h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We've all heard the sterotype of pregnant women craving pickles and ice cream, so I was just wondering what other strange things people have craved/detested while in the bump club. I've heard its not just food, but smells can also have an effect.

When I was preggers I craved Cornettos with a mad passion . I couldnt go past a newsagent without buying one. Luckily it was summer so they were in good supply.

I absolutley detested houmous, I couldnt even look at it. Previously I quite liked roast chicken flavour crisps, but while I was pregnant they made me turn green. To this day, I still can't eat a packet because of the memories they bring back!

So, any other weird cravings out there?

I'm sure there are some good bionutritional reasons for this phenomenon.

I remember Madame North was particularly keen on Marmite™, tinned mackerel and prunes on crispbread. All together, that is.

My wife couldn't get enough black pudding. But then, she was a bit anaemic and needed the extra iron anyway.

*I now hate black pudding*

I cant function without my cups of tea but couldnt stand the stuff whilst pregnant, nor chocolate. Ate a lot of strawberrys and apples but no real cravings. Very sensative to smells, I could smell a bin at a hundred paces.

I didn't crave anything truly weird, just pizza.

On the other hand, a friend of mine just loved the smell of wood, and would take every opportunity to wander around home supply stores, just to smell the wood.

Plus, even though she is normally absolutely germ phobic, she craved dirt. Yes, eating it. I think that's called "pica". Interesting eating disorder, so glad I've never had it!

I've heard of pica as well, its a symptom of iron deficiency anaemia, which often occurs in pregnancy. Makes you want to eat dirt and coal! Mmmmm!

I told my biology prof about my cravings for ice cream, and he reckoned that was by body's way of telling me I had an increased need for calcium.

Soil cravings?

Would that be the same a humus craving?

B

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When you consider that there have been cases of women craving rubber and bleach I doubt it!

<... there have been cases of women craving rubber and bleach... >

Rubber gloves + bleach = cleaning bathrooms?

With my son, I adored eggs florentine. (I was a vegetarian at the time, so probably my body demanding iron!)

With my daughter it was liquorice allsorts. They do say sweet cravings point to it being female...

Couldn't STAAAAAND the smell of coffee , nor cigarettes and alcohol, and smell of fried food or fat made me heave.

Lucky star - probably a good thing that you didnt crave cigarettes or alcohol! I remember that even the smell of cigarette smoke made me want to get about five miles away from the source.

I think the aversions to tea and coffee are a good thing as well, as caffeine can have a bad effect on the absorption of iron. However, I also dont see how eating rubber is beneficial! Mmm chewy!

A friend at work is currently pregnant and is craving and consuming Chocolate in vast quantities. She's also sitting down and munching through three or four apples in a sitting.

She's gone off tea, and as with other posters above has become particularly sensitive to smells. She had a miserable week a month ago when they were spreading turky manure over on the farm.

I bet the manure smelled bad enough without being oversensitive to smells...

One of my mum's friends, when pregnant with her son, craved rubber and apparently chewed rubber bands to alleviate the craving .

My maternal grandmother had cravings for coal while she was pregnant with my mum, and apparently would regularly nibble of lumps of coal.

One of my friends, in her 3 pregnancies, had different cravings each time. During her first one, she craved vegetable soup and Little Gems (together), during the 2nd one it was chocolate, and during the 3rd one it was tea, even though normally she hates tea. She also said the smell of coffee, which normally she loves, made her want to puke.

My mum apparently didn't have any cravings or anything while she was pregnant with me.

My Mum craved Fry's chocolate creams with me - that's why I'm so sweet!

With my first, I craved chalk.. I ate boxes of the stuff! I also dunked cheesespread butties into lemonade

For the second I had a craving for chocolate and Worthy E.. don't ask me why.. I'd never drunk before!

With both of them I lived in a pub and couldn't stand the smell of cigarettes, stale beer and the smell of whisky used to have me bolting for the loos

With my son I craved vienna beef hot dogs with jalapeno peppers, lemons (which I would peel and eat) and tomato juice. I could have lettuce, tomatos and cheese individually but couldn't stand to have them all together in a salad.

For the queen (aka my daughter) I craved these pre-packaged brownies they make over here. They are godawful. They are very flat, very pasty tasting and have this very fake chocolate frosting on them. Also was DYING to have a gin martini. Thought about it morning noon and night.

Marmite , which I normally hate , lemons ,couldnt get enough of them! and prawn crisps were my cravings, not all together thankfully!
I couldnt stand the taste or smell of any fat including margerine and still makes me vomit 9 years later!

In the first couple of weeks, before being officially 'told' I was pregnant, I couldn't stand to be anywhere near cigarrettes, so stopped smoking. I was up all hours of the night devouring toast. I also demolished my mum's jars of pickled dill.

Then as the pregnancy progressed, I couldn't stomach coffee or tea, but dranks gallons of chamomile tea. The very thought, let alone the smell of pesto sauce made me heave, but I ate apples and mangoes by the trolleyload.

The day after my son was born, 9 months of nicotine withdrawal hit me at once, I pounced on my friends box of cigs when he came to visit, and I was out to the carpark in my jimjams and slippers and smoking like a chimmney.

when I was expecting daughter I ate a tin of cocoa powder(the stuff you mix with milk for hot choc)with a spoon.....and I ate vegetable soup ..two things I normally can't stand. for some strange reason the smell of butter made me feel sick. strange lot aren't we?

I remember also drinking box after box of cranberry juice to try and help get rid of a bladder infection, and so cranberry juice seemed to stick with me for the rest of the pregnancy. I think I used to sit there with a straw in the box slurping away!