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Old 07-23-2016, 08:04 PM   #21
Bruno
 
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default Re: GURPS Magic: Create Food

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
Be careful when you say, "chalk". Many will assume the inedible calcium sulphate of classroom chalk rather than the calcium carbonate of limestone antacid chalk.
I've never heard calcium carbonate called "chalk". I'm talking "cliffs of dover" here, annoying squeaky noise on the blackboard.

Pika/pica is a disorder of the metabolism caused by mineral deficiencies (most commonly iron). It causes compulsive eating of inorganic substances, as the body frantically tries to find a source of minerals - in a "natural environment", this means eating earth, sand, and clay, for the most part. Earth/clay eating, if the earth is relatively iron rich, does treat iron deficiency, which is why the compulsion is so overwhelming.

I can say as a human that it's surreal to know full well that e.g. the chalk is not food, and the yellow school chalk even tastes terrible, but still be so compelled to eat it that you're scheming how to steal a piece when the teacher isn't looking.

But, like I said, they put me on iron tablets finally and it stopped. Now I take multivitamins and eat a lot of blood sausage, so my pica isn't coming back any time soon. But when I had it I was driven to eat a lot of weird stuff - which is oddly why I don't like chewing-gum today. "It's not food. I've got over eating not food, I'm not going to start again."
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