Craving spicy food while pregnant isn’t an unusual occurrence. During your pregnancy, you’ll have some weird cravings. So many women say that they’re craving sour or spicy foods that they’ve never eaten before.
You’re craving spicy foods, but you’re not really sure if you can eat them or not. How can it affect your baby? Will it affect you? I mean, spicy food isn’t for the faint of heart.
It’s hard to ignore those cravings, especially when they come at you in full force. At the end of the day, you’re ready to ignore those cravings if it means that they may harm your baby. But it’s good that you’ve stumbled upon this article because we have all the answers that you’re looking for.
Craving spicy food while pregnant: what does it mean?
Doctors aren’t really sure what food cravings represent during pregnancies. However, it’s quite possible that it’s nothing more than the nutritional needs of someone. Also, the hormones of your pregnancy can cause you to have weird cravings that you’ve never experienced before.
Looking for spicy foods around your home could also be caused by certain mental states. For example, you could connect your craving for spicy food with anxiety, so you’ll reach for it each time you don’t feel calm.
Either way, there’s no study done that found a negative connotation between spicy food and pregnancy complications. So, to answer shortly – you should be able to eat it.
Does spicy food affect your baby?
Craving spicy food while pregnant wouldn’t be such a big issue if you weren’t concerned about your baby’s health. However, you’re a good mother. You want a healthy and happy baby, so you’re being extremely careful about your food choices.
The truth is that there’s no need for you to worry. Spicy foods are great for your baby, there’s nothing bad that could happen to it. You shouldn’t shy away from Mexican or Indian food. You can definitely treat yourself to some delicious curry, chili con carne, or Cheetos.
Through the amniotic fluid, your baby is actually able to taste the foods that you’re eating. This way, you can make sure that your baby can eat anything and everything. As your unborn’s sense of taste and smell develops, it’s possible that it will start to form opinions on different tastes. If you don’t want your child to be a picky eater, then this is an amazing way to introduce certain tastes.
How can spicy food affect you?
Okay, now that we know that craving spicy food while pregnant won’t affect your baby, it’s very important to know if it would affect you negatively. I mean, you should be able to enjoy your pregnancy!
That’s why we made it easy for you to understand what discomfort eating a full bag of spicy chips could do to your body. The discomfort could be too much to handle if you’re not careful enough.
1. Boosted immune system
An amazing benefit of spicy foods, during your pregnancy or otherwise, is that they boost the immune system. Capsaicin, which gives the spiciness to peppers, has anti-inflammatory properties. They also metabolize nicely, which means that these foods could also lower your “bad” cholesterol.
Your immune system will thank you for these foods. Research shows that spicy foods can lower your risk of heart disease, stroke, and even cancer.
2. Heartburn
There are many tales about heartburn in pregnant women, but definitely, there’s a high chance that you’ll experience it during your pregnancy no matter how hard you try to avoid it.
That’s because all of your organs have to shift to make room for the growing fetus. Your uterus is expanding, so the other organs have to make more space. That way, the growing uterus forces stomach acids to climb up your esophagus. That’s what causes that feeling like you’re suffocating, and it can hurt like hell.
The acids in your stomach can also be activated and rise more because of the spicy foods that you’re eating. It’s not life-threatening, but it’s definitely not the most pleasant feeling in the world. However, you cure heartburn the same way you aid your mouth when the food is too spicy – which is with a glass of milk.
Read also: The Ins And Outs Of Craving Milkshakes During Pregnancy
3. Abdominal discomfort
Pregnant women usually tend to think that every pain in the stomach means that there’s something wrong with the baby. However, that’s not true, especially if you’re craving spicy food while pregnant.
One thing that usually happens is that your digestive system slows down significantly during pregnancy. So, when you eat something spicy, it’s hard for your stomach to digest it properly. This food specifically can cause indigestion. It’s nothing fatal, but it is uncomfortable.
4. Morning sickness
Let’s be honest for a moment, you’re no stranger to morning sickness. It’s been whooping you ever since you got pregnant.
However, most women choose to heal their gut because of the awful discomfort that they’re experiencing. I mean, vomiting every single day seems like too much, so you shy away from anything that could make it worse.
Well, some women reported that even though they were craving spicy food while pregnant, the morning after eating it, they had awful morning sickness. That’s because of the indigestion that it causes. The acids in a pregnant woman’s stomach simply can’t keep up with the amount of spice that you’ve been putting into your body.
5. Gasses and bloating
Everyone knows that Chili con carne gives you gasses and bloats you. The sounds that come from your body will make you feel uncomfortable. The gasses are, again, part of the indigestion.
There’s a chance that you’ll become bloated from a certain type of food, so you should be able to try out different foods before you see which ones created the bloating. Even something like lactose could make you bloated, so let’s not put all the blame on spices. I mean, this isn’t the most comfortable thing to deal with, but it’s still better than having to battle your cravings.
Can spicy food induce labor?
Many people believe that spicy food can induce labor. You’re probably concerned about this if you’re craving spicy food while pregnant. Others believe that spicy foods could induce labor because of the contraction that they cause within the digestion system.
However, there are no proven studies done on this, even though some women tend to believe that spicy food is exactly what helped them induce labor.
If you’re at the end of your pregnancy, and you’re trying to give labor a jump-start, you’ll probably ask around how to do that. That’s when your mom, your grandmother, your sister, your friends, and the downstairs old lady will tell you to eat something spicy.
There have been a couple of studies done back in 2011 and they asked women if they tried to induce labor the natural way. For women who are craving spicy food while pregnant, this may even be a little bit scary.
Around 20% of women said that they tried to induce labor by eating spicy foods. That’s to say that it could just be a placebo, but there’s no actual study that confirms this theory. Even though many want to believe it, it doesn’t make it true.
Additional precautions
So many women testify to some of the weirdest cravings. Like drinking the juice from the pickle jar and so many other things. Craving spicy food while pregnant is not the weirdest of them, which means that you should be happy that you’re not craving something bizarre.
There’s a chance that you’ll succumb to those cravings, and you’ll be ready to deal with the pain that comes with it. I mean, the heartburn, the indigestion, and other things aren’t something that should be ignored. You could simply choose to stop going after your cravings, but once you fall victim to it, you’ll have to deal with the aftermath.
Even though you’re allowed to eat spicy foods, you have to be aware that there are some serious issues that you could face. For example, diarrhea. In this case, you should definitely give your doctor a call, because if it’s going on for quite some time then you’re probably experiencing a severe reaction to the spicy food.
Other symptoms could be unbearable cramps that are painful, and leave you completely bent over on the couch. You don’t want to put the baby at risk, but any type of pain in your abdominal area could be bad for the fetus.
Read also: Craving Sugar During Pregnancy: 6 Tips To Control The Urge
So, if you’re craving spicy food while pregnant, there are no serious risks tied to it. You’ll probably be able to eat it without any issues. However, if your digestive system isn’t used to it, you could face some difficulties that you should immediately tell your doctor.
Otherwise, it won’t have any lasting effects on the baby, and you’ll be able to carry the pregnancy full term. There are even some benefits to it if you’re able to ignore the rising discomforts from indulging in it too much.
