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Doctor classify the compulsion to eat anything that isn’t food as pica. Some children eat paint, clay or chalk; chewing on old paint chips is a common cause of lead poisoning. Ice addiction may also be considered a form of pica. This behavior is associated with iron deficiency or anemia (Borgna-Pignatti & Zanella, Expert Review of Hematology, Nov. 2016). Can correcting anemia make ice addiction disappear?
Stumbling on a Remedy to Make Ice Addiction Disappear:
Q. My ice addiction has been driving my family and coworkers crazy. I’m 47 and have craved chewing ice since I was a teenager. It gets worse when I’m stressed.
I’ve always had heavy periods and low energy. A Red Cross nurse told me I was too anemic to give blood, but I never made the connection between iron deficiency and craving ice.
Recently I decided to try consuming blackstrap molasses (as a home remedy for a different ailment) and overnight the ice cravings disappeared. I don’t have to consume molasses every day; I take it maybe three times a week.
Rather than eat it straight from the jar, I put a tablespoonful in my almond milk, stir it and drink it like chocolate milk. It’s very tasty and an excellent source of iron.
Blackstrap Molasses to Make Ice Addiction Disappear:
A. Blackstrap molasses is indeed a good source of iron. A tablespoon contains 3.5 mg of iron.
The recommended dietary allowance for an adult woman is 18 mg, though, so you probably need to get some iron from other sources as well. Lean meat, seafood, nuts, beans and fortified grain products are good food sources.
Taking vitamin C with your iron can help absorption, but red grape juice and prune juice can inhibit iron uptake (Boato et al, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Nov. 6, 2002).
S.H.
The black strap molasses has iron; low iron can trigger ice chewing. Raise iron levels and the pica goes away, until levels drop again. When I was a child, I chewed ice. I thought I was in heaven at grandma’s house (she had an ice-maker in her new fridge!). I chewed ice at every opportunity.
Years later, my new dentist said, “I see that you were an ice chewer.”.
A couple of years ago, when sorting my parents’ things, I ran across some of my childhood medical records. There, right in front of my eyes were test results showing that I was anemic all those years.(note: for ME:, I noticed that GETTING A SONG “STUCK IN MY HEAD”, seems to go with lower iron levels. It happens a couple times a year. A dose of iron clears it up. That is for me.)
Ann
Can you get tested to determine what it is you are lacking which results in pica? Several times in my life I’ve had pica and I would love to know what I am lacking that makes me eat odd things, coal e.g., all the erasers off pencils, grit, totally weird.
Terry Graedon
The most common problem is a lack of iron. Supposedly, a lack of zinc could also trigger pica. Correcting the deficiency seems to banish the craving.
Mary
raleigh nc
I add a teaspoon of Black-strap molasses to my coffee. It taste great!
Gerry
Fla
There’s an old song, “Blackstrap molasses and wejum (wheat germ) bread, make you live so long you wish that you were dead, add some yogurt and you’ll be well fed, with blackstrap molasses and weejem bread”. It’s on youtube with the Gas Can boys, they said it’s from a Jimmy Durante and Danny Kaye, 1951 on the Groucho show…
So: sweeten your oatmeal with molasses and cook in a teaspoon of wheat germ. Works for me. I’m 80, make my own yogurt and bread…pretty healthy but my family lives a long time, the women anyway.