Ice Chewing

[GlorifiedRice]

Chew This Over:

Munchable Ice Sells

Like Hot Cakes

Fans Buy It by the Cup

At Fast-Food Restaurants;

Nugget Machine Was Key

By ILAN BRAT

January 30, 2008; Page A1

When Kyle Burkhalter gets up in the morning, he goes into the kitchen and fixes himself a nice cup of ice.

The 24-year-old director of research for a Web site chews the ice in the car on his way to work in Atlanta. He downs two or three more cups before lunch. He orders ice from drive-thru windows and dips into the office ice machine. Sometimes, his tongue gets so numb he can barely talk to clients.

Still, he munches on. "It's something that you want to do and you think about doing on a constant basis," he says.

Continue: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1201655103...mod=fpa_mostpop

An Internet Forum JUST for Ice Chewers:

http://www.icechewing.com/

[Kim Shook]

That is too funny. I am an ice chewer (I prefer shaved ice) and have been since I had teeth, I guess. I didn't know it was odd, though. I thought everyone chewed ice. Vince Gill talking about the paucity of ice in Europe reminded me about my mom's first trip to England. When she got back to the states the first thing she did was go to a snack shop at the airport and say to them, "I want you to take the biggest cup you have and fill it to the top with ice, then fill it with coke". She says that and the hamburger she had a little while later where the best things she'd tasted in her whole life!

Kim

[JimH]

I too chew ice but I stopped when my dentist showed me the hairline cracks in my teeth. I had to give up wintergreen Lifesavers too.

[kategoldston]

I too chew ice but I stopped when my dentist showed me the hairline cracks in my teeth.  I had to give up wintergreen Lifesavers too.

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Kind of an interesting fact but ice chewing is a sign of severe anemia. I chewed on ice addictively for years and then within a day of starting iron pills stopped completely. Haven't chewed since.

[Cadbury]

I too chew ice but I stopped when my dentist showed me the hairline cracks in my teeth.  I had to give up wintergreen Lifesavers too.

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Kind of an interesting fact but ice chewing is a sign of severe anemia. I chewed on ice addictively for years and then within a day of starting iron pills stopped completely. Haven't chewed since.

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I was about to post the same comment. I chewed ice when pregnant with my first, until I increased my iron intake.

[Kerry Beal]

Same comment here - need checking for iron deficiency. Something about the chemical reactions in the body with which iron is involved, and when it is not available in sufficient quantity you get cravings for such things as ice.

Also cravings happen for earth (ie dirt) - the condition called Pica.

[prasantrin]

I like crunching on ice cubes, but I don't crave it. I guess I should be thankful for that? But I do love anything crunchy. When I was a kid, I liked to eat sand from the neighbourhood sandbox. It's a good thing I didn't realize cats used it for their business.

I've never had problems with iron levels, though.

[Ndy]

wow. That's pretty great.

[JimH]

I used to enjoy chewing the ice from the leftovers in a drink - soda, scotch, etc. It took two root canals & crowns to get me to stop. The Wintergreen Lifesavers were the worst according to the dentist, they were a really bad habit too, all through school. I enjoyed Italian Ice and snow cones as a kid, so perhaps that's where the ice chewing habit came from.