I did two very strange things when I was a kid.
Number one, I ate dirt. Mommy told me not to.
Number two, I sucked on bullion cubes.
Why?
Now, at that point, we just kind of thought that these were childish weird things that I did.
Now that I realize that most of my childhood was spent consuming cold cereal, ramen noodles, and Campbell's Soup (even when we had $)... I understand what I was doing.
I WAS LOOKING FOR MINERALS!
The body is inherently intelligent. It's looking for healing. It's looking for the resources it needs.
And if it isn't finding them in the food or in the relationships, it goes to other places.
Historically, sweet things (honey, maple syrup) and salty things (salt was mined with lots of impurities), contained all of the trace minerals that the body needs.
The body needs many minerals, even if some of them are in very trace amounts.
For some reason I refuse to eat pork and beef growing up. So I was missing a lot of important elements that the rest of my family was getting.
And my body decided to just go ahead and eat dirt to try and find those minerals.
Plausible?