Postpartum Cravings: Nourishing Your Body and Mind
Why Do We Get Postpartum Cravings?
Pregnancy is often synonymous with cravings—a sudden, almost insatiable desire for specific foods. I could not get enough peanut butter with my first bebe! However, many new moms are caught off guard by the intensity and persistence of cravings during the postpartum period. Which makes sense, right? Your body just went through a huge transformation and it needs replenished! There are a few other reasons that might surprise you. Understanding and managing these cravings is essential for maintaining balanced nutrition and supporting your body’s recovery.
Postpartum cravings typically arise from a few key factors:
- Lack of Sleep: Sleep deprivation is a common experience for new moms. Unfortunately, it can trigger cravings, particularly for sugary foods, as your body seeks quick energy boosts. This can lead to a vicious cycle and can be a bandaid for the underlying problem and only temporarily meet your energy needs.
- Stress Levels: Adjusting to the demands of caring for a new baby is stressful. In response, the body often craves comfort foods that provide a sense of relief or pleasure.
- Nutritional Needs: If you’re breastfeeding, your body requires additional nutrients to support milk production. Your cravings may be an indicator of what your body needs nutritionally or provide insight into various factors influencing your hunger cues.
By identifying the root causes of your cravings, you can gain valuable understanding around the best way to combat them and support your overall well-being.
While it might seem like an extra task, starting a food or cravings journal can be incredibly helpful. Here’s how to make it work for you:
- Record the Details: Note the type of food you’re craving, the time of day, your emotional state, and where you are in your menstrual cycle.
- Look for Patterns: After a week or two, review your journal for any patterns or triggers. Are there specific times when cravings are more intense? Are certain foods frequently craved?
- Analyze and Adjust: Use the insights from your journal to make changes. For example, if you notice a spike in sugar cravings when you’re tired, aim to get more rest, or replace sugary snacks with healthier alternatives.
Lack of Sleep Leads to Sugar Cravings
When you’re tired, your brain needs more energy to keep going. Carbohydrates are its favorite fuel, providing the glucose needed for energy. That’s why your body often craves sugary foods—they’re a quick way to boost your energy levels.
Like most new moms you’re likely struggling to get sleep with a newborn. Those sugar cravings? They make perfect sense—they’re your body’s way of searching for a quick energy fix, so it will crave food that can provide that, even if it’s temporary.
But did you know that good sleep is the foundation of curbing postpartum cravings and sugar addiction? Without enough rest, your body can’t properly regulate and digest, leading to a hormone imbalance involving ghrelin and leptin. This can cause changes in appetite and increase cravings. Sleep can be elusive with a newborn at home, but sleep deprivation can be the main driver behind these cravings, making it important to audit your sleep and see what changes you can make to help combat these cravings.
Mama, we understand sleep hasn’t been easy lately. If you’re reaching for sugary snacks even after a hearty meal, getting some quality sleep might just be what you need. But remember, it’s only part of the solution and we know there is not a one-size fits-all solution. Understanding the reasons behind these cravings can help you to better understand changes in appetite and cravings. This allows you to then look at lifestyle influences and make changes in a myriad of factors that influence cravings, such as sleep and mindfulness. What’s the problem with craving a few sweets? In moderation, nothing. But if you’re finding that sweets are making up the majority of your diet or noticing headaches, jitteriness, or being easily irritated…keep reading!
What to do about it
We wish we could just tell you: get more sleep! We know it’s not that simple, which is why we wrote an entire guide to restful sleep for new parents.
When it comes to the cravings involved with lack of sleep, we suggest you find a healthy snack to fight the random cravings throughout the day. Some low-calorie carbohydrate that can give your brain the glucose it needs. Fruits are a wonderful option and paired with a protein makes a perfect snack.
If you’re struggling with sweets, our best advice is to get them out of the house. Your brain knows that there are chocolates in the pantry. Those are its fastest source of energy when it’s feeling tired. You need to tell your brain, and you, that the new (or best, or even only) option is blueberries or an apple.
Persistent Stress and Food Cravings
Modern life is stressful. Add in the worries and obligations of parenting a newborn and you’ll likely cross a new threshold of stress and anxiety. This is another common source of postpartum food cravings. If you are pregnant or newly postpartum our course, Emotionally Preparing for Postpartum, teaches you proven strategies to prioritize your health and well-being in the fourth trimester and beyond!
Stress causes an increase in the hormone cortisol, which some studies suggest has a link with dietary changes. Just like with sleep, the changes in diet are usually an increase of foods that are high in fat and in sugar.
Often these are comfort foods that actually reduce physical stress in your body but can also negatively impact our mental health. Studies show that stress-related food cravings are more likely to occur in women than men. While men are more likely to crave substances like alcohol or cigarettes, we are statistically more inclined to crave sweets and chocolate. It’s a personal love-hate relationship that we also share.
What to do about it
The key here is to find things, other than your comfort foods, that can reduce your stress levels. This is where mindfulness and being cognizant of your body and mental state can really help. Knowing what is causing your stress can allow you to ask for help from friends and family to reduce it. Prioritize yourself, when you can. To have the best healthy baby, you need to be the best healthy you.
It may seem counterintuitive to add something else to your day, but exercise will help the most. Raising your heart rate for thirty minutes, a few times a week, can reduce stress. Exercise can give you more energy throughout the day. The best part is that it will also help you get better sleep! That’s a ‘bogo’ sale, don’t miss out!
In the same vein, being mindful and practicing meditation can also help with stress. Really it can be anything, just set some time aside when you can take time to focus on yourself. You’ll be surprised how much prioritizing postpartum self-care can help.
New Moms Need Energy for Breastfeeding
If you are able and choose to breastfeed then you will have to eat more than you normally did prior to your pregnancy. The CDC suggests breastfeeding mothers will need 340-400 more calories each day. Your body will gladly let you know, if you haven’t met these nutritional needs, through postpartum cravings.
Those extra calories should come from a slight increase to the balanced meals you’re currently eating. However, the demand on your body will also push you toward nutrient-dense foods. This results in postpartum sugar cravings.
What to do about it
Humans eat for self nourishment and preservation. You, mama, you’re eating for both you and your child. It’s different from those nine months of your pregnancy, but in many ways it’s the same. Your and your child’s health and well-being are interconnected. Some cravings are a natural part of caring for a newborn. But instead of reaching for sweet treats, there are specific nutrient requirements for nursing moms.
You’ll want to have a good source of healthy fats and wholesome, nutrient-dense foods in general. Specifically, iodine and choline are both necessary for your health and that of your nursing baby. Here’s how to get more of each:
Iodine:
- Dairy products
- Eggs
- Seafood**
- Iodized table salt
Choline:
- Dairy products
- Eggs
- Some seafood**
- Meats
- Beans, peas, and lentils
**Some seafood is more likely to have higher levels of mercury than others. These should be mostly avoided while nursing. Consult this helpful chart created by the FDA to learn more and find which seafood are the best for you.
If you feel you’re doing everything else right, healthy diet and such, and are still getting cravings, the first thing you should always do is drink water. Breast milk is made of 87-88% water. Not only do you need to replenish all the water your body turns into milk, you also need extra just to produce it. Many women find adding electrolytes to their water helps properly hydrate and increases milk supply.
Postpartum Food and Nutrients
Bringing a new life into the world is hard. During pregnancy, many of us experience changes in our normal routines around food. Social pressures, and our own self-image, might make us feel like we need to start losing that baby weight on day one. We truly mean this: dieting can wait, focus first on being a happy healthy mother. If you are feeling weighed down by the invisible load of motherhood have a conversation with your partner on dividing roles and responsibilities so you can focus on sleep, nutrition, and caring for baby.
The most common food craving during postpartum (and beyond) is sweets. If you’re getting enough sleep and aren’t feeling too stressed, then it’s possible you’re not getting enough complex carbs. Simple carbs are not necessarily “bad” for you; they can provide a quick energy boost. However, they also cause your blood sugar to spike, can accelerate weight gain and potentially increase your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and high cholesterol.
Complex carbohydrates are broken down into two categories: fiber and starches. Fiber helps with digestion, regulates blood sugar, lowers cholesterol, and improves satiety. Starches differ, as they are not all created equal, but the good ones should have a regular seat on your dinner plate. These have important vitamins and minerals, while also providing your body with consistent energy rather than a quick burst of it.
Some believe that specific cravings are always related to some nutrient deficiency in the body. It turns out that there is little evidence of that.
If this was the case, then your body would seek out the foods with the most of the required nutrients. Instead, we mostly end up craving sugar and fats. Some examples are craving red meat so people suggest it’s because of a lack of iron. When was the last time you craved a lean steak with a side of spinach? Or you may seek out chocolate and people say (after the fact) that it’s because you didn’t have enough magnesium. However, on the National Institutes of Health list of highest magnesium foods, chocolate isn’t even listed.
What to do about it
If you still can’t figure out why you’re having a craving, after reading all this, consult with your provider on what postpartum supplements could help. It could be one of many mineral or vitamin deficiencies. On top of that, you should make sure you eat healthy portions of the fibrous and starchy foods below.
High Fiber Foods:
- Beans and legumes
- Fruits and berries
- Nuts and seeds
- Whole grain rice and wheat
- Some vegetables
High Starch Foods:
- Beans and legumes
- Fruits and berries
- Whole grain rice and breads
- Some vegetables
Simple Carbohydrates to limit:
- Candy and chocolate
- Cookies, crackers, and chips
- Most cereals and pastas
- Juice and soda
- Canned fruit
- Ice cream
Balancing Your Physical and Mental Wellbeing
Trying to figure out your diet with these sudden cravings, and raising your little one, is too much to handle alone. The best advice we can give you is to build your community of support. With the help of others, you can tackle a break and find time for yourself to reduce stress or catch up on sleep. With a community of mothers to share your experience with and get their advice from, you can learn without having to go through all the same postpartum experiences and mistakes.
We know this, we’ve been through it. That’s why we created our motherhood community, a welcoming space online where you can connect and communicate with other new mamas like you. You’ll have access to expert advice from healthcare professionals and unique resources for information that will help you guide you to being the best mother you can possibly be.
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Lauren Hays, PMHNP
Lauren was a licensed and trained registered nurse in the NICU and has since made a career shift to focus on mental health. Lauren is now a board certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, focusing on women’s health and wellness. She is a mom of three precious little men who has turned her pain into passion.
