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Weird food cravings affect most of us to some degree at some stage in our pregnancy. What causes these sometimes bizarre hunger pains, and when should you worry?

Matches. Mud. Newspaper. Raw potatoes. Toothpaste. Ash. Soap. Pickle juice.

What do these random things have in common? They’re all things that pregnant women have craved – and eaten. Food cravings in pregnancy are very common, and for some the increased appetite and strong desire for certain foods is real – including cravings for foods they’ve never wanted before, and peculiar food combinations such as mashed potato topped with caramel sauce.

Most women with food cravings seek out actual foods that, while they may not be nutritionally ideal, do hit the sweet (or savoury) spot: pickles, chips, chocolate – and junk food.

But it’s the burning desire to eat nonnutritive items such as laundry starch, chalk and soil – a phenomenon known as pica – that reveals the strength of pregnancy food cravings. In some way, this explains the old urban myth of the panicked husband driving for hours in the middle of the night to find out-ofseason strawberries or a very specific brand of sausages for his impossible pregnant wife.