Unearthing a dietary behavior
Although it was identified as a disorder as early as the 14th century, pica, or the eating of nonfood items, was believed for years to be almost nonexistent in several corners of the globe. A 2006 study that reviewed research on pica found just four areas — southern South America, Japan, Korea, and Madagascar — where the behavior was not observed. A new Harvard study, however, shows that pica — and particularly geophagy, or the eating of soil or clay — is far more prevalent in Madagascar, and may be more prevalent worldwide, than researchers had thought. As described in an Oct. 17 paper published in PLoS ONE, Christopher Golden ’05, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment, and colleagues from Madagascar Health and Environmental Research, the Université d’Antananarivo, and Cornell University surveyed 760 people living in 16 villages in the northeastern corner of the island nation, and...