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Home › Articles › Health and Physical Changes › Pass the Pickles, Please

Pass the Pickles, Please

Craving Salt During Pregnancy

By Shannon McKelden

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Smith's cravings were more short-lived than Jennifer Franet's, who counts herself as grateful the salt cravings disappeared by the end of the first trimester. "I haven't had a chip or cracker since then," says the mother of two from the San Francisco Bay area.

Franet also began craving salty foods during the first trimester of both her pregnancies, but experienced the cravings most of the way through. "I loved to eat candy corn along with those salty green Spanish olives with the red pimentos inside," she says. "I would alternate bites between the candy and the olives. My variation on pickles and ice cream, I guess!"

Are There Health Risks?
A non-pregnant woman's sodium intake should be in the range of 1,100 to 3,300 milligrams a day. During pregnancy the range is 2,000 to 8,000 milligrams a day. "A woman shouldn't consciously add salt to her diet, though, to try to get extra salt in," Collins says. "A normal, well balanced diet with the increased caloric needs included will most likely achieve this amount."

Collins adds that the progesterone level in a pregnant woman's body causes an increased sodium content in her urine. "She essentially urinates out more salt when pregnant," she says. "Sodium should definitely not be restricted during pregnancy, unless at the strict advice of one's provider and for medical reasons. Restricting salt during pregnancy, in an otherwise healthy woman, could result in harm to the woman or her child."

There may also be a misplaced belief that restricting salt will help control the swelling of ankles and feet that occur wth pregnancy or prevent certain complications of pregnancy like toxemia. Collins corrects this myth.


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