Her Strange Addiction: Eating Dirt

Kristi Spinuzza of Vancouver, Washington first came to our attention on My Strange Addiction for her compulsion to eat dirt. Now being treated for pancreatic cancer, she's given a follow-up interview, and—perhaps unsurprisingly—says that some of what featured on the show was exaggerated for dramatic effect. Although she was accurately portrayed eating dirt at home, in her car and even taking shot glasses of it, she says that the show's producers bought her the bags of potting soil so they could film her eating from them. Spinuzza is believed to suffer from pica disease—an eating disorder usually seen in pregnant women who crave soil, clay or chalk. She also believes that the fact she has been around dirt all her life contributed to her condition: her father constructed pools while her grandfather was a flower gardener, and Spinuzza also played softball and baseball as a child. "It was always a smell to me that was soothing and comforting," she says. "Whereas other people accepted that was [part of] a nice spring day, I would just think 'that's good dirt'." Her habit has cost her over $20,000 in dental repairs. She also suspects that it was a factor in the development of her cancer; because of this she has now stopped eating dirt to try to be around to raise her teenage son.