Texas Teach
Posts: 2084 Joined: April 2007
|
Quote (stevestory @ April 15 2018,10:33) | Inspired by some poor relatives who fall for every form of snake oil Alex Jones and company peddle, I had a thought about eating clay.
Back when I was in school and would come across the word Pica, it was always defined as something like "The compulsion to eat things that aren't food, i.e. clay." Clay was always the example. While eating clay is probably generally pointless, and probably only very helpful if you've ingested some strong poison, clays do contain several minerals, and organisms can adapt to crave things they need but don't understand, so is it possible that craving clay can in some limited circumstances stem from a mineral deficiency and thus be a rational response? |
The question that makes it relevant to this site is “is it adaptive?”. My suspicion is yes, but that pica is the effect of that trait gone too far.
-------------- "Creationists think everything Genesis says is true. I don't even think Phil Collins is a good drummer." --J. Carr
"I suspect that the English grammar books where you live are outdated" --G. Gaulin
|