Pregnancy
Everyone Talks About Pregnancy ‘Cravings’ But Forgets To Mention How Much Food Will Gross You Out
Everyone’s heard anecdotes about pregnancy cravings. I don’t know if we have movies to thank for this or what, but the thought of a woman eating peanut butter out of a jar using a pickle as a spoon is probably something people think is relatively normal. You may actually not find yourself wanting to eat anything weird while you are pregnant. Instead, you may find yourself absolutely grossed out by just about all the foods you normally love.
I never had morning sickness, I just had the most unbearable nausea – and it lasted all day. I never threw up, but everything grossed me out. During my second pregnancy, I worked in a restaurant that served amazing Mediterranean food, on a cute little corner in brownstone Brooklyn. The smells of this restaurant were always comforting and inviting- I am Greek and Italian. But during my pregnancy, that cute little corner gem turned into my own personal torture chamber.
Garlic. Shallots. Harissa. Hummus.  All the things that were once delicious and irresistible – started to make my stomach turn. I went from loving the smell of garlic to not being able to fucking stand it. Just a whiff of it made my stomach turn. You acquire a super sense of smell in pregnancy that I was not expecting. I guess it had a purpose back in the days when we were foraging our own food in nature. But now? I never wanted to be that acutely aware of the nuances that are seemingly undetectable to anyone else. Breath, perfume, body odor – I was like a police dog – picking up on all things rank and gross.
