Any vegetarians REALLY craving meat during pregnancy?

[Tigerlily08]

Thus is driving me insane - I havent eaten meat for over 10 years. During my first pregnancy I craved KFC in the last trimester. I had a little girl last time.

This time round, I literally just want to devour meat and I'm only 15 weeks. I want KFC, Steak, Chorizo, hog roast with crackling and ribs. WTF is going on! Do you reckon it's a boy this time?

Have any of you caved? I won't judge, it's driving me insane 😂 if you did cave, did it make you sick? Did you go back to being veggie after?

I'm not veggie but I wonder if you are lacking in iron?

Vegetarians are often deficient in this and vitamin B12.

I would say listen to your body - will the odd bit of meat do any harm 😬?

If you don't want to resort to meat eating then I believe leafy green veg, beans (especially kidney beans), nuts and dried fruits are the next best thing!

Nope
Horrible idea!!

@Bluebluemoon39 I hadn't thought of deficiency - I had low B12 during my last pregnancy but much later on. Not gonna lie, the thought of beans and leafy greens vs meat right now is not gonna cut it 😫

@CloseYourEyesAndSee I know, I'm trying so hard

Haha! I did crave donner meat in mine but didn't cave. I find the Burger King plant based whopper very meaty if that would help?

I haven’t touched meat/gelatin etc for 15 years. Currently 30 weeks pregnant, and in total I’ve had 4 steaks and 3 BLTs. Haven’t craved meat at all for the last few weeks. I suspect it was a deficiency of some kind. I have no doubt that I will be completely veggie after the baby is born. Depends what your reasons for being veggie are.
If you’re craving meat, and you can eat it, I don’t see the issue personally.

To add, it didn’t make me sick and I had no issues with digestion etc either.

I was veggie from age 11 but with each of my three pregnancies I had a one off unbelievably strong craving for a bacon sandwich

I gave in and ate one per pregnancy which stopped the craving and made me feel utterly filthy afterwards 😂 no ill effects though.

Not had meat since.

I am veggie. Have not craved meat in any pregnancy but a good veggie friend of mine did and she caved and ate meat throughout.

I dreamed about eating meat but never craved it or ate it.

It means you are lacking something and your body is telling you that you need it. One relative hadn't eaten meat through her teens or adult life, then had serious meat cravings before she even knew she was pregnant (issues meant this was 6 months in). She isn't a vegetarian any more!
Another relative craved meat during cancer treatment oddly enough, but again her body knew she needed something.
The last time I ate meat was in junior school, but I didn't get cravings through pregnancy. I wonder if its because I had been vegetarian for 20 years, or whether I was good at nutrition, or just a fluke?

I didn’t (just plain hula hoops early one when I caught a virus and was poorly) but my friend craved KFC. She’s been veggie all her life. I don’t remember if she enjoyed it though (but she did have it more than once).

I haven't craved meat at all.
Not sure if it is a sign of a deficiency though, with all my blood tests my iron has always been super high so might be correlated there. If your blood tests are fine it may be the taste you're craving?

There are some very realistic substitute meats nowadays- beyond meat burgers, Richmond sausages are very good.
For kfc- quorn do these takeaway crunch fillet burgers which are lovely and kinda McCartney do a chicken bucket which is delicious so might be worth trying 😊

I have been vegetarian for 3 years as well and I'm hoping this doesn't happen to me! (6 weeks pregnant)

There are so many meat alternatives now, do you think any of those could help quell the craving? Some of them are really similar, especially the burgers, although there are obvs some things you can't really recreate (like crackling and ribs!). Also KFC, McDonalds, Burger King all have veg stuff now which could help :)

No I didn’t

*10 years

That should have said!

Maybe have your bloods checked in case you are deficient in vitamin b12 or iron.

Haha not at all. If anything the smell of it became unbearable whereas before I didn't really care when my DH was cooking chicken or something, during pregnancy the smell was repulsive. Been veggie since childhood though so have no idea what any of those things taste like. I just wanted to eat spicy food non stop after second trimester, whole chillies and non stop curry takeaway.

No, only Salt and Vinegar Hula Hoops.

I had a craving for steak after being vegetarian for about 15 years. I'd never eaten a steak before so no idea where it came from. I just went with it and ordered one in a restaurant with my DP excitedly dreaming of a life of us enjoying good steak together. I devoured it and was very content but was sick a couple of hours later. After an hour or so throwing it back up it joined bacon in the list of smells that made me ill.

@ANameChangeAgain

It means you are lacking something and your body is telling you that you need it. One relative hadn't eaten meat through her teens or adult life, then had serious meat cravings before she even knew she was pregnant (issues meant this was 6 months in). She isn't a vegetarian any more! Another relative craved meat during cancer treatment oddly enough, but again her body knew she needed something. The last time I ate meat was in junior school, but I didn't get cravings through pregnancy. I wonder if its because I had been vegetarian for 20 years, or whether I was good at nutrition, or just a fluke?

I’d been veggie for 21 years when I got pregnant. Actively craved veg but never meat. Just dreamed about eating it a few times.

I did go through the second trimester averaging 4 veggie Toby Carveries a week though!

There are so many meat alternatives now, do you think any of those could help quell the craving? Some of them are really similar, especially the burgers,

Much to the annoyance of any veggie who doesn’t eat meat because they don’t like the taste/texture of it!

In early pregnancy I was craving meat hardcore. And none of the usual meat substitutes (that I normally really like) tasted anything like the real thing. In fact I couldn't stomach most of them without wanting to throw up.
I caved at about 12-13 weeks and bought a whole chicken, cooked it and ate it all myself that night. I honestly don't even feel bad about it. But it was enough to curb the remaining cravings for the rest of the pregnancy.
My iron levels have been in the toilet too, so I've been eating loads of iron rich food to try to get them up naturally so that could also have something to do with it?

@WouldIBeATwat

There are so many meat alternatives now, do you think any of those could help quell the craving? Some of them are really similar, especially the burgers,

Much to the annoyance of any veggie who doesn’t eat meat because they don’t like the taste/texture of it!

Why's that annoying though? There are still loads of bean burgers, vegetable lasagnes etc that aren't err...meat copies?? I don't know how to describe them 😂 These are just additional products for people who do miss/like meat.

I didn't crave meat at all in any of my three pregnancies (one was even twins). I was deficient in iron though but just had supplements from the GP 🤷‍♀️

Yes, craved meat during both pregnancies! I don't think your necessarily deficient in anything, I think as pregnant women we get HANGRY and your blood sugars can plummet if you don't eat regularly so our bodies naturally want to go for the high calorie foods like meat and carbs