The guy suffered from pica, a mental disorder that causes one to have strong urges to eat things not normally eaten. Severe cases tend to eat a lot of the same thing; in this guy's case it was small pieces of metal.
Mild (non-compulsive) pica is often reported in pregnant women. I knew a pregnant woman once who told me she really, REALLY wanted to go drink some Pine-Sol from the kitchen and she couldn't figure out for the life of her why.
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