Verified by Why You Can't Eat Just one
Reports on the link between a person's preference for salty foods and the severity of his/her mother's morning sickness. Findings of research at the University of Washington; Higher intake of dietary sodium for subjects' whose mothers suffered moderate to severe vomiting during pregnancy; Alteration of mother's fluid balance.
By PT Staff published May 1, 1996 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016
From the Blame-It-On-Mom Department: Researchers have discovered a linkbetween your preference for salty foods and—we're not making this up—the severity of your mother's morning sickness.
In a study at the University of Washington, students whose mothers suffered moderate or severe vomiting during pregnancy reported a higher intake of dietary sodium and a greater penchant for salty snacks than did students whose mothers enjoyed little or no morning sickness.
That preference for all things briny was laid bare in the lab, where students were free to munch on 1 foods of varying saltiness. Among Caucasians, offspring of morning sick mom ate twice as much salty snack mix as controls, report Ilene Bernstein, Ph.D., and Susan Crystal, Ph.D.-to-be, in Appetite (Vol. 25, No. 3). Curiously, maternal morning-sickness had little effect on salt preference among Asians, probably because cultural differences in diet also influence our taste for salt.
The findings aren't as bizarre as they might seem, insists Crystal. When researchers in an earlier study induced dehydration in pregnant rats—thus throwing off the critters' electrolyte concentration—rodential offspring showed a marked preference for salty food. So if vomiting alters mom's fluid balance, it might also trigger her kids to seek extra sodium
Even so, it's our past experience with high-sodium foods that most influences our taste. Cut your salt for a couple of months—sort of a "washout period"—and your brain may eventually adjust. Then it may not matter much how ill your mother felt.
