Figure 1.
The two most commonly consumed geophagic substances are tany manara and vato malemy. A local healer prepares a bolus of tany manara, a white clay-like substance that has high content of calcium carbonate (top). A child holding vato malemy, reddish clods of earth that form along riverbeds (bottom).
Table 1.
Prevalence of amylophagy, geophagy, and other non-food consumption during the prior one year among 760 randomly chosen Malagasy individuals.
Figure 2.
Prevalence of pica and amylophagy behavior by sex, age and pregnancy status among 760 individuals in rural, northeastern Madagascar.
There were no significant differences of pica behavior by sex within age categories but adults practiced all pica behaviors significantly more than children or adolescents. Across all age and sex categories, amylophagy was practiced more widely than geophagy.
Table 2.
Frequency and quantity of ingestive pica behaviors.
Figure 3.
Motivations for pica behavior and amylophagy.
Geophagy is largely motivated by the texture of the substances (as well as medicinal use, see Table 3) whereas amylophagy was almost entirely driven by taste. Other non-foods were jointly motivated by taste and texture. Olfactory cues played only a small role in pica behavior.
Table 3.
Diversity of medicinal treatments provided through pica behavior.