When Your Body Craves Pickles and Rejects Chicken

A Second Trimester Food Journey

Draya Collins

Draya Collins

Mom Identity Coach & Relationship After Baby Mentor

Publication Date: 12/29/2024

Sometime around the week 15 to 18 mark, there's a moment in the second trimester when food transcends nutrition. It becomes emotional. Spiritual, even. You could find that you wake up with an intense, nearly animalistic craving for watermelon. Or cry, standing in your kitchen, because the scent of garlic just pushed you over the edge.

This isn't dramatic. It's pregnancy in full bloom. Your body is talking to you, loud and clear, via flavors and feelings. Cravings and aversions are the language of transformation, where cells divide and multiply, hormones surge like verse, and your senses come imbued, beautifully and maddeningly, with new intensity.

You may find yourself ashamed by how much you crave a drive-thru burger. Or baffled when a beloved meal suddenly repulses you. But let me be clear: there's wisdom in the strange. And you are not alone in either of it.

Pregnancy cravings and aversions food layout

Real Stories from the Trenches

If you've ever Googled "second trimester craving weird" into a search bar at 2:12 a.m., you're in excellent company. I plowed through dozens of Reddit threads, the dark and hairy corners of the internet where real moms come clean. Here's what they had to say:

  • 💬 "I ate seven tangerines in succession. SEVEN. My tongue was raw. No regrets."
  • 💬 "I broke down crying, my partner bought me the wrong brand of pickles."
  • 💬 "I used to love chicken, now it tastes like misery."
  • 💬 "I've just been crunching ice like it's my job. I know it's weird. It's simply what my body craves."

What is most striking in these stories is not just how out there some of these cravings and aversions are, but how shockingly relatable. The laughter. The frustration. The surprise. They remind us that, as wilding individual pregnancy can be, there are threads that bind us. Shared hunger. Shared sensitivity. Shared surrender.

What's Really Going On: The Science Behind the Swings

Let's break it down. How is it that, all of a sudden, you would cut off a limb for some nachos but your favorite pasta makes you gag?

Second trimester cravings and aversions are a mixture of hormonal changes, heightened sense of smell as well as nutritional signaling. Your body is working overtime to make a tiny human, and it will send you signals about what it thinks it needs — sometimes helpful, sometimes completely confusing.

Here's what's happening inside:

  • Hormones, such as the estrogen and hCG produced in pregnancy, can change your sense of taste and smell. Familiar foods that used to comfort you may now feel daunting or nauseating.
  • Nutrient needs are rising. Your body might nudge you to salty snacks for sodium, or citrus for vitamin C. Sometimes what you're craving correlates with an actual deficiency — sometimes it's your body in search of comfort.
  • Digestion takes longer, and rich or greasy foods — food that is hard to break down — may make this more difficult and cause spontaneous aversions.

And though cravings might be associated with biological necessities (say the yearning for red meat for its iron), they can also be emotional affairs — tied to nostalgia, to soothing, or to simple sensory gratification.

So what's normal & what's not? A Second Trimester Cravings & Aversions Snapshot

Every mom's body tells a different flavor story, but here are the most common tales shared:

Top Cravings:

  • Foods that are puckery and tangy (hi pickles, lemons and vinegar chips)
  • Cold fruits—watermelon, oranges, grapes
  • Carbs of every variety: spaghetti, toast, bagels, rice
  • Dairy—ice cream, yogurt, milkshakes
  • Spicy or crunchy snacks (Takis, hot Cheetos, and the like)

Top Aversions:

  • High-protein meats, such as chicken and eggs
  • Strong-smelling vegetables (broccoli, onions, cauliflower)
  • A coffee (yes, even your precious iced latte may turn on you)
  • Greasy or oily foods
  • Anything that's super seasoned or spicy (even if it used to be you fave)
Pregnant woman relaxing with healthy snacks and journal

Fuel Without Shame: How to BE Gentle With Yourself

There is no need to adhere to a strict meal plan. Permission that's hard won — but absolutely necessary — to be flexible, creative and, most important, kind to yourself. You can meet your body where it is, and support your baby growing.

🌱 1. Nutrient-Swaps That Respect Your Cravings

  • Craving candy? Go for dried mango or frozen grapes.
  • Can't deal with meat? Choose an iron option that's plant-based, such as lentils, or spinach (if able), fortified cereals, or nut butters.
  • Ice obsession? Get your iron levels checked — it can be a less-obvious symptom of anemia (a simple blood test can tell you for sure).

🥣 2. Make Peace With "Safe Foods"

When only five foods feel palatable, it's all right to eat those five foods. Give them a turn, some little sidedishes, and stop fretting.

Experiment with batch-prepping one "neutral" meal — say, rice with steamed vegetables — and storing it in the fridge for those times when everything else is like pulling teeth.

🧊 3. Lean Into Cold Foods & Gentle Flavors

It's probably also true that cold food is less nauseating for them. There are ways smoothies, yogurt parfaits, fruit bowls, even cold pasta salads can be easier to swallow when aversions are at their peak.

💧 4. Don't Sleep on Hydration

Water with some flavor, lemon water, decaf iced tea — whatever works. It can potentially quell false hunger signals, minimize headaches, and aid digestion.

A Note From My Own Table To Yours

While I was in my second trimester, I basically subsisted on mashed potatoes with shredded cheddar cheese and cucumbers with lemon and salt. The pairing made no sense, but my body was screaming at me — and I was finally learning to listen.

I also had a period of time where I'd gag as soon as I opened the refrigerator. The smell of raw chicken? A no-go. My solution? I stocked up on freezer-friendly soups and leaned hard into smoothies.

One day I'd cry because nothing tasted good. The next, I'd usher an entire bowl of strawberries into my mouth and feel like a goddess. It was a dance — and some days I hit my own feet. But I learned to dance with it, not fight it.

Support, Not Perfection

You're not going to "get it" right every single day. But pregnancy isn't about perfect meals — it's about being in partnership with your body. Listening. Adjusting. Trusting.

If the guilt is building because you haven't had a vegetable in four days? Let it go. If the sugar in your smoothie is giving you the heebie jeebies? Breathe. Your body is accomplishing something miraculous. Nourishment isn't only about nutrients — it's about peace, too. About Grounding.

Tips for the Food Rollercoaster:

  • Form a "yes" list: A rolling list of foods that do feel good right now.
  • Experiment with meal delivery: Healthy meal kits or pre-cooked, balanced frozen options, such as Daily Harvest, can take the pressure off cooking during stressful weeks.
  • Fear not the repetition: Repetition = survival. It's okay.
  • Speak to your provider: If your aversions are preventing you from eating, inquire about prenatal nutrition support, or even B6 supplements for nausea.

You Are Still Whole (Even When Dinner Is Crackers)

Mama, I need you need to know this: Your cravings are not shameful. Your aversions are not failures. Your taste in changing appetite is not a commentary on your worth.

Pregnancy brings us the opportunity to listen, to bend and then to yield just bit more each day. There is profound power in listening to your body — its softness, its desires, its crazy quirks.

So eat the pickles. Reject the chicken. If you need to cry over the toast, then do so. You are building a life. You are shifting shape. You are sacred. And you're doing so well.

Tags: