Allotriophagy

(an abnormal desire to eat "unnatural" things for food)

The Persistent Eating of Non-nutritive Substances

Eating Disorders or Eating Non-nutritive Substances, or Nonfood Items.

Pica is an eating disorder typically defined as the persistent eating of non-nutritive substances for a period of at least one month at an age in which this behavior is developmentally inappropriate; for example, 18-24 months. The definition occasionally is broadened to include the mouthing of non-nutritive substances.

Individuals involved with pica have been reported to mouth and/or ingest a wide variety of nonfood substances, including, but not limited to, clay, dirt, sand, stones, pebbles, hair, feces, lead, laundry starch, vinyl gloves, plastic, pencil erasers, ice, fingernails, paper, paint chips, coal, chalk, wood, plaster, light bulbs, needles, string, cigarette butts, wire, and burnt matches.

The following contents present a mixture and/or the causes and results of allotriophagy

acuphagia (s) (noun), acuphagias (pl)
The ingestion or consumption of sharp objects.
amylophagia (s) (noun), amylophagias (pl)
The eating of laundry starch.
bezoar formation (s) (noun), bezoar formations (pl)
A mixture of food fibers that may get stuck in a stomach that does not empty well, similar to a hairball in a cat.
bibliophagia (s) (noun), bibliophagias (pl)
The consumption of books by eating the pages.

This abnormal desire refers to humans, and not to "book worms" as shown in the illustration!

A worm is eating in a book.
—Word Info image © ALL rights reserved.
cautopyreiophagia (s) (noun), cautopyreiophagias (pl)
Eating burnt matches and/or ingesting burnt match heads.
coniophagia (s) (noun), coniophagias (pl)
The eating of or the consumption of dust.
coprophagia (s) (noun), coprophagias (pl)
The devouring of excrement or feces.
emetophagia (s) (noun), emetophagias )pl)
Ingesting or swallowing vomit.
geomelophagia (s) (noun), geomelophagias (pl)
An abnormal ingestion or chewing and swallowing raw potatoes: Dr. Thompson treated patients with disorders of geomelophagia who bad had headaches, nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting.
geophagy (s) (noun) (no pl)
The consumption of soil, dirt, etc.: Geophagy is known to be the habit of eating earthy substances and believed to help out or augment a mineral deficiency in one's diet.
gooberphagia (s) (noun), gooberphagias (pl)
A pathological consumption of peanuts.
hematophagy (s) (noun), hematophagies (pl)
Ingestion or an abnormal drinking of blood.
hyalophagia (s) (noun), hyalophagias >(pl)
The swallowing of glass; such as, glass from windows and bottles.
hyperkalemia (s) (noun), hyperkalemias (pl)
An eating disorder resulting from a desire for improper food which results in a higher than normal concentrations of potassium (K+) ions in the circulating blood: Because hyperkalemia can cause lethal cardiac arrhythmia, it is one of the most serious electrolyte disturbances.

The reference to "electrolyte" involves various ions, such as sodium, potassium, or chloride, which are required by cells in the body to regulate the electric charges and flows of water molecules across the cell membranes.

lithophagia (s) (noun), lithophagias (pl)
Ingestion of stones or rocks.

A page about a pica eating More details about pica are available.

The phago or eating unit of words The word unit of phago-, -phagy words.

A page about eating non-nutritive things. It's Pica Again.