Yazmin Chapman, a 34-year-old mother of four from Portsmouth, Hampshire, has drawn attention for her unusual compulsion to eat paper—a behaviour she attributes to a long-standing condition known as pica. In an interview reported by LADbible, Chapman explained that she has been consuming paper since early childhood, recalling that her fascination began when she was about four years old.
Although the habit reportedly intensified during her first pregnancy in 2015, she now describes it as a daily routine, estimating that she eats around ten pieces of paper every day.
Yaz Chapman refers to herself as a “human paper shredder,” a nickname she uses to acknowledge her unusual eating pattern. She describes preferring ordinary A4 paper, envelopes, or printed letters and says she tears them into strips, pockets them, and chews them “like spaghetti.” She claims that different types of paper vary in appeal depending on texture and taste, often testing a small piece before deciding whether to eat it. Papers that are glossy or heavily printed are usually rejected because she finds them less palatable or potentially harmful. Over the years, she has also experimented with eating other nonfood materials, including chalk, talcum powder, silica gel balls, and even polyfiller, but paper remains her main craving.
According to her account, these cravings are persistent and difficult to ignore. Yaz Chapman explains that eating paper brings her a sense of relief and satisfaction similar to that of satisfying hunger. She reports that her health checks during pregnancy showed normal nutrient levels, though she was once found to have low iron and calcium levels earlier in life—deficiencies that have been linked to pica in clinical research.
Chapman says she tries to control the habit by moderating how much she eats and by staying hydrated, which she believes helps prevent digestive problems.
Pica is defined as the persistent eating of nonnutritive, nonfood substances for at least one month at an age at which this behaviour is developmentally inappropriate. Typical items include soil (geophagia), clay, chalk, hair (trichophagia), paint chips, and paper.
Pica may occur in children, pregnant people, and adults, and can co-occur with neurodevelopmental conditions, mental health disorders, and nutritional deficiencies.
Population-based research indicates that pica and rumination behaviours—the latter involving regurgitation of recently ingested food—occur in adults, though recurrent clinically significant behaviours are less common than isolated episodes.
A representative study found one-time pica or rumination behaviours in roughly 5% of adults surveyed, while recurrent behaviours occurred at lower rates (about 1% for pica and <1% for rumination), and recurrent cases showed higher rates of other psychopathology. These findings suggest that feeding disorder behaviours persist beyond childhood in a minority of people and warrant clinical attention when recurrent.2
The causes of pica are multifactorial. Proposed contributors include sensory preferences, cultural practices, and nutritional deficiencies (notably iron and zinc).
In some individuals, pica may represent a maladaptive feeding behaviour linked to neurodevelopmental conditions or psychiatric disorders. Rumination disorder is thought to involve a learned or reflexive contraction of the abdominal and intercostal muscles that increases intra-abdominal pressure and allows effortless regurgitation; psychological stress and gastroesophageal factors may influence the behaviour. 1
Both pica and rumination disorder can cause medical complications. Pica complications depend on the substance ingested and include gastrointestinal obstruction, constipation, parasitic or bacterial infection, tooth damage, and toxic exposures such as lead poisoning from certain soils or paint.
Nutritional complications include iron deficiency and other micronutrient imbalances; in some cases targeted supplementation reduces pica behaviour. Rumination disorder complications include dental erosion, esophageal irritation, aspiration pneumonitis, dehydration, electrolyte disturbances, and weight loss when regurgitation is frequent and persistent. 1
Clinical assessment should include a detailed history of the behaviour, physical examination, laboratory tests for nutrient deficiencies (iron, zinc), imaging or endoscopy when obstruction or ingestion of hazardous material is suspected, and psychiatric evaluation for coexisting disorders. Management is tailored to the patient and may include nutritional repletion (for deficiency-associated pica), behavioural therapies (habit-reversal, exposure-based approaches), multidisciplinary rehabilitation for rumination disorder (diaphragmatic breathing, biofeedback), and treatment of comorbid psychiatric conditions. Pharmacologic agents have limited and condition-specific roles.
References
Al Nasser, Yasser; Erind Muco; Ali J. Alsaad. Pica. In StatPearls, Treasure Island, FL: StatPearls Publishing; updated June 26, 2023. Accessed October 17 2025. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532242/.
Hartmann, Maria, et al. “Prevalence of Pica and Rumination Behaviors in Adults: A Population-Based Study.” Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, PMC, 2022. Accessed October 17 2025. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9220787/#sec3.
Sasegbon, A., S. Hasan, B. R. Disney, & D. H. Vasant. “Rumination Syndrome: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis and Practical Management.” Frontline Gastroenterology 13, no. 5 (2022). Accessed October 17 2025. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6492032/.
National Eating Disorders Association. “Rumination Disorder.” Reviewed by Amy Baker Dennis, PhD, FAED. Accessed October 17 2025. https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/rumination-disorder/.
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