Emma Veness, a 26-year-old pregnant woman in the U.K., feels compelled to eat furniture polish even though she knows her eating disorder could harm her baby.
Veness has been diagnosed with a rare eating disorder named pica, and requires medical help according to reports.
Her bizarre habits started when she ate bubbles while taking baths as a child. Ever since her pregnancy she began eating polish and has already consumed three whole cans to ease her cravings.
Although she does not use addictive substances such as alcohol or tobacco, she does have a family history of her mother and grandmother having cravings for coal when pregnant.
Veness says that she wakes up in the middle of the night craving polish and cannot go back to bed without a taste of the substance.
She said “I just wish someone could help me stop, but no one seems to know how to help me or what to do. Most people have never even heard of Pica.”
By Christopher Kim
Intern Reporter
(chriskim1006@gmail.com)