Is there any physiological basis for this or is it a self-fulfilling myth, ie women expect to have weird tastes when pregnant therefore they do? Do all pregnant women have these changes in taste? What’s the earliest reference to such behavior? Does it pre-date the 20th century? Do women of Third World countries act in a similar fashion or is this purely a Western thing, perhaps a product of the huge range of foods available to women of the West? (Difficult to have strange yearnings when all that you’ve known is a basic subsistence diet.)
I saw a documentary once (sorry,my google-fu failed on this one) inwhich it was shown that Gorilla troops would all follow the pregnant females to a special clay outcropping, where the pregnant ones would consume handfuls of the clay. Females who had been there before were shown to eat it only when pregnant.
In searching for that, I found the below, which quotes a similar phenomenon in humans:
IIRC - The alleged basis is the cravings is to ensure the developing fetus gets the full mix of vitamins and minerals needed to ensure proper development. A person can exist for a long time in a vitamin or mineral deficit situation with minor issues. The embryo cannot wait, it needs the right amount of everything at the proper time.
I had food cravings when I was pregnant, but none of them involved odd combinations of foods. They were all cravings for things I had eaten before I was pregnant.
Like most things having to do with pregnancy and childbirth, television has more to do with the image of the pregnant woman craving watermelon topped with nacho cheese than does reality. See also: the water breaking is like dumping a pitcher of water on the floor, and screaming at the husband in the delivery room.
One of my wife’s co-workers was telling the guys in her office how wimpy they were. She said “why, I was working right up until my water broke”.
“Yeah,” said one of the guys “but then we had to throw away that chair…”
I recalled that this phenomenon is known as pica.
Here is a bit more information about it:
It is a convenient way of showing that a character is pregnant.
I rather doubt this, or at least I doubt this is the only reason for food cravings. I had the normal sugar and salt cravings while I was pregnant. I seriously, seriously doubt my diet is or was deficient in sugar and salt. I think sugar and salt cravings probably did serve a purpose for people in environments different than today’s First World environment, where sugar and salt were rarer. I think we still have those cravings because they were useful to our ancestors, not necessarily because we ourselves need those nutrients.
I really craved calves’ liver with my first pregnancy. Well, that and strawberry shakes. But the liver - I’d go out every Friday night for a local restaurant’s liver and onions special. I still like to eat it, but I haven’t craved it like that since. I have been borderline anemic my whole life, so I figured the baby needed iron or folic acid or something.
Remember in the 60’s the “TV shorthand” for “oops, I’m pregnant” was fainting. IIRC I saw this on My 3 Sons and Bewitched. Nowadays, the shorthand is morning sickness?
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I rather doubt this, or at least I doubt this is the only reason for food cravings. I had the normal sugar and salt cravings while I was pregnant. I seriously, seriously doubt my diet is or was deficient in sugar and salt. I think sugar and salt cravings probably did serve a purpose for people in environments different than today’s First World environment, where sugar and salt were rarer. I think we still have those cravings because they were useful to our ancestors, not necessarily because we ourselves need those nutrients.
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Yes, the suggestion was not that the body takes note of what’s missing and craves it - just that the appetite by evolution says “eat a wide variety of things” simply to ensure a variety of different nutrients. probably not as relevant in a modern culture where we do eat a huge variety, by any ancient standard.
As it is part of the plot of Rapunzel, as in the 1812 Brothers Grimm collection, pregnant women having food cravings is not a modern invention.
IIRC, pregnant women’s cravings are discussed in the Talmud (codified around the sixth-seventh century CE from earlier texts), although I don’t think any weird mixtures are mentioned. So the idea goes pretty far back.
Not a combination, but the Cherry Tree Carol, which is probably fifteenth-century, shows Mary having a craving for cherries when she’s pregnant with Jesus.
On both pregnancies I’ve had an ongoing craving for mandarins, but I don’t know anyone who’s ever craved weird mixtures.
I’m pregnant, and the other day I ate a pickled banana pepper, and it was so good. It was a transcendent experience. I immediately wanted more picked peppers. I also want ice cream. Apparently ice cream is the number one craving reported by pregnant women. I basically always want ice cream.
So of course, I asked my fiancé to stop by the store and grab some Ben and Jerry’s and pickled peppers. Not to eat together, of course. I then laughed- I actually did ask him for ice cream and pickles! So that’s my guess- the odd combos are really two separate food cravings.
What’s really odd is the food aversions. Pretty much immediately after I got pregnant, by sense of smell and taste changed. It became more intense, but it also kind of shifted in an odd way. I can’t for the life of me choke down chicken. It now smells like rotten death. Utterly bizarre.
Speaking of which, my wife had one memorable food craving with our first kid: charoset, the apple/wine/nut mixture typically eaten at the Passover seder. The craving was about 4 months out of season, but I dutifully went to the store for some Manischewitz so I could make her a batch.
She also had near-orgasmic reactions to the smell of wood chip mulch. I had to physically restrain her from rolling around in some landscaping at one point.
I think any time your hormones get out of whack you’re liable to have strange cravings. When I went through menopause I developed a serious craving for pickles, deviled eggs, and cole slaw.