Posted on 05/14/2007 4:53:30 PM PDT by blam
Blame that Morning Sickness on Your Ancient Ancestors
Author:
Karen Barrow
Medically Reviewed On: September 01, 2006
Despite its name, morning sickness—nausea and vomiting that is often one of the first symptoms of pregnancy—can happen at any time of the day. Up to 90 percent of pregnant women experience this less-than-pleasant side effect, yet scientists are only beginning to understand why running to the bathroom and saltines are a rite-of-passage for moms-to-be.
Now, new research has shed some light onto morning sickness, and its roots lie in evolution.
Researchers from the University of Liverpool suggest that morning sickness may have developed over time to protect pregnant women from potentially dangerous food or from eating too much unhealthy food.
To test the theory, Dr. Craig Roberts and colleagues looked at the rates of morning sickness in different regions of the world and the typical diet of the population in that region. Ultimately, not only was "high overall food intake correlated with pregnancy sickness, but also the amount of certain types of food predicted the incidence of pregnancy sickness," he said.
In other words, it's not just the amount of food you eat, but the type of food that seems to influence the degree of your morning sickness.
To further look at this phenomenon, Roberts then compared only those women from Europe and North America and pinpointed the types of foods that seem to trigger the symptoms of morning sickness: sugars, alcohol and meat. Additionally, women who ate high amounts of cereal-based products tended to have lower-than-average rates of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.
The researchers theorize that women's bodies have slowly developed an aversion to sugar, alcohol and meat because all of these foods contain high levels of toxins that could be potentially dangerous to a mother and her child. Cereals, on the other hand, tend to contain a very low level of toxins, so they could possibly be safer for a woman to eat. Remember, however, that these toxins may not pose the same hazard now that they did in the days of ancient man.
"While there may be no particular harm in eating, say, meat, now that we have refrigeration and 'best before' dates," said Roberts,"our bodies may be pre-programmed by evolution to avoid these particular foodstuffs in the first trimester."
If there is a particular food that seems to make your morning sickness that much worse, it may be acceptable to avoid it, but be sure to consult with your doctor before changing your diet. That way, you can be sure that you and your baby are still getting all of the vitamins and nutrients you need.
I threw up the whole time with my first, nauseated all the time,and had a couple of better middle months with the second. Lost ten pounds and added 6 inches to my waist the first couple of months with both. Must be another study by liberals with agenda.
Celiac Syndrome?
Nope!
Don’t have that either!
:)
I was SO sick with all four of my children. I basically sit and stare into space for the first few months because I am so sick.
I lost a minimum of twenty pounds during each pregnancy. I lost 40 with my second one, and had to go to the hospital for
dehydration three times.
LOGICAL FALLACY ALERT!
"POST HOC ERGO PROPTER HOC" FALLACY NO. 11,234,220.
Fallacy logged, 22:08:10 GMT
Not me. I puked my guts out over carbs; cherry pie, applesaauce, pancakes and syrup, for example. As long as I did low carb meals, I was fine. I was sick as a dog with the girls; and slept constantly for the boy, but NO morning sickness with him.
Evolution explains morning sickness, my foot. It'd be better for women to eat than throw up half of what they ingested. So our apelike ancestors had morning sickness to avoid eating bad things like sugar and ??alcohol??
” - must depend on the researcher, I guess.”
Unfortunately, all too often, it does.
Clements was right, “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Seems he foresaw much of modern day ‘research’.
I had mild morning sickness with all the kids. Ginger ale or Coke helped. So did those baked potato chips. And candy. Lots of candy, especially Tootsie Rolls and salt-water taffy.
What really set me back was when one of the milk cows kicked me in the face and broke my nose when I was about 39 weeks with DS1. Fortunately he was late adn the swelling had pretty much gone down by the day he was born.
He was so big when he was born that my first thought was, “Why did I eat so much candy? He looks like he’s a month old already!”
I guess I flunked evolutionary biology ;-)
Hmm, didn't work for me. I guess I'm not a 'pioneer' type! I wasn't much of a red meat eater, then, I do eat more now. I did eat a lot of grains and veggies and seafood. I was sick day and night (no vomiting, I haven't done that in decades, another story) with 'morning sickness', hardly gained any weight. For the first 3.5 months, I couldn't eat hardly anything. Dry toast (wheat only), peanut butter, scrambled eggs, yogurt, tomatoes, soup, Chinese food (without msg). None of those together and not much else. I couldn't hear about food, see it, smell it, cook it, waves and waves of nausea and fatigue day and night. I went to work and slept. I thought I had mono at first. I worked in an office in a school and had to remove all the magazines from my office lest I see a food ad, even a cat food ad, and plug my ears during announcements to avoid hearing the menu. I had a rug to keep lunch smells from seeping under my door. It stopped right around the end of March when my very severe seasonal allergies started. I still believe it stopped because I couldn't smell or taste much of anything and passed the first trimester. I then had other issues. No sonogram, so they misjudged (and didn't listen to me) my due date and the baby's size. My son was about 2 weeks early after much time in the labor room and 'start and stop' labor. My sister had morning sickness only once, and only in the morning, but had the same start and stop labor. I was always hoping to have a better time the second time, but...
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