Conducted in Madagascar, where pica is common, the research is the first to identify a population where the practice is highly prevalent among men, the scientists say. In fact, the men in the study ate nonfood items at least as much as pregnant women and adolescents, whom previous case studies had shown to be the main pica practitioners.

(See "Stop Food Cravings Through Imaginary Eating?")

So why this sudden appearance of pica-practicing men?

"My guess, which is not substantiated, is that prior research study designs may have ignored men in their study samples as an artifact of studying pregnant women," said study author Christopher Golden, an eco-epidemiologist and National Geographic Society Conservation Trust grantee. (National Geographic News is part of