Habitual consumption of items of no nutritional value. In some cases, the item in question will have a deleterious effect on the person’s health. The habit is called pica, after the Latin word for magpie. Many different items are consumed; however, the most common are clay (geophagia), laundry starch (amylophagia), and ice (pagophagia). Pregnant women and children are the most frequently affected, and black women are three to four times more affected than white women of the same socioeconomic group.