Pica: The strange case of strange cravings during pregnancy

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Many people know how strange pregnant women can get when it comes to cravings. They may initially crave specific food items, which vary according to mood. Then it gets weird; pregnant women begin craving substances that have no little or no nutritional value. And when people think that eating ice, chalk, or paper is out of the ordinary, then they might not have heard of pregnant women who engage in coprophagia (consumption of feces) and trichophagia (consumption of hair or wool)—behaviors which, according to modern norms, are downright outlandish.

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This kind of behavior, however, cannot be singularly classified as a kind of mental disease. Instead, it is referred to as pica, a word that originated from the Latin word for magpie, a bird that is infamous for its unusual eating behaviors, which include eating anything regardless of nutritional value—incidentally similar to the behaviors being exhibited by pregnant women with pica.

There are many theories surrounding the cause of this phenomenon. While there is no definitive cause yet, the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics claims that pica may be a result of iron deficiency anemia. It is worth noting that during pregnancy, the increase in plasma volume causes a condition called “pseudoanemia,” which may ultimately trigger the cravings.

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