Doctors explain pica, the urge to eat chalk, clay, ice or excessive spices, and why it is often linked to iron deficiency, ...

Chalk isn’t exactly something most adults consider a delicacy. From time to time though, some adults (and many children) might find themselves craving chalk. If you feel the compulsion to eat chalk ...

You may have seen someone chewing chalk, eating clay, or even craving ash, and wondered why they'd engage in such behaviour. While these actions may seem strange or unsettling, for some individuals, ...

A mum is so addicted to eating clay that she has quit her teaching job to sell it. Mandisa Mayne was diagnosed with rare eating disorder, pica – which causes people to eat non-food substances – after ...

The urge to consume non-food items like chalk and paper strikes millions of people worldwide, creating intense daily cravings that can feel impossible to resist. These seemingly bizarre desires aren’t ...

Young children are naturally curious about their environment, it is quite common for them to experiment occasionally with eating items such as those you describe. However there is an eating disorder ...

Pica is eating something that is not food–notably in large quantities and on a regular basis. What do people who have pica eat? The list is a long one: ashes, balloons, chalk, metal, grass, crayons, ...

Most people sweep dirt into the trash, but a grassroots social media trend suggests sprinkling it on your lunch as a healthy treat. Health experts, however, say the risks of injury and disease far ...

While hospitalizations for eating disorders are down overall, one category is rising at an alarming rate, says the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. From 1999 to 2009, hospitalizations for ...

The parrots of Southeastern Peru crave an earthy delicacy: dirt. At the Colorado clay lick, a cliff face rising above the Tambopata River in the western Amazon Basin, parrots — often hundreds at a ...