Healthful snacking tips   Local registered dietitian Catherine M. Robinson says there's no reason why women shouldn't give in to a craving now and then - as long as it's not for something that would harm the baby.   The key is moderation.   "If you're craving something desperately, you should just have a little of what it is," said Robinson, who's also a certified diabetes educator.   She offers a few snack suggestions as healthy ways to curb cravings:   ● Try fruits. Bananas, dates and dried fruits along with graham crackers may quell the urge for candy.   ● Have milk and yogurt, instead of ice cream.   ● Eating whole-grain crackers or oatmeal can cut cravings.   Other crazy cravings   "I grew up liking pickled pigs feet but never had them that often. When I was pregnant with my first son, I was craving them (possibly because of the 'pickle' syndrome) to the point that I ate an entire jar of them myself. That made me so sick, I never touched them again.   My second pregnancy, with a daughter, went without incident. Then, after more than 10 years, 'out of the blue' I had a craving for them again. Within two weeks I discovered I was pregnant again, this time with another son."   ● Sherry A. Rollins   Senior business manager for the University of Arizona's Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics     "Canned peaches. . . . Three out of three pregnancies. The boys are now 12, 14 and 16, and only one really likes canned peaches."   ● Lisa Erly   Substitute school nurse     "With my first child I craved apples. I must have eaten three bushels. I also craved a mix of white rice, soy sauce and canned, sliced mushrooms. I had them just about every day for nine months.   With my second child, it was peaches and Chinese food. Just about every day, too! After eating all of that, the only thing I can't stomach any more are mushrooms."   ● Diane Newman   Mall coordinator at the University of Arizona     "When I was pregnant with my twins (they are now 4), I had a terrible time with morning sickness and food aversions. For an entire month, the only thing I could eat was lemon meringue pie, which was odd because prior to getting pregnant I hated it! My doctor told me all he cared about was calories, since I was getting my vitamins from supplements. Oh, and by the way, the pie had to be from Marie Callender's."   ● Barbara MacDonald   Public relations director for the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau     "When I was pregnant in the early '60s in Colorado, I craved tacos - morning, noon and night - and ate them for meals as well as snacks, always topped by very hot, spicy salsa! . . . Both my children love hot, spicy food; and as a matter of fact, my daughter won the suicide chicken wing eating contest while a student at Northern Arizona University in the late '80s. Must be a prenatal connection involved here!"   ● Janet Koury, of Green Valley   Retired schoolteacher who admits she still indulges in the occasional taco for breakfast

And you thought eating pickles and ice cream sounded weird. How about a fat, sour pickle speared onto a peppermint stick? Or, warm, gooey cinnamon rolls and chewy beef jerky together - roll in one hand, jerky in the other. Strange but delicious, according to Pattie Espensen of Arivaca, the mother of four grown sons who swears the picklesicle was super yummy at the time, and Jill Williamson, a mother of three who scarfed cinnamon buns with spicy beef jerky. Odd cravings are legendary for pregnant women. Why is anybody's guess. No studies have looked into the phenomenon, say local nutritionists. Some believe a craving isn't about the food so much as the effect it has on your body (for example, pickles for the sodium). It may be the body's way of righting an imbalance, such as a high-protein diet spurring cravings for sugar. For Espensen, the picklesicle quenched her curiosity and the boredom of being confined to her home for a difficult first pregnancy 46 years ago. "It was just simply delicious. It just met all my needs and desires - sweet, sour," said Espensen, 68, whose sixth-grade teacher had once talked about indulging in the sticky treat as a child. "You suck on the peppermint stick, and it's like osmosis - you get the taste of the pickle, too. The sourness of the pickle is absolutely changed by the peppermint. You'd eat the whole thing and be dripping and sticking and messy." And satisfied. Williamson, whose three offspring range from 25 to 12, couldn't get enough of the sweet-salty combination of cinnamon rolls and beef jerky that she craved with her third child. "If I had one, I had the other," said the stay-at-home mom. "I probably had that at least a couple of times a week. Today, I can't eat one without thinking of the other - but I don't eat them together." Douglas Taren, who teaches a maternal and child nutrition class at the University of Arizona, said hormonal changes can drive wacky wants and that the stress and worry of pregnancy can lead to "emotional eating." Taren, an associate professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health, said cravings aren't really anything to worry about, unless women have pica, a condition in which non-food items like dirt, rubber or even burnt matchsticks are craved. Those, obviously, are not desires to be indulged. When we asked readers to share their prenatal food passions, we got plenty of diet doozies, including one from a woman who said she wasn't pregnant but just wanted to share that crunchy peanut butter on whole wheat with spinach leaves, tomato and cilantro is good stuff. Sounds pregnant to us. As a warning, if you're not pregnant, some of these might make you experience some morning sickness of your own. • • • "I had my baby Dec. 11, 2002, but I will never forget the craving - blue cheese and soy sauce. Pretty outrageous, but I loved every minute of it! I enjoyed them together with anything." ● Korey Free, payroll administrator

 

"During my first pregnancy I had a very bizarre craving, but I didn't realize it until it was offered to me. My husband and I were in Europe during my first trimester. I was very ill with nausea and unable to eat most of what was available. . . . While we stayed with relatives in Hamburg, I rested most of the time. It was during one of my naps (with very little sleeping involved) that I discovered what my body really craved. I heard my husband's cousin return from the market with dinner and say aloud that we were eating steak tartare. Well, I don't know where my strength came from, but I quickly sat down at the table and impatiently waited for dinner to be served! For those who don't know what steak tartare is, it is chopped raw beef! I ate very well for the first time in several weeks!" ● Janine Cox, Jazzercize instructor and mother of three "I had never, ever cared for onions in any form. Suddenly, I craved them continually. Onion rings, slightly overcooked onion rings. Must have eaten my weight in them. I would stop every single morning on my way to work beginning approximately 8 1/2 months prior to Oct. 16, 1976, at the Jack in the Box on North Campbell just south of Fort Lowell. It was back in the days that one sort of hollered the order into a smiling clown's mouth. After months of an early-morning request for 'two orders of onion rings and a large Coke, and could you please cook the onion rings a tiny bit more,' the clown finally spoke back: 'Hey, is this the pregnant lady?' . . . The odd part of this craving was that after he was born, it was discovered that my son and I had a blood incompatibility problem that had been inadvertently overlooked during my pregnancy - and onions are chocked full of vitamin K, the 'blood building' vitamin. ● Tracy Elzy, legal assistant "Although it's been 32 years . . . when I was pregnant with my daughter Kimberley, I craved s'mores. Yes, that famous Girl Scout treat that is making a huge comeback these days in all forms, shapes and sizes. But in 1972 there was only one s'more - the old-fashioned kind. Now, we lived in an urban apartment building in California, but I had to have my s'more fix every night before I went to bed. I tried 'roasting' my marshmallows on an opened coat hanger over the electric stove burner, but usually caught them on fire as they stuck to the burner. Not to let something like that stop my fevered quest, I finally perfected the 'art of the roasted urban marshmallow' by putting four marshmallows in an old metal pie tin and shoving them under the broiler until golden brown and gooey. Plopped on top of graham cracker squares and Hershey bar pieces, I was set for another blissful night." ● Darleen Raulerson, volunteer "When I was pregnant with (my son) and his sisters, I had cravings for watermelon all the time; actually, it was obsession. Their father always found it for me somehow." ● Cindy Villarreal, mother of three and certified medical transciptionist "In 1963, my mother (Therese Morin) was pregnant with my youngest brother, the fifth of her seven children. We were all very worried about her and her unborn child. She was 37 years old, and her last child, me, had been born 11 years earlier. She was healthy enough, but her strange craving had us wondering and worrying about what hers and the child's state of health would be when she finally gave birth. At least with pickles and ice cream you get some nutrition. Most, um, normal mothers-to-be crave some kind of food. Not my mom. She craved beer. She couldn't get enough of it. We all worried that she would harm herself and the child would be born with the craving. She is still in good condition at 77, and all I can say is that my brother must have had enough all those long nine months. He will be 40 this year and still does not like the taste of beer." ● Laura Lynn Mew, operations scheduler for the American Red Cross "Forty-one years ago this very summer, I was expecting my second child. She was born Aug. 5, 1963, in Southern Indiana, which was enjoying a horribly humid and awful summer. For some reason at about four months into the pregnancy, I began to have an afternoon snack at 3 which consisted of buttered toast, hot cocoa and lima beans. I enjoyed that combo right up to the day she was born." ● Nancy Kellett, mother of three girls and who still enjoys buttered toast, hot cocoa and lima beans - just not at the same time. "I am a Tucson native who was living outside of Chicago while pregnant with David, now 15 months. My husband and I were driving across town when I suddenly had a taste for something. It seemed like I wanted pineapple, but that wasn't quite it. . . . Suddenly it occurred to me - I wanted a piña colada Eegees! My husband, who had been so accommodating up to that point, had to say, 'I'm sorry. You can't have that!' I had to settle for a pineapple shake instead!" ● Linda Feltheim, stay-at-home mom Healthful snacking tips Local registered dietitian Catherine M. Robinson says there's no reason why women shouldn't give in to a craving now and then - as long as it's not for something that would harm the baby. The key is moderation. "If you're craving something desperately, you should just have a little of what it is," said Robinson, who's also a certified diabetes educator. She offers a few snack suggestions as healthy ways to curb cravings: ● Try fruits. Bananas, dates and dried fruits along with graham crackers may quell the urge for candy. ● Have milk and yogurt, instead of ice cream. ● Eating whole-grain crackers or oatmeal can cut cravings. Other crazy cravings "I grew up liking pickled pigs feet but never had them that often. When I was pregnant with my first son, I was craving them (possibly because of the 'pickle' syndrome) to the point that I ate an entire jar of them myself. That made me so sick, I never touched them again. My second pregnancy, with a daughter, went without incident. Then, after more than 10 years, 'out of the blue' I had a craving for them again. Within two weeks I discovered I was pregnant again, this time with another son." ● Sherry A. Rollins

 

Senior business manager for the University of Arizona's Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics "Canned peaches. . . . Three out of three pregnancies. The boys are now 12, 14 and 16, and only one really likes canned peaches." ● Lisa Erly

 

Substitute school nurse "With my first child I craved apples. I must have eaten three bushels. I also craved a mix of white rice, soy sauce and canned, sliced mushrooms. I had them just about every day for nine months. With my second child, it was peaches and Chinese food. Just about every day, too! After eating all of that, the only thing I can't stomach any more are mushrooms." ● Diane Newman

 

Mall coordinator at the University of Arizona "When I was pregnant with my twins (they are now 4), I had a terrible time with morning sickness and food aversions. For an entire month, the only thing I could eat was lemon meringue pie, which was odd because prior to getting pregnant I hated it! My doctor told me all he cared about was calories, since I was getting my vitamins from supplements. Oh, and by the way, the pie had to be from Marie Callender's." ● Barbara MacDonald

 

Public relations director for the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau "When I was pregnant in the early '60s in Colorado, I craved tacos - morning, noon and night - and ate them for meals as well as snacks, always topped by very hot, spicy salsa! . . . Both my children love hot, spicy food; and as a matter of fact, my daughter won the suicide chicken wing eating contest while a student at Northern Arizona University in the late '80s. Must be a prenatal connection involved here!" ● Janet Koury, of Green Valley

 

Retired schoolteacher who admits she still indulges in the occasional taco for breakfast