65 weird pregnancy food cravings (the list)
Cravings are normal, usually start in the first trimester, and most are harmless: eat the thing, inside the NHS's pregnancy food rules (meat cooked through
It's 9pm, you've had dinner, and you would walk to the garage in the rain for a jar of pickled onions. Or a bag of ice. Or, and nobody warns you about this one, the bar of soap in the bathroom has started to smell interesting.
Cravings are the bit of pregnancy everyone jokes about and nobody explains. So here's the list: the 65 we hear about most, from the ones nearly everybody gets to the properly strange ones, and the handful that aren't food at all and are worth a word with your midwife.
Eat the tomatoes. Skip the soap. The rest is below.
Quick answer: Cravings are normal, usually start in the first trimester, and most are harmless: eat the thing, inside the NHS's pregnancy food rules (meat cooked through, the right cheeses, 200mg of caffeine a day). The exception is craving things that aren't food: ice, soap, dirt, paper. That's pica, the NHS lists it as a sign of iron deficiency, and it's one to tell your midwife about rather than give in to.
Key facts
- You don't need to eat for two, says the NHS, even if you're expecting twins or triplets (NHS, healthy diet in pregnancy).
- The caffeine limit in pregnancy is 200mg a day: about 100mg in a cup of instant coffee, 75mg in a cup of tea, 40mg in a can of cola and 80mg in a 250ml energy drink (NHS, foods to avoid in pregnancy).
- The cravings with an NHS rule attached: mould-ripened soft cheese (brie, camembert, chèvre) and blue cheese need cooking until steaming hot, meat is cooked through and cured meats too, liver is off the menu, and pâté is kept chilled and eaten before its use-by date.
- Wanting to eat non-food things such as paper or ice is on the NHS's list of symptoms of iron deficiency anaemia, which is common in pregnancy (NHS, iron deficiency anaemia).
- No craving tells you the baby's sex. That's folklore, it's fun, and it's still folklore.
Common pregnancy cravings
The ones nearly everybody gets. If yours is on this list, you're not weird, you're pregnant.
1. Chocolate. Top of the list every time. Dark, milk, the cooking bar at the back of the cupboard. A 50g bar of dark chocolate has under 25mg of caffeine, so it barely dents the 200mg.
2. Crisps. Salty and crunchy, and the craving arrives an hour after a full dinner. Nobody knows why. Nobody minds.
3. Ice cream. The cliché that turns out to be true. The only NHS catch is unpasteurised ice cream, so it's a question for the farm shop, not the supermarket freezer.
4. Pickles. The other cliché. Sour and salty in one jar, eaten standing at the fridge.
5. Cheese. Cheddar by the block. The NHS is fine with hard cheese and the pasteurised soft ones (cottage, cream cheese, mozzarella, feta, halloumi). The mould-ripened ones like brie and camembert need cooking until steaming hot. There's a table further down.
6. Toast. Butter, marmite, cheese, beans. Plain carbs are also what the NHS suggests if you're feeling sick, so this one's doing a job.
7. Cheeseburgers. Cooked through, please. Rare and undercooked meat is on the NHS's avoid list.
8. Chicken wings. Hot ones, especially. See spicy food.
9. Spicy food. Curry, chilli, extra jalapeños. Common enough that it doesn't count as weird.
10. Hot sauce. On everything. Eggs, chips, toast, the lot.
11. Fizzy drinks. Cold and sweet. A can of cola is about 40mg of caffeine against the NHS's 200mg a day, so it's the coffee you need to count, not the cola. Sugar is the other thing on the label.
12. Milk. Pints of it, cold, from the fridge door.
13. Yoghurt. Big pots, eaten with a big spoon.
14. Fruit. Punnets of grapes, whole pineapples, a bag of satsumas in a sitting. The NHS wants 5 portions a day, so give in to this one.
15. Oranges. Peeled, juiced, straight from the fridge. There's an old tale that oranges give the baby jaundice. It's a tale.
16. Watermelon. By the half, in July.
17. Apples. The craving that makes you feel smug.
18. Bananas. Quick, filling, in the bag for the commute.
19. Pasta. Big bowls of plain pasta with butter. Same family as toast: plain, starchy, kind to a sick stomach.
20. Baked potatoes. With everything on. Also see toast.
21. Sweets. Pick and mix, fizzy laces. The NHS's line is that sugary food is high in calories and bad for your teeth, which you knew, and which won't stop you.
22. Peanut butter. From the jar, with a spoon. The NHS says peanuts are fine in pregnancy unless you're allergic or a doctor or midwife has told you not to.
23. Salt. On chips, on tomatoes, on a licked finger. One of the oldest cravings there is.
Weird pregnancy cravings
Weird is relative. Every one of these has come up more than once, and most of them are the searches that bring people to this page.
Sour, sharp and salty
24. Vinegar. On chips, in salad, from the bottle. Sour and salty tend to arrive together.
25. Mustard. By the spoonful. One of the searches that brings people here most, so you're in company.
26. Mayonnaise. Same as mustard. On everything, or on its own.
27. Olives. A jar in one go, brine included.
28. Grapefruit juice. Sharp enough to make you wince, and that's the point.
29. Radishes. Peppery, cold, crunchy, and searched for far more than you'd think.
Vegetables, raw and by the bag
30. Tomatoes. The big one. Raw, by the punnet, with salt. More people search for tomato cravings than for any other single food on this list.
31. Tomato soup. The tinned kind, specifically, with white bread.
32. Carrots. Raw, whole, out of the bag in the car park.
33. Garlic. Roasted cloves, garlic bread, raw in hummus. "Why am I craving garlic" is one of the top searches here, and the answer is further down.
34. Beetroot. Pickled, usually.
35. Broccoli. The craving that makes you feel like a good person.
36. Kale. Same, but smugger.
37. Salad. Big bowls of it, cold from the fridge. The NHS's one line: wash it thoroughly.
38. Vegetables. Any of them, in quantity. Some people go off meat completely and want plates of veg instead.
39. Mushrooms. Fried in butter. Or, the combination this post has been famous for since its first version: garlic mushrooms dipped in custard.
40. Avocado. Halved, salted, with a spoon. One of the picks in our pregnancy superfoods post too.
41. Hummus. Tubs of it, with everything, or with a spoon.
42. Fennel seeds. Chewed after meals. As a tea, it's covered in the tea in pregnancy post.
43. Mint. Mints, mint tea, toothpaste-strength mint. Often when there's a metallic taste in your mouth that won't shift.
Meat, fish and eggs
44. Steak. Rare, ideally, which is the one thing the NHS asks you not to do. Cook it through.
45. Meat. Any meat, a lot of it, after years of not being bothered. Cooked through, and cured meats like salami and chorizo cooked until steaming hot.
46. Fish. Fish and chips, tuna, the works. The NHS's limits: no more than 4 cans or 2 steaks of tuna a week, no more than 2 portions of oily fish, and no shark, swordfish or marlin.
47. Fried eggs. Runny, with soldiers. Fine if they're British Lion stamped or from the Laid in Britain scheme, says the NHS. Other eggs, well cooked.
Sweet and cold
48. Cream. Squirty, double, clotted, on everything.
49. Sugar. From the bowl, in some cases.
50. Donuts. A box from the garage. See sweets.
51. Ice lollies. A freezer full of them, especially in a hot summer.
52. Raspberries. Punnet after punnet, whatever they cost.
53. Apple juice. Cold, by the carton, and another of the top searches on this page.
54. Chewing gum. Packet after packet. Usually a taste thing, like mint.
Tea and coffee
55. Tea. Builder's tea, sweet, all day. Each cup is about 75mg of caffeine against the NHS's 200mg. The tea post has the herbal ones.
56. Coffee. Or just the smell of it. One instant coffee is about 100mg, so two a day and you've spent your allowance.
Follow your bump. Tell us your due date and we'll send what to expect each week, plus 10% off your first order.
Pregnancy cravings that aren't food (pica)
Pica is the name for wanting to eat things that aren't food. The NHS lists it as a less common symptom of iron deficiency anaemia, which is common in pregnancy and most often down to not enough iron in your diet.
If you're short of iron you may feel more tired than usual, and your midwife or GP will recommend iron tablets if a blood test shows you need them (NHS, vitamins and supplements in pregnancy).
So the advice is boring and it matters: don't eat the thing, and say so at your next appointment. Nobody will be surprised.
57. Ice. Crunching it by the glass. Edible, obviously, but the NHS lists wanting to eat ice alongside paper as a sign of iron deficiency anaemia. Mention it.
58. Dirt. Soil, clay, the smell of a wet garden. Don't eat it. Tell your midwife.
59. Soap. The smell first, then the urge. Same advice.
60. Sponge. The washing-up kind, apparently.
61. Paper. Tissue, newspaper, the corner of an envelope.
62. Sand. Same family as dirt.
63. Toothpaste. Swallowing it rather than spitting.
64. Coffee grounds. Chewing them rather than drinking them.
65. Dog food. Yes, really. It's made for dogs. Leave it to the dog.
Why am I craving tomatoes, carrots, garlic or mustard?
The internet will tell you a tomato craving means you're low on iron, carrots mean you need vitamin A, garlic means antioxidants and mustard means you need more onions. The old version of this post said a fair bit of that too. There's no NHS page that says any of it, and I couldn't find anything that does.
Cravings for actual food don't map to what you're short of in any way anyone has been able to show. What they map to is taste and smell changing, tiredness, hormones, and the sickness making some things revolting and other things (cold, sharp, salty, plain) suddenly lovely. A cold tomato with salt on it when you've been sick all morning makes complete sense without a vitamin chart.
The one craving that does carry a signal is the non-food kind, above. Everything else, eat it and enjoy it.
The cravings to be careful with
Not "don't eat it". Mostly "cook it" or "count it". These are the NHS's rules, not ours.
| Craving | What the NHS says | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Soft cheese | Mould-ripened soft cheese (brie, camembert, chèvre) and blue cheese must be cooked until steaming hot. Pasteurised soft cheeses like cottage, cream cheese, mozzarella, feta, paneer, ricotta and halloumi are fine | Bake the brie. Pick from the pasteurised list for anything cold |
| Pâté, meat or vegetable | Keep chilled and eat before the use-by date | Fresh, cold, before the date |
| Rare steak and burgers | Avoid raw or undercooked meat | Cook it through |
| Salami, chorizo, prosciutto | Cold cured meats should be cooked until steaming hot | On a pizza, cooked, is the way |
| Liver | High levels of vitamin A, which can harm your baby | Skip it, and skip cod liver oil and vitamin A supplements too |
| Tuna and oily fish | No more than 4 cans or 2 steaks of tuna a week, no more than 2 portions of oily fish, and no shark, swordfish or marlin | Count the cans |
| Runny eggs | Fine if British Lion stamped or Laid in Britain; all other eggs well cooked | Look for the lion |
| Coffee, tea, cola | No more than 200mg of caffeine a day | Instant coffee 100mg, tea 75mg, cola 40mg |
| Herbal tea | No more than 4 cups a day, and nothing containing liquorice root | The tea post has them one by one |
| Salad and fruit | Wash thoroughly before eating | Rinse the punnet |
Do sweet cravings mean it's a girl?
Folklore says sweet means a girl and salty or sour means a boy. It also says the same about the shape of your bump, how sick you've been, and the way your wedding ring swings on a string. None of it predicts anything, and all of it is a good way to pass an afternoon with your mum.
If you want the versions with a bit more to argue about, skull theory and nub theory use your 12 week scan picture. Just as much fun, just as unproven.
Questions we get asked
When do pregnancy cravings start?
For most people, in the first trimester, often alongside the sickness, and they tend to fade later on. Some people never get a single one. There's no rule, and no cravings at all is just as normal.
What's the weirdest pregnancy craving?
From this list, garlic mushrooms dipped in custard, or chewing coffee grounds. The truly strange ones are usually combinations rather than single foods.
Is it OK to give in to pregnancy cravings?
If it's food, yes, inside the NHS's pregnancy food rules: meat cooked through, the right cheeses, eggs with the lion on, 200mg of caffeine a day, and the NHS's reminder that you don't need to eat for two. If it isn't food, no, and tell your midwife.
Why am I craving ice in pregnancy?
Chewing ice is the most common of the non-food cravings. The NHS lists wanting to eat non-food items such as paper or ice as a symptom of iron deficiency anaemia, which is common in pregnancy and easy to test for. Mention it at your next appointment; a blood test settles it.
Why do I suddenly hate foods I used to love?
Aversions are the other side of the same coin, and just as common: coffee, chicken, anything with a strong smell. Nobody can tell you exactly why. Eat what you can face, and if the list of things you can face gets very short, the NHS's morning sickness advice (small plain meals, cold food if hot smells set you off) is the place to start.
If the cravings have started, the due date calculator tells you which week you're in, and the pregnancy collection has the leggings with room for the pasta.
Filed under Pregnancy
