Table 2.

Representative quotes regarding women’s experience with food cravings from a qualitative focus group sample of 68 women from North Carolina.

A priori Themes	Selective Quotes
Descriptions of Cravings	“It’s all you can think about.” “You just have to have it right then.”
	“Like, in the first pregnancy, I’m, like, oh man, I can eat twice as much. But, I know that’s not true anymore. But, I still, like, it’s, like, my brain says one thing and my heart says one thing - and my heart always wins. And, I, I don’t like that but it’s just, that’s what I want is what I want and I get cranky if I don’t have what I want when I’m pregnant.”
	“…When you’re really hungry and you really want to eat only you’re not necessarily really hungry you just really want to eat that very specific thing.”
	“Mine tend to pass. If I wait long enough. If..I can’t go get it, for whatever reason, and I wait a few hours, then eventually. I don’t care for it anymore.”
	“I’ll crave it for days. Until I get it.”
	“I didn’t eat nothing till he took me to go get my hamburger at Sonic, that’s what I wanted, I didn’t want nothing else, cause he’d be like, you don’t want to go to Chilies.no, I want that hamburger.”
	“Nothing is going to taste as good.”
Types of Foods Craved	“And my husband will be drinking there, drinking beer. And I smell it, and I immediately, I’m like - oh my God.”
	“I have been craving sushi…just the cooked kind, I mean… I haven’t been eating the raw fish kind but… I get a California roll as often as I can.”
Strategies for Managing Cravings - Environmental	“Don’t buy it so it’s not in your house. Don’t pack it for lunch if you’re atwork, just don’t have it around.”
	“I think that having your partner help you out and make good choices makes it easier, especially if like after dinner, they decide to have a piece of fruit rather than like ice cream or something, and you’re more likely to do the same.”
	“And it helps if there’s not anything sweet in the house. Obviously, it’s easier to just be like, well, go to bed.”
	“Our food is downstairs and the room we hang out in at night is upstairs and that is a pretty decent deterrent in itself. Not being close.”
Strategies for Managing Cravings - Behavioral	“Say, like go for a walk, exercise, like exercise releases endorphins, and makes you feel good.”
	“And so I usually just drink water, and rollover and go to sleep.”
	“I try not to let myself get really hungry. Like, plan a snack or a small meal every few hours so that - ‘cause I know that if I do get hungry, then I’m gonna go for something that’s not very good for me.”
	“I mean I guess if I’m craving sweets, I have a piece of fruit or something instead, see if that helps.”
	“Or just do it in moderation, like if you crave chocolate, don’t eat a chocolate cake… Try a piece of chocolate first and see how it goes.”
	“Sometimes all I’ll really taste is like a little lick and I’m OK. As long as I got it now.”
Strategies for Managing Cravings -Psychological	“I don’t feel like I get them as much if I’m really busy.”
	“I find just any interaction with my other child, forces you to forget about it, cause otherwise he’s just going run like into a ditch or something.”
	“Yeah, I think thinking about the baby helps, like when it’s something that’s really unhealthy or has like a whole lot of colorants or like caffeine or something else. You know, just thinking about the fact that, you know, not that’s it’s gonna do harm but just that, you know it’s not good for the baby.”
	“My giving into cravings or not is motivated by the health of my baby and what I look like”
Strategies for Managing Cravings - Consumption	“Well, here’s the thing…I have a lot of pregnant friends right now and a lot of them are having the same issues I am, and…because this is my fourth pregnancy and I - each time, I’ve tried harder and harder but it doesn’t work. I just said, you know what, I’d rather give into my cravings than to beat myself up over it and hate myself for it.”
	“That’s true if you deprive yourself of it, you’re just going to even want more later, so then instead of having the piece of chocolate cake, you’ll have the half of the chocolate cake.”
Emergent Themes Beliefs about the Causes of Cravings	“I want milk, I mean my husband’s like, seriously woman, we’ve got to like every day we’re buying another gallon of milk, I said apparently I need it, but I’ve always liked, but I never drank it as much as I drink it now.…I guess she’s really developing some bones.” [referring to her baby]
	“Cause like I’ve been eating ice cream like every day, but like I don’t really eat that much calcium, like I don’t drink milk or anything like that, so it’s like, okay, and that’s why I don’t really get too concerned about it, you know, cause I just feel like, okay this, if I’m craving this, there’s got to be a reason.”
	“Like I think I was drawn to the Raisin Bran, maybe for the iron or maybe something in it that my body knew was in that. And so I try to kind of pay attention to what am I craving and try, think about what is in that product that might be beneficial… ”
Justifications for Satisfying Cravings	“I was like I just did prenatal yoga, I’m getting my sundae, it’s OK…Justified it.”
	“Yesterday I had a burger, which I hadn’t had since before I got pregnant and for me, my excuse was I ate healthy during the week and I deserve eating something that’s not healthy.”
	“… I want to stay in shape, whatever. But, it’s like, oh, I’m pregnant, like, I can do this. I’m eating for two, so I kind of, like, rationalize it a little bit when I have that impulse to eat something.”
	“For me, being pregnant…society tells you, like, oh, you’re eating for two. Oh, you’re pregnant. And so when I have that urge…when I’m not pregnant, I can kind of fight that a little bit more.”
	“…is this [eating] pregnant-related or am I just allowing myself the indulgences that I didn’t, when I craved before?”
	“Well, I mean, I’ve gotten past the point where I know you’re not really eating for two.”
	“I think even, even a couple of us have made a joke about you’re eating for two, but I think in reality, that doesn’t translate into that, but it’s like, I’m going to justify this ice cream that I’m eating that I wouldn’t normally eat.”
Psychological Aspects of Cravings	“Stressed out. Definitely when I’m stressed. I’m, like, I’m making myself some egg whites cookie dough… And it’s really bad but I just can’t stop myself from doing it. And it immediately takes my stress away.”
	“Something that will put you just in an extremely bad mood or agitated if you don’t get it. Or extremely happy [when you do get it].”
	“Cravings are like intense. Like I have to have this now or I’m going to hurt someone… normally, I’d be like oh a cookie would be nice, but now it’s like, if I don’t get a hamburger, I’m gonna cry about it.”
	“I still feel guilty if I, you know, had too much. Maybe not as much as when I’m not pregnant but I still kind of feel like - oh, I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t have eaten that or what not.”
	“I have [used strategies to resist foods] on like diet plans but not when pregnant. I feel less guilty during pregnancy.”
	“I’d rather give into my cravings than to beat myself up over it and hate myself for it. You know what I mean?”
	“Stressing about it was making it worse, cause then I was obsessing over everything that I put in my mouth.”
	“I had a doctor tell me really early on, I had a lot of anxiety really early on, she was like if you want to eat something and it makes you feel better, the best thing that you can do is to not stress yourself out about it.”
	“It might be more nostalgic than anything, but I really wanted - I don’t eat a lot of processed foods but I really wanted Chef Boyardee ravioli.”
	“I think that’s part of it too for filling that craving, is that emotional need. Because I think that like I said with my ties with my Spanish root, I think it’s also the comfort factor, cause a lot of the times, my godmother were making that food and it reminds me of her.”