Well, I was trying to find a serious news story in Africa, but then I came across this bizarre story, and I just had to post it. The article is about pregnant women in Kenya who are having the taste to eat “odowa,” or soft stones. Now, I have heard of some pretty weird things that pregnant women crave, but I have never heard of someone wanting non-food items.
A nutritionist that the article’s reporter consulted said that the stones are like “like eating flour,” and eating the stones can only be dangerous if the person does not consume enough water, otherwise they can suffer from severe constipation.
Apparently eating non-food items is very common in pregnant African women because the University of Nigeria did a study and they found that eating stones or soil was very common among pregnant women. Doctors say that craving stones or soil may be an indication of a “deficiency of vital minerals, like calcium.” Although there doesn’t seem to be any serious hard to eating stones, doctors still say pregnant women should stick to a balanced, healthy food diet.
So has anyone ever heard of this outside of Africa? This just seems so strange and interesting to me, so I was just wondering if it is only pregnant women in Africa or other place in the world too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7596067.stm
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After doing a little research of my own, I discovered why this odd cultural behavior is practiced regularly by pregnant women. I also found that these women have these cravings because of not just vital deficiencies, but a cultural trend that exists. Studies I found explained that this strange craving may stop intestinal worm infections and it also acts in conjunction with anemia. The data I found from a study through the Antenatal Care Unit of Kilifi District Hospital indicated that "56% of the pregnant women ate soil and stones." The study kept leading back to the prevalence of anemia. Anemia is "one of the more common blood disorders, occurs when the level of healthy red blood cells (RBCs) in the body becomes too low" says Webmd.com.
My conclusion leads back to how this odd craving is in part due to a long running tradition women have followed. With the current risk of loosing an unborn baby, these deposits of vitamins may save a life.
Would anyone else follow this trend if you were put in a situation such as this particular one??
I could understand this being cultural if say older women in the area tell the pregnant women to eat the stones because of possible intestinal infections. However, why do the women keep eating them after they've given birth.
Also, my roommate, a health science major, mentioned that in one of her classes they heard a story of women in the U.S. craving chalk during pregnancy. So it's not just a Kenyan thing.
As for myself, I wouldn't follow this trend, especially given the possible unsanitary conditions of the stones. I would simply find another way to curb my cravings.
This article is very unique, I have never heard of pregnant women eating stones. If this cultural behavior has been taking place for many years, and women continue to watch other ladies around them do the same thing, I can definitely see how this has adapted to part of their culture. It's crazy to think that these women crave such hard items like stones and coal, when pregnant American women crave Chocolate, peanut butter, and ice cream. Two totally different sides of the spectrum. I definitely would not follow this trend, thinking about this makes my mouth hurt!
I found this story really interesting, because my grandma ate soil when she was pregnant with my mom. She asked the doctor why she was craving soil, and he said the same thing as the article- craving vital nutrients. So I don't think it's just in Kenya that these women crave weird things. My mom used to work at a reproductive clinic, and she heard so many weird stories like these, even to the point where one woman craved laundry soap!
Regarding the Kenyan women though, it's unfortunate that they are suffering effects of eating these stones, especially since they are not sanitary and need to be taken with a lot of water. Water, let alone sanitary water, is rare, so I'm sure that is contributing to why this is such a problem in Kenya. I feel sorry for the women, because I've heard cravings are very hard to curb!
This is so interesting, but also very sad! What a strange craving to have. It seems like this would be such an easy solution to solve if these women only had the right access. Couldn't this all be solved by a simple vitamin???
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