Taste changes during pregnancy.

The ability of pregnant women to discriminate among different concentrations of salt and sucrose solutions, and their preference for the solutions, were assessed to determine if changes in the sense of taste occur during pregnancy. Results of tests with salt solutions showed that pregnant women were significantly less able to correctly identify concentration differences (p less than 0.005), and preferred significantly stronger solutions (p = 0.004) than did nonpregnant women. The data suggest that a physiological mechanism for increasing salt intake may develop during pregnancy.