What Your Postpartum Cravings Are Telling You:Ayurvedic Wisdom to Rebalance After Birth

Written By courtney ursetti

Postpartum Cravings

By Courtney Lafourcade, Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula & Holistic Chef

In the weeks after birth, cravings can feel intense and confusing. You might find yourself reaching for sweets, salty snacks, or even cold smoothies — foods that may not have been part of your regular rhythm before.

In Ayurvedic postpartum care, cravings aren’t viewed as something to suppress. They are seen as intelligent signals from a body that has just completed the sacred and physically demanding act of giving birth.

This post will guide you through how to interpret common postpartum cravings, what they may be telling you about your body’s state, and how to respond with intentional nourishment using Ayurvedic wisdom.

Craving Sweets?

Sweet cravings are common after birth, especially when your nervous system is overstimulated or you're feeling emotionally sensitive. In Ayurveda, this is often a sign of elevated Vata dosha, which governs movement, air, and space — all of which surge during birth.

Try instead:

  • Warm almond or oat milk with ghee + cardamom
  • Stewed dates with cinnamon
  • Sweet rice pudding with saffron and coconut milk

These soft, sweet, warm foods provide immediate grounding, emotional comfort, and a gentle way to support digestion and energy.

Craving Salt or Crunch?

Salty or crunchy cravings often indicate mineral depletion or fatigue. If you’ve been nursing, skipping meals, or pushing through without rest, your body may be seeking grounding and density.

Try instead:

  • Roasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds with sea salt
  • Lightly sautéed greens with ghee and sesame
  • Tahini broth with a pinch of mineral salt

These foods rebuild strength while delivering the savory, satisfying textures your body is calling for — without overstimulating your digestion.

Craving Cold Foods or Smoothies?

While cold foods may seem refreshing, especially if you’re hot from hormones or nursing, they can compromise digestion during postpartum. Ayurveda encourages warm, moist, and gently spiced meals to restore agni — your digestive fire.

Try instead:

  • Stewed apples with cinnamon and ghee
  • Room-temperature fennel or rose tea
  • Cooked fruit compote or lightly spiced veggie soups

Replacing cold, raw foods with these options keeps your system warm, supported, and better able to heal from within.

Craving Bread, Pasta, or Carbs?

When you crave bread or carbs postpartum, your body is likely asking for grounding and slow-burning energy. This is your system trying to restore ojas — your vital life force — which becomes depleted through birth and breastfeeding.

Try instead:

  • Kitchari with warming spices and ghee
  • Root vegetable soup with barley or white rice
  • Oats with flaxseed, almond butter, and stewed fruit

These foods offer long-lasting energy and are easy to digest, making them ideal for postpartum healing.

Your Cravings Are Clues

Each craving carries a deeper message. Rather than pushing them aside, we can learn to listen — and respond with love, nourishment, and care. Your body is wise. Your postpartum journey is sacred.

If you're unsure how to begin supporting your body through food, here are two resources to guide you:

  • 📘 Download the Ayurvedic Postpartum Meal Plan – a simple, guided map to the first 40 days of healing meals.
  • 🥣 Explore the Ayurvedic Postpartum Method Course – The Mothersource Ayurvedic Postpartum Method is a step‑by‑step immersion that shows new and expecting mothers how to build a restorative 42‑day plan, automate daily nourishment, and cultivate lasting vitality—so you spend less time Googling and more time bonding, resting, and rising into motherhood with ease. all the nourishing recipes I prepare for my clients around the world.

Stay Connected with Mothersource

If you’re ready for deeper support, or you’d like to keep receiving postpartum insight and inspiration, here’s how we can stay connected:

Thank you for being here. You deserve postpartum care that honors your healing, your lineage, and your wholeness.

Final Thoughts

We’ve been taught to treat postpartum like a short recovery window — something to bounce back from quickly. But in truth, this is a profound rite of passage. A return to your body. A reset for your nervous system. A time to be rebuilt with warmth, softness, and care.

When you begin to see your cravings, your exhaustion, and your hunger for connection as sacred signals — not symptoms to suppress — the way you walk through postpartum begins to shift.

This isn’t just about food. It’s about how you allow yourself to be nourished.

Ayurveda gives us the blueprint, but it’s your intuition that leads the way. My hope is that you feel empowered to step into postpartum with reverence — not just for your baby, but for yourself.

courtney ursetti
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