We’ve all had wacky pregnancy cravings. From spicy Thai to lamb to donuts, pregnant women have covered every crevice of the supermarket aisle. But the food type that women crave the most isn’t covered by all craving categories.
The type of food women crave the most when they’re pregnant is the same type of food that pregnant fruit flies crave (this is relevant because science says so).
The most craved type of food for pregnant women is salty food.
Think popcorn, pretzels and chips.
But you're probably wondering why pregnant women crave something covered in the dry, savoury flavour of salt. Luckily, researchers have been able to figure out the trigger.
To best understand the brain and nutrients you need to look at an organism that has a variety of technology, Dr Carlos Ribeiro from Portugal tells The Mirror UK. "In that respect, the fruit fly is unbeatable," he told the British publication.
Through the research Ribeiro found that fruit flies not only crave the same amount of salt as humans but also that higher salt levels meant a higher production of offspring.
"It seems that salt is important everywhere, from flies, to elephants, to humans. It also suggests the existence of unifying biological principles underlying this behaviour that could be traced across species," Ribeiro told The Mirror UK.
Apparently a female brain is really clever (but we already knew that). It knows the body needs to produce more salt in order to produce more eggs. So it changes what it thinks about salt and decides it wants more.
Back to the flies. The Mirror says that the flies showed that the men 'inject' a Sex Peptide in to the female and this actually manipulates her perception of salt. Sneaky Sex Peptide.
So the moral of the story: Salt can allow for more egg making and men inject a sex thing in to women which can change their perception of salt. And so when we're pregnant we just want all the salt so we can have all the babies (and sex).
This changes everything.
What's the weirdest pregnancy craving you've had?
We asked the women in our office what they craved, and not all seem to be as smart as the flies when it comes to salt. TAP ON THE IMAGE to see what they craved...
