Placek Caitlyn D, Madhivanan Purnima, Hagen Edward H
The Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, AHC5 505, Miami, FL 33199.
Public Health Research Institute of India, 89/B, Ambika, 2nd Main, 2nd Cross, Yadavagiri, Mysore, India 570020.
Evol Hum Behav. 2017 Nov;38(6):714-728. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.08.001. Epub 2017 Aug 24.
Pregnancy increases women's nutritional requirements, yet causes aversions to nutritious foods. Most societies further restrict pregnant women's diet with food taboos. Pregnancy food aversions are theorized to protect mothers and fetuses from teratogens and pathogens or increase dietary diversity in response to resource scarcity. Tests of these hypotheses have had mixed results, perhaps because many studies are in Westernized populations with reliable access to food and low exposure to pathogens. If pregnancy food aversions are adaptations, however, then they likely evolved in environments with uncertain access to food and high exposure to pathogens. Pregnancy food taboos, on the other hand, have been theorized to limit resource consumption, mark social identity, or also protect mothers and fetuses from dangerous foods. There have been few tests of evolutionary theories of culturally transmitted food taboos. We investigated these and other theories of psychophysiological food aversions and culturally transmitted food taboos among two non-Western populations of pregnant women in Mysore, India, that vary in food insecurity and exposure to infectious disease. The first was a mixed caste rural farming population ( = 72), and the second was the , a resettled population of former hunter-gatherers ( = 30). Women rated their aversions to photos of 31 foods and completed structured interviews that assessed aversions and socially learned avoidances of foods, pathogen exposure, food insecurity, sources of culturally acquired dietary advice, and basic sociodemographic information. Aversions to spicy foods were associated with early trimester and nausea and vomiting, supporting a protective role against plant teratogens. Variation in exposure to pathogens did not explain variation in meat aversions or avoidances, however, raising some doubts about the importance of pathogen avoidance. Aversions to staple foods were common, but were not associated with resource stress, providing mixed support for the role of dietary diversification. Avoided foods outnumbered aversive foods, were believed to be abortifacients or otherwise harmful to the fetus, influenced diet throughout pregnancy, and were largely distinct from aversive foods. These results suggest that aversions target foods with cues of toxicity early in pregnancy, and taboos target suspected abortifacients throughout pregnancy.
怀孕会增加女性的营养需求，但同时会导致她们厌恶营养丰富的食物。大多数社会还通过食物禁忌进一步限制孕妇的饮食。关于怀孕期食物厌恶的一种理论认为，这是为了保护母亲和胎儿免受致畸物和病原体的影响，或者是为了应对资源稀缺增加饮食多样性。对这些假设的测试结果不一，可能是因为许多研究针对的是食物供应可靠且接触病原体较少的西方人群。然而，如果怀孕期食物厌恶是一种适应性反应，那么它们可能是在食物获取不确定且接触病原体较多的环境中进化而来的。另一方面，关于怀孕期食物禁忌的一种理论认为，这是为了限制资源消耗、彰显社会身份，或者也是为了保护母亲和胎儿免受有害食物的影响。针对文化传播食物禁忌的进化理论，此前鲜有测试。我们在印度迈索尔的两个非西方孕妇群体中，调查了这些以及其他关于心理生理食物厌恶和文化传播食物禁忌的理论，这两个群体在粮食不安全程度和接触传染病的情况方面存在差异。第一个群体是一个混合种姓（译者注：原文此处有缺失，未明确具体表述）的农村务农人群（n = 72），第二个群体是一个由前狩猎采集者重新安置形成（译者注：原文此处有缺失，未明确具体表述）的人群（n = 30）。女性对31种食物的照片进行厌恶程度评分，并完成结构化访谈，访谈内容包括对食物的厌恶和通过社会学习形成的食物回避、病原体接触情况、粮食不安全状况、文化习得饮食建议的来源以及基本的社会人口学信息。对辛辣食物的厌恶与孕早期以及恶心呕吐有关，这支持了辛辣食物对植物致畸物具有保护作用的观点。然而，病原体接触情况的差异并不能解释对肉类的厌恶或回避的差异，这对避免病原体的重要性提出了一些质疑。对主食的厌恶很常见，但与资源压力无关，这对饮食多样化的作用提供了不明确的支持。被回避的食物数量超过了令人厌恶的食物，人们认为这些食物有致流产作用或以其他方式对胎儿有害，它们在整个孕期都会影响饮食，并且在很大程度上与令人厌恶的食物不同。这些结果表明，厌恶在孕期早期针对带有毒性线索的食物，而禁忌在整个孕期针对疑似有致流产作用的食物。
