One of the moderators of r/ForbiddenSnacks, Blank-Cheque, told Bored Panda that the subreddit has been successful right from the start. "It had 100,000 subscribers in early 2018, according to FrontPageMetrics," they said.
"[I think it has become popular because] inedible stuff that looks like food is simply interesting—just look at the Tide POD meme."
For those of you who are too young to remember, the multi-national consumer goods corporation Procter & Gamble introduced the Tide PODS laundry detergent packs in February 2012, and poison control centers got quite a few calls due to children consuming the product.
In fact, according to Know Your Meme, a website dedicated to documenting Internet culture, the 'forbidden snack' term grew alongside the rise of the Tide POD Challenge—a dare game involving the consumption of these detergent capsules—to include other foods that look like they might be snacks.
Although forbidden snacks is definitely a niche subject, Blank-Cheque believes the subreddit is governed by the same Reddit laws as other communities. "Like most large subreddits, I don't think the community really has features unique from Reddit as a whole. If the people here are funny then Redditors are funny in general," they said.
There are frequent reposts like the puppies that look like fried chicken or the mineral that looks like steak but the moderator team try their best to keep the sub fresh.
Sadly, some people have a really hard time resisting some of these forbidden snacks. Like Bored Panda mentioned in our previous forbidden snack list, there's actually an eating disorder that makes the sufferer feel a compulsion to eat non-food items. It's called pica, and it's quite rare; pica often occurs with other mental health disorders associated with impaired functioning (e.g., intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia).
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Common cravings in people with pica include the urge to eat soil, coal, rust, chalk and paper. In these individuals, pica usually is a sign that the body is trying to correct a significant nutrient deficiency. The good thing is that treating this deficiency with medication or vitamins often solves the problem.
