Doctors in Lithuania were recently tasked with removing a massive quantity of metal objects from a man’s stomach. Consisting of screws, nails, and knives, the items weighed about one kilogram in total, or over two pounds. The largest single piece measured 10 cm in length, or about four inches.
Needless to say, swallowing foreign metal objects is not advised: doing so can block or cause injury to the esophagus and digestive system, resulting in abdominal pain and other damage. Additionally, items like coins or nails could carry harmful pathogens or toxic substances.
However, for some, it’s not always as simple as refraining from these behaviors. Pica is a disorder in which someone eats items generally not considered to be food and which do not have nutritional value—including things like dirt, chalk, bones, paint, clay, or metal, noted Forbes in a 2017 article on the disorder.
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