Meet the mother who eats three boxes of corn starch a day: America's weirdest food addictions

Daily Mail ^ | TAMARA ABRAHAM

[nickcarraway]

Most people struggle to use a box of corn starch in a month, but one woman's bizarre addiction sees her eat up to 2lb of the thickening agent every day.

Nikki Myles who is profiled in the latest series of TLC's Freaky Eaters, loves corn starch so much, she eats it from the box with a spoon.

The 34-year-old, who consumes up to 3,300 calories a day, reveals in a clip from the show how the addiction first started when she was pregnant 16 years ago. Before long she was eating three boxes a day.

She said: 'Mostly people when they're pregnant will crave pickles and ice cream, things like that, but my craving was corn starch.'

She continued: 'Corn starch is typically used for thickening, baking, but for me, when I buy it, it's strictly for eating it. My mouth always waters for it. it's the best.

'Corn starch is soft, it's very fine. It is so so good, I can't stop eating it.'

She told how she had managed to keep the problem under control, but when her youngest son died four years ago, the addiction spiralled out of control.

'It became an escape for me,' she said, admitting that she even hid the extent of her addiction from her husband, Charles, by hiding stashes of corn starch in sealed plastic bags around her house.

But it appears there was a scientific reason for Mrs Myles bizarre habit, as Freaky Eaters' nutritionist JJ Virgin explains.

She told the Today show: 'She started eating dirt when she was young. She has pica, which is a zinc and iron deficiency. And then it got triggered by her pregnancy.' Thanks to the help of Ms Virgin and psychotherapist Mike Dow, who also tackled the emotional reasons behind the problem, Mrs Myles

[digger48]

WTF?

Does she shat bricks?

[MsLady]

Probably an eating disorder. But, I’ve also read and heard that you crave some nutrient that your body is lacking. Perhaps she needs more chromium(which is lacking in our food supply), which helps your body control sugar levels.

[dainbramaged]

That’s better than the gal who eats the foam from couch cushions.

[TornadoAlley3]

[MsLady]

People with anemia from iron deficiencies often crave eating ice cubes. Recovering alcoholics crave sugar(probably from low levels of chromium). Sugar also gets you on a roller coaster of feeling good and energetic, then having a sugar crash, where you feel terrible. Which makes you want more sugar/starch and it becomes a viscous cycle.

[ken5050]

But woudl Laz hit it?

[ken5050]

Actually, she also eats newspaper..then s**ts paper-mache..

[chris_bdba]

I probably don’t use a whole box before it expires. I can’t imagine what she sees in it as far as I can tell it has no taste?

[Sacajaweau]

TRUE OR 15 MINUTES OF FAME....

[boop]

That couch eating lady was hilarious! She likes ceratin colors of foam better than others, and savors the corner pieces. To date, she has eaten 7 couches and 2 chairs.

I also liked the toilet paper eating lady who has cut down to eating "only" one roll per day. And the tartar sauce lady who keeps a bottle in her purse to snack on.

[Yaelle]

Corn starch is probably GMO and corn is a huge allergen. It’s also extremely unhealthy. She is eating poison. Someone needs to stop her even if it takes hospitalization.

[Rudder]

[Graybeard58]

And the tartar sauce lady who keeps a bottle in her purse to snack on.

While putting grape jelly in my grits, I asked the waitress if she thought that was unusual, she said, "No, that she had two customers, mother and adult daughter who order pan cakes and then smother them in tartar sauce".

[boop]

Gross!