Woman Admits To Eating 20 Sponges A Day

Emma Thompson, who suffers from an OCD disorder called Pica, said: "Some people go out for a steak, I would rather go out for a sponge"For more than two decades this young woman has enjoyed the texture of sponge. But even she admits eating up to 20 kitchen sponges a day is becoming something of an issue. Emma Thompson, 23, loves nothing better than to soak the sponges in apple flavoured washing up liquid before popping them into her mouth and says they are her 'guilty pleasure'. She started chewing bath sponges at the age of just three before discovering she liked the taste of kitchen ones better.Emma, who volunteers at the Prince's Trust, suffers from an OCD disorder called Pica - the persistent eating of substances that have no nutritional value, but is yet to seek help for her condition. She soaks the sponges over night in apple flavoured Fairy Liquid before enjoying one first thing in the morning. When Emma got tonsillitis last year doctors told her it had been caused by her bizarre habit, but it has not stopped her from continuing. She spends £6 a week on sponges, from Wilkinsons and Poundland, and bottles of apple flavoured Fairy to feed her addiction. Emma, from Wallsend, North Tyneside, said: "I enjoy the taste of it, I enjoy it more than food.