This mum is so addicted to talcum powder, she ingests a 500g tub per week!

Lizzie Foster, from Portsmouth in Hampshire, suffers from Pica disorder – the compulsion to eat non-food substances. In her case it’s talc, a mineral composed mainly of the elements magnesium, silicon and oxygen. She first began to experience the bizarre craving during her pregnancy with her first child Ruby.
The 25-year-old said: “I loved the smell of it and thought, ‘I wonder if it tastes good.’
“I thought it was an odd craving to have, and I was a bit freaked out at first, but I poured some on my palm and I liked it.
“It tasted soapy and I kept on eating it. I think I was lacking something in my food, which I got from the powder.
“They say cravings during pregnancy are to do with a vitamin D or iron deficiency.
“I didn’t worry about if the powder would harm my baby when I was pregnant with Ruby. I was young and naive.”
But after the birth of her daughter, now eight-year-old, she continued to devour it and now gets through a 500g tub every week costing her an eye-watering £800 to date. She even used it on her daughter after bathing or changing her, before shaking some into her palm and eating it. Over the course of her addiction, Lizzie, who works as a cleaner, has consumed over 400 containers, which adds up to around 200,000 grams of powder – almost a quarter of a tonne.

“I eat it all the time. I have it for breakfast and while I’m sat watching TV,” said the mum-of-two. “When I go to work, I carry a tub of it in my bag to have as a snack.”
Lizzie, who says she downs talcum power “like sherbet”, doesn’t consider her habit bad for her health.