I now have a temporary aversion to it. So my body is constantly craving different things, in other words, different nutrients. That's a big benefit to a growing baby and to the mother, what with the demands pregnancy places on your body. 

The aversions, then... There are some things that I haven't been able to touch, look at, talk about, or even hear about. And I'm assuming that's my body telling my, as Profer argues, to steer clear of those things for now. And I'm fine with that. When my body tells me something, I try to listen. But the constantly changing aversions? That's a new thing. And like I said, it usually comes after I've satisfied a craving. So I suppose it's my body saying, "Okay good, I've had enough of that. Now I need something else."

But that's just me. Other moms in this group have only been able to handle bland carbs - not the most nutrient-rich foods out there, so my theories certainly don't cover everyone.

On a related side note, what is interesting and what you might want to pay attention to is what you crave and when during your pregnancy. During my first full term pregnancy, I discovered a correlation between longterm dairy cravings and the development of baby's bones. There were others that I noticed too, but I don't want to give you any spoilers or a bias of any kind.  

Thanks for sharing! Hopefully you don't mind the novella I've left you.  

Edited for clarity.

ElleKH

ElleKH said:

but some anthropologists can take a super interesting topic and turn it into a long, boring lecture. It's very unfortunate. 

I guess that makes me a real anthropologist now. -_-