Why do you want to eat inedible things and is it dangerous?

Soil, chalk, paper, nails, glass, paint – all these are familiar things that do not evoke special emotions in us. But for someone with pica, this is a real delicacy. Probably, many are tormented by the question of what is so delicious in these foods and how people are not afraid to eat them. We will tell you what causes you to compulsively eat inedible things.

Is it normal or pathological?

As children, we all actively explore the world through our sense of taste, tasting various objects: soap, hair, stones, burnt matches, icicles on the roof, sand, cardboard, plaster and much more. As soon as our curiosity is satisfied, we give up this activity, but some people, on the contrary, suddenly discover an uncontrollable desire to eat more. This eating disorder (ED) is medically called pica (allotriophagia).

It’s worth clarifying that in some parts of the world, eating inedible things is part of the culture. For example, African tribes practice geography, that is, eating the land. In Gabon and Cameroon, white clay is eaten during pregnancy with the claim that it improves the health of mother and child. In Haiti, clay is used to make cookies containing salt and vegetable oil, which are dried in the sun and eaten. It is considered the food of the poor.

At the same time, consumption of substances that are not suitable for food is also common among animals. You’ve probably noticed how your pets eat thread, bags, soil, vomit or feces. For example, mineral soil is loved by bats, parrots and monkeys. This apparently helps them neutralize toxic phenols found in plants. The kaolin in clay also acts as a sorbent, helping macaques cope with diarrhea and intestinal parasites. In other words, the desire to eat the soil can be associated with the survival instinct we inherited from our ancestors.

Why do we eat inedible things?

You’ve probably heard that eating chalk or lime indicates a calcium deficiency in the body, so there’s nothing wrong with eating a piece. It is known that during the siege of Leningrad, starving residents made jelly from wood glue scraped from under the wallpaper. It was believed to contain nutritional starch. They ate molasses for shell casting, bone meal from button manufacturing waste, shoe leather, shoe polish, and casein, which was used to make paints and plastics.

But it is still difficult to agree that such foods are good for us, especially when it comes to chemical products. It’s one thing for a strange menu to come out of desperation, but another thing for it to be a conscious desire. It is worth saying that allotriophagy has not been fully studied, but doctors’ observations showed that the cause was inedible things.

Most doctors associate it with psychological problems, especially mental retardation and autism. An eating disorder can be triggered by a strict diet, type 1 diabetes, bullying, and any experience of violence in general. By the way, we have previously written about how to recover from witness trauma.

In the movie Swallow, the main character Hunter (Haley Bennett) suffers from pica. She feels lonely because of the pressure from her husband and parents. When a housewife realizes she’s pregnant, she discovers a passion for swallowing the strangest objects, like a sharp-tipped thumbtack. For him, this is a kind of way of controlling his own life.

What kind of problems does pica cause?

Most often, taste disorders occur in people with iron deficiency anemia. It is worth mentioning that some soils are actually rich in iron. True, it will be of little benefit to the body, considering that the soil may also contain lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic and other toxic heavy metals. Its effects can have a cumulative effect, which is why people suffering from geophagia often suffer from lead poisoning. This causes absent-mindedness and irritability, decreased libido, kidney problems, hypertension, memory impairment, headaches, cramps in the stomach, joints and muscles, and hand tremors.

It is worth remembering that not only various chemicals enter the soil with dust, but also animal feces, which may contain parasite eggs, tetanus-causing bacterial spores and various viruses. In medical practice, there are cases when pregnant women who ate soil from a pot were hospitalized for blood poisoning.

Let’s add that chalk, soil and clay cause intestinal obstruction. The fact is that some types of clay (even healthy ones) bind potassium from food, leading to its deficiency in the body. Therefore, hypoglycemic myopathy, a condition accompanied by severe muscle weakness, develops.

Additionally, a person with iron deficiency anemia can make the situation worse for him or her because the soil will inhibit the absorption of other substances such as ferritin (which helps iron be stored in the tissues) and transferritin (which helps iron be stored in the liver).

Since clay is an adsorbent, the effectiveness of some drugs and antibiotics, especially heart and malaria drugs, decreases.

And of course, such special foods have consequences for appearance. People eating stones, chalk and sand erode tooth enamel. Additionally, many people with pica experience feelings of shame and guilt because they cannot control their own lives. Therefore, it is essential to be under the supervision of a doctor and psychologist. Of course, the support and love of others is very important for such patients, because it is quite difficult to get rid of this habit alone.