Teresa chewing stones (6 photos)

Taste preferences are a purely individual thing. Some people love meat dishes, others cannot imagine life without sweets. And still others cannot do without fast food and soda. But there are also much stranger gastronomic preferences that can baffle anyone.





Eating disorders (ED) are not that rare. But, in general, it does not cause any particular harm to health. But its individual directions are more interesting. Like, for example, lithophagy, which US resident Teresa Weidner suffers from (or enjoys, depending on how you look at it).



In general, Teresa is an ordinary woman. She is married, loves her two children, and works as a teacher. And loves to eat stones and rubble. It’s difficult to say how much of this questionable food she has consumed in her life (and the Virginia native has been on a specific diet for about 30 years), but she feels great. Just like it looks.

Teresa explains her non-standard gastronomic addiction by iron deficiency, which cobblestones and pebbles help her cope with. When she got married, her husband Jim surrounded her with such care and love that she almost forgot about her strange hobby.





But everyone has bad days. And in difficult life moments, the teacher takes supplies out of the cupboard, arms himself with a hammer to crush the food into smaller fragments, and begins to relax.

What is noteworthy is that Teresa prefers pebbles, as they say, au naturelle - she does not clean or wash them. So, according to the stone eater, they crunch pleasantly and give an indescribably wonderful earthy taste.

The woman was even invited to participate in a talk show. In the studio, she delighted the audience by eating several small pebbles and gracefully breaking up a larger one for consumption.



Of course, Teresa's explanation seems quite romantic. But in fact, even an outwardly plump lady does not look anemic. In addition, there are much simpler and safer ways to replenish the necessary substances in the body than absorbing stones, which can easily cause stomach bleeding. Or contamination with some nasty thing, if you take into account use without prior washing.



Teresa's case is pica (Latin pica - "magpie") - eating or craving something that is not food. Classified as an eating disorder, but can also be the result of an existing mental disorder.

Dr. Jordana Mansbacher commented on Teresa's case as follows:

People will eat anything when it comes to pica. They will eat toilet paper, fabric, carpet, wood, clothing, leather, metal. This phenomenon is quite common among women, especially pregnant women. And they often develop cravings for ice, which is rich in zinc, as well as soil and clay, which are rich in iron.



But Weidner is not pregnant. And for her, stones are more about emotional security and not about food. Weidner's case should be examined by psychiatrists, but the woman does not see anything strange in her hobby and does not plan to seek help.