Food News, with Christine Rutter

THERE is no accounting for what mums-to-be will eat during pregnancy.

Licking boot polish and eating cement may not be most people's idea of a good lunch but these are things pregnant women have been known to do.

New research by Sainsbury's found that over half of the women surveyed experienced strange cravings during pregnancy. The taste of coal was the hot favourite among a quarter.

Other weird and wonderful cravings included plaster, daffodils, snails, soil, chocolate digestives with salad cream, kippers with jam and pickles with marmalade.

Healthy fruit and vegetables were craved by around eight per cent - but the serving suggestions are real stomach-turners.

These include cucumber with ice-cream, gherkins with custard, beetroot on toast, bananas with mayonnaise, cooking apples and salt and pickles and strawberries.

Dawn Coker had a craving for Artex, chalk and talcum powder when she was expecting her son Daniel, now three.

She even used to eat the pool table chalk at her dad's pub, The Clifton Arms, in Grimshaw Park, Blackburn.

Dawn, of Griffin Street, Blackburn, said: "Anything chalky and I had to eat it.

"I would go out and buy talcum powder and chalk to eat.

"We were having our ceiling Artexed.

"I used to scrape it off with a knife and eat it.

"My husband was horrified but it didn't do Daniel any harm." Pam Hilary, 30, of Bute Road, Shadsworth, Blackburn, craved spearmint sweets when she was expecting her daughter Laura and spicy prawn curry when she was pregnant with son Scott.

She said: "I think every pregnant woman has some sort of craving.

"I put it down to something lacking in your system which you need to top up."

Some believe cravings are due to the female body requiring certain minerals and vitamins, so women chew on chalk to increase their calcium intake. But Margaret Gradwell, director of dietetics for the East Lancashire Health Authority, said: "No research has actually pinpointed why pregnant women have cravings to eat certain things.

"It is one of the phenomena of pregnancy. It is difficult to know whether non-food items, such as chalk, are harmful. It depends on the quantity pregnant women consume and how often.

"We would discourage pregnant mothers from eating such items as boot polish."

Research dietician Fiona Ford said: "Cravings are usually temporary and should not prevent mums-to-be from eating a healthy and varied diet."

She runs the Eating for Pregnancy helpline, which can be contacted on 0114 2424084.

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