London: Morning sickness may leave a pregnant woman feeling terrible, but a new study has found that it could also be the body’s way of telling her that she’s eating the wrong things.
The study carried out at the University of Liverpool, in which researchers analysed 56 studies on morning sickness from 21 countries and looked at typical diets to see if food could play a part in the problem.
It suggested that morning sickness might have come about as a way of ensuring that the foetus is not exposed to potentially damaging foods.
It found that women who consume lots of sugars, sweeteners, fried food, meat, milk, eggs and stimulants such as caffeine and alcohol, are more likely to suffer from it.
The severity of morning sickness fell in those who ate a diet that contained a higher proportion of cereals and pulses.
The lead researcher on the study, Dr Craig Roberts said that morning sickness could be helpful in keeping harmful food away from the foetus.
"While there may be no particular harm in eating, say, meat, now that we have refrigeration and best before dates, our bodies may be pre-programmed by evolution to avoid these particular foodstuffs in the first trimester,” the Daily Mail quoted him, as saying.
It may be that the nausea women feel towards certain foodstuffs could be helpful, and that although it is inconvenient and miserable, their nausea could be nature's way of avoiding problems in pregnancy for both mother and foetus," he added.
The findings are published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
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