Indian resident Hans Raj started eating sand when he was 20, and it quickly became as much a habit for him as smoking cigarettes for others. Hans is now 45 years old and eats a plate of fine sand with bits of brick for a snack every day.
The man assures that eating sand and stones provides him with energy and minerals necessary for health. In his home state of Uttar Pradesh, he has long become a famous person, everyone calls him the Sandman.
Doctors are sure that Hans Raj suffers from the so-called Pica - food perversion. This disease is also called parorexia or allotriophagy. It causes an irresistible desire to eat something unusual and slightly edible (chalk, tooth powder, coal, clay, sand, ice), as well as raw dough, minced meat, cereals. It was described by Hippocrates. Modern medicine is commonly regarded as a symptom of iron deficiency anemia.
Picacism can cause diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, as things eaten are often not digested and clog the intestines. At the same time, Hans Raj assures that he never had any health problems.
- I gave him bricks and sand for 25 years. I just love to eat them, I love it. I don’t think it does me any harm,”says the Indian.“There are no problems either with the stomach or with the teeth. I can easily crush even very hard stones with my teeth. I love the taste of gravel. I add sand to tea, soup, sprinkle it on bread.
In order to find the most "delicious" stones and sand, a man travels to neighboring villages and brings stones from there to his home. He is especially attracted by the idea of trying the bricks that are part of the wall of someone's house.
Friends and relatives repeatedly tried to convince Hans Raj that his condition was wrong and that it was not necessary to do so, but everything was useless. Hans even chose a job for himself related to stones, he works as a bricklayer.
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His friend Raj Singh says that Hans can start eating a stone while he is working and it is impossible to take him away from the process "he is like a drug addict."
