We all have interesting quirks and strange things we do that just weirds people out.
It could be an obsession with troll dolls or a compulsion to count bricks on the pavement
while we’re walking outdoors.
Whatever it is, these little things have been part of what makes us human and adds colour
to our otherwise dull characters.
However, sometimes these so-called strange addictions can be too far-off that they can
create adverse effects to our health; most notably, people’s compulsion to consume
things that are not meant to be eaten.
In this list we explore some of these non-food items that many people enjoy eating.
We are counting down to 15 of them so brace yourself and prepare to be surprised at what
people are obsessed with eating and putting in their bodies!
15.
CHALK The addiction to eating chalk – many people
admit – began in their early days in school when many of them were curious to find out
what it tastes like.
Unfortunately for some of them, this fascination with eating the writing instrument has carried
on to their adult lives.
Although eating chalk has no harmful effects to the human body because it is pure calcium,
it is still one strange habit that those who are obsessed with it find difficult to break.
14.
NAPTHALENE BALLS Generally, children are more likely to eat
naphthalene balls than adults due to the fact that they resemble large, round candy.
However, despite their deceptive appearance, the chemicals in them can cause serious damage
to the body including destroying red blood cells and serious organ failure.
13.
DRYER SHEETS They make our clothes fluffy and give them
that texture that we all enjoy when we pull them out of the dryer.
But for one 35-year old woman, her love affair with dryer sheets has been taken to an entirely
different level where she actively consumes at least eight sheets per day and claims that
it helps manage and relieve her stress levels.
This obsession began when she was attracted to the smell that dryer sheets naturally exude.
Eventually, she could not resist the urge and it into one and began this strange addiction.
12.
GLASS CLEANER It is a universal fact that anything that
cleaning supplies are definitely not to be eaten or drank because of the deadly mixture
of chemicals that can potentially melt a hole in your guts.
One woman named Crystal was brave enough to defy convention and has been consuming glass
cleaner up to 10 times a day for the last 30 years.
She said that, as a child, the scent of glass cleaner made her mouth water as a plate of
fried chicken would do the same to many of us.
It was after when she decided to taste it that her habit began to take shape saying
that the substance’s grainy texture was satisfying to say the least.
11.
CIGARETTE ASHES As a child, a woman named Bianca found a disturbing
addiction after she began eating pottery.
She graduated her non-food consumption to cigarette ashes claiming that it was the salty
taste and gritty texture that got her completely hooked.
What does not help is that she gets her fix from her sister who is a smoker.
10.
GLASS Eating glass is a spectacle that you only
hope to see in the circus but for the family of a man named Josh this spectacle is an everyday
occurrence.
Describing the experience as like “eating horrendously sharp rocks”, Josh has brought
his potentially lethal obsession to the dinner table.
From wine glasses to light bulbs, Josh has admitted that he gets a “warm feeling”
every time he bites into it.
9.
TOILET PAPER Fiber is an important part of a daily, nutritional
diet.
But for one woman named Jade Sylvester, she may have pushed it a little too far by consuming
entire rolls of toilet paper on a daily basis.
Claiming that the habit started when she was pregnant, Jade never seemed to have shaken
off the habit.
Another woman named Kesha shares the same, strange addiction as Jade and even brings
a roll to munch on while at the movies.
Kesha, however, only consumes white toilet paper because she says that eating the colored
variety would be completely weird.
8.
HAIR Normally, when you would think of hairball,
you would think of cats or any other furry animals that lick themselves clean and sweeping
up a few clumps of fur in the process.
However, a young girl named, Aypero Alekseeva actively eats her own hair.
The habit went incredibly out of hand when doctors found that her digestive was completely
blocked by a massive ball of hair that they had to surgically remove from her.
7.
ROCKS AND BRICKS Pakirappa Hunagundi has been addicted to eating
rocks and bricks since the age of 10.
Today, he has been known to consume three kilos of gravel, brick, and mud every day.
While there may not be any visible or immediate effects on his health, the consumption of
rocks by any human being is dangerous due to the fact that these materials cannot be
digested and can cause severe damage to the digestive system.
6.
COINS Children are sometimes discovered to have
eaten coins and end up in the emergency room with their panicking parents.
However, a 62-year old Frenchman has, over 10 years, swallowed about $650 worth of Euro
coins.
His family says that he would sneak a few coins as a snack.
Unfortunately for him, he accumulated a shocking 12 pounds worth of coins that doctors had
to eventually remove, surgically, before any lethal effects of the habit could set into
his body.
5.
SOAP Soap is a potentially toxic substance that
may be lethal is ingested but a teenager in Florida may seem to have built a kind of resistance
to it.
She, after all, manages to eat five bars of soap a week.
The addiction to eating soap, fortunately for her, stopped because she began feeling
abdominal discomfort.
4.
RAZOR BLADE In a television show called “Untold Stories
of the ER”, a Desert Storm veteran was featured after being rushed to the hospital for swallowing
razor blades on a dare.
Though he may have thought that the attempt may earn him some free drinks, the risk of
swallowing razor blades are high due to the fact that they can cause severe damage to
the intestinal wall and induce internal bleeding.
3.
URINE Urophagia is a condition where people are
found to have an obsession to consuming urine.
While people have made claims that drinking urine is beneficial to one’s health, the
fact is that urine contains different bacteria and pathogens that the body has expelled and
can be harmful to anyone who may decide to drink it.
Among the effects are kidney failure and Hepatitis.
2.
HUMAN ASHES The love we have for our dearly departed loved
ones is an understandable emotion after a loss.
However, one widow has taken this love for her husband to a different level.
While transferring the cremated remains of her husband from a temporary box to a memorial
urn, some of the ashes found their way into her hands.
Thinking that it would be disrespectful to brush it off – or sprinkling it into the
urn – she, instead, decided to eat it; soon enough, this tiny act turned into a habit
and she began consuming her husband’s ashes on a daily basis to the point that she brings
the urn wherever she goes.
1.
TAPEWORM Diet fads can sometimes be weird and push
the human body to its limits.
From eliminating carbs to just consuming juices, anyone will do anything to shed those extra
pounds.
But the most extreme diet fad is the consumption of live tapeworms.
The idea is that the tapeworms would take care of the extra weight as it eats the body’s
nutrition away.
After a while, the dieter will then take medication to kill off the living parasite.
The potential risk of introducing a parasite, however, is a painful death should the dieter
forget to take his or her medication or introduce a drug-resistant parasite into the body.