What are the benefits of eating red dirt?
The potential hazards far outweigh the benefits, and I’m not sure that there’s any specific difference between eating red dirt over other kinds of dirt. This is assuming the question all has to do with humans. In other animals, the answer could be a little different, but here’s a pretty good summary from the CDC of what has been studied on this issue: Many nonhuman animals regularly eat dirt, generally without ill effects and in many cases with some benefits. Even in humans, there are few reports of infections routinely associated with geophagy by pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa, probably because women take clays from 60 cm to 90 cm below the soil surface and, at least some of the time, they bake the clays. But these factors seem inadequate to fully account for the frequent absence of overt ill effects. Helminth infections associated with geophagy appear to affect the frequency of inflammatory bowel diseases, which occur most often in industrialized nations. The underlying cause o
Other than water, what little stuff we humans have inside us is largely dirt. Admittedly, this dirt is sometimes highly processed before we receive it, but most solids that make up humans and other creatures either are now or recently were dirt (the simple stuff that stripes the outer surface of our world, the thin paste that raises us above rocks) transformed by sunlight into plants or animals. Most of us prefer the dirt we eat in the form of cows and sheep and carrots and squash and bison and sorghum. Other dirt we’d just as soon scrape from our feet and leave at the door. But not everyone wishes to be so far removed from the stuff of mud pies and mucilage. On every continent (except, possibly, Antarctica), some of us intentionally eat dirt, and we are joined in this practice by a myriad of rats, mice, mule deer, birds, elephants, African buffalo, cattle, tapirs, pacas, and several species of primates (1). Most scientists consider animal geophagy “normal,” probably because most soil
Geophagia is defined as deliberate consumption of earth, soil, or clay1. From different viewpoints it has been regarded as a psychiatric disease, a culturally sanctioned practice or a sequel to poverty and famine. Prompted by a remarkable case in our own practice2 we became increasingly aware of geophagia in contemporary urban South Africa. In view of the high prevalence of geophagia there and in many other regions of the world1, we hypothesized that ancient medical texts would also contain reports of the disorder. To our surprise, geophagia was indeed reported by many authors ranging from Roman physicians to 18th century explorers. Here we present, together with a brief description of the disorder, some of the most remarkable examples. Top GEOPHAGIA ANTIQUITY THE MIDDLE AGES GEOPHAGIA IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES ANTHROPOLOGISTS, COLONIAL PHYSICIANS AND EXPLORERS CONCLUSION References GEOPHAGIAFrom a psychiatric point of view, geophagia has been classed as a form of pica3—a term tha
Other than water, what little stuff we humans have inside us is largely dirt. Admittedly, this dirt is sometimes highly processed before we receive it, but most solids that make up humans and other creatures either are now or recently were dirt (the simple stuff that stripes the outer surface of our world, the thin paste that raises us above rocks) transformed by sunlight into plants or animals. Most of us prefer the dirt we eat in the form of cows and sheep and carrots and squash and bison and sorghum. Other dirt we’d just as soon scrape from our feet and leave at the door. But not everyone wishes to be so far removed from the stuff of mud pies and mucilage. On every continent (except, possibly, Antarctica), some of us intentionally eat dirt, and we are joined in this practice by a myriad of rats, mice, mule deer, birds, elephants, African buffalo, cattle, tapirs, pacas, and several species of primates (1).
Geophagia is defined as deliberate consumption of earth, soil, or clay1. From different viewpoints it has been regarded as a psychiatric disease, a culturally sanctioned practice or a sequel to poverty and famine. Prompted by a remarkable case in our own practice2 we became increasingly aware of geophagia in contemporary urban South Africa. In view of the high prevalence of geophagia there and in many other regions of the world1, we hypothesized that ancient medical texts would also contain reports of the disorder. To our surprise, geophagia was indeed reported by many authors ranging from Roman physicians to 18th century explorers. Here we present, together with a brief description of the disorder, some of the most remarkable examples. Top GEOPHAGIA ANTIQUITY THE MIDDLE AGES GEOPHAGIA IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES ANTHROPOLOGISTS, COLONIAL PHYSICIANS AND EXPLORERS CONCLUSION References GEOPHAGIAFrom a psychiatric point of view, geophagia has been classed as a form of pica3—a term tha
