Managing salt cravings

Okay - I am having the world's most intense salt cravings lately.... I am also worried about the rapid weight gain so I've been trying to increase the water intake to manage the two...

Has anyone else experienced this?  I have heard that drinking too much water may actually make you retain more.  Any thoughts?

Here's the game I play when I want salty food....I eat/drink a diuretic with it. Here's a list I found from a random web page (Wikipedia):

Water
Cranberry juice
green tea
beets
cabbage
asparagus
brussell sprouts
oats
carrots
lettuce
tomatoes
raw onions
radishes

I've also heard tha****ermelon is a diuretic...but I'm not positive if that's fact.

Happy munching to you!

--Paula

Pickles. They will help with the salt cravings and are only 10 calories a pickle. Olives too but I am not sure of the calories in them.

Drinking water will help to flush the salt. The amniotic fluid is replaced every 3 hours. Try to look at it as giving your baby fresh fluid and not recycled. You need tha****er more then ever. If you do gain water weight you know it is water and not fat so try not to let it bother you.

I had the salt cravings too.

I had bad salt cravings...anything salty or sour....and I was a pickle addict...before, during, and after. I tried to drink lots of water and limit myself as much as I could and use salt substitutes in foods to give me the taste of salt. Hoepfully it will pass.

Oh yes!  I have craved salt my whole pregnancy -- soups, chips, etc.   At first I was worried.... but then I started reading about preeclampsia and it turns out SALT IS GOOD !  You'd think it would be bad.... but in most cases salt is a normal craving during pregnancy. 

Here is a quote from Dr. Sears' web page....

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/1/T011400.asp#T011405

SATISFY WITH SALT

Unless advised by your healthcare provider, you should not restrict your salt while pregnant. Salt causes your body to retain fluid, which you need more of during pregnancy. Your fluid requirements while pregnant will nearly double to support the 40 percent increase in your blood volume and the constant replenishing of the amniotic fluid surrounding baby. Be sure to use iodized salt (not sea salt), as your body needs the extra iodine to prevent thyroid deficiency while pregnant. Salt your food to taste.

And from another nutrition site:

http://www.wddty.com/03363800369137090515/pre-eclampsia-a-di sease-of-malnutrition.html
 

And what of restrictions on salt? Pregnant women need salt as much as any of us perhaps more. The greater volume of blood in a pregnant woman's body means that she will be sweating more and secreting greater quantities of salt through her sweat.

 

Salt helps to regulate the fluid balance in the body and is essential for the proper functioning of nerves and muscles. Historically, restriction of salt has not been shown to reduce the incidence of pre-eclampsia (Eur J Ob Gyn Reprod Biol, 1991; 40: 83-90).

 

This fact was underscored in 1958 when a study at St Thomas's Hospital in London revealed the dangerous consequences of restricting salt. In the study, 1000 women were told to decrease their salt intake, while another group of 1,019 were instructed to increase the salt in their diet. The women on low salt diets had much higher rates of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, as well as higher rates of miscarriage, perinatal deaths, caesareans and other complications (Lancet, 1958; i: 178). With hindsight, this was a highly unethical trial, which resulted in unnecessary damage, trauma and deaths for many pregnant women and their babies.

So enjoy !  Just balance it with lots of fluid --- 80+ oz a day!

Cindy

 

I don't know what to tell you.  I had intense salt cravings for a while.  I did succumb to them.  LOL  I craved the salt that you put on soft pretzels.  I would just eat the salt and leave the pretzel sometimes.  LOL 

It gets WORSE with pregnancy?  Well I better take out stock in a salt company.  I'm bad enough around PMS time, let alone that!

I'm bad - I give in to my salt cravings when I have them. I usually have a pickle because I've been obsessed with them my entire life - why stop now. But sometimes a handful of chips is the only thing that will do it justice.

Salt & Vinegar pig skins for me....lol  Low Carb, but loaded in Fat & Salt. If you must add salt to your other prepared foods, try Mortons light salt, 50% less than regular salt and i can not see the difference at all in the taste.