If I were that Southerner, and some professor guy comes along, I would tell him such stories too.
I was baffled no one wrote here WHY anyone would do this. Here’s the answer from the article:
Researchers say those who eat dirt do not do so to satisfy hunger or to meet a biochemical urge to acquire certain metals or minerals that might be missing from the diet. Rather, they do so because the practice has been learned culturally. Links Are Traced to West Africa
Dr. Frate said dirt eating is one of the few customs surviving among some Southern blacks that can be directly traced to ancestral origins in West Africa. Dirt-eating is common among some tribes in Nigeria today.
According to his research, Dr. Frate said it was not uncommon for slave owners to put masks over the mouths of slaves to keep them from eating dirt. The owners thought the practice was a cause of death and illness among slaves, when they were more likely dying from malnutrition.
Thanks for citing this, but it still doesn’t explain why this custom has developed.
The most likely explanation is that kaolinite clay is known to reduce nausea and diarrhea.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.893831/full
I compost and a common practice is to throw a handful of your native soil into your pile when you start it, to inoculate it with local soil bacteria. Bacteria do most of the work in an active compost pile.
I wonder if people were getting some kind of gut flora benefit from this.
My grandparents are from Yazoo city, and my mom used to talk about how her grandmother and aunts used to eat dirt, specifically red dirt from a hill on the farm. I’ve never seen it, and never even thought about it until seeing this post.
There is a lot of authoritative speculation in the comments on this one
Some people eat dirt, some eat heaps of sugar every day, some feast on the carcass of dead animals. To me all three of these are weird. Humans are funny creatures
Potatoes naturally were toxic nightshade (all parts). To be domesticated they had to be eaten with clay, which absorbs the toxin. There are still some varieties eaten with clay.
Folk wisdom says it’s healthy. doctors say it’s healthy.
Go for it.
Just so you’re aware, that article you’ve linked isn’t about literally eating dirt. It’s about encouraging parents to let their kids play outside so they’re more exposed to the natural environment so their bodies don’t become hypersensitive to allergens and the like.
Is the term “exposure” tripping you up?
That can mean topical, membranous, oral exposure, as talked about in the article.
No, but I think it is tripping you up.
Exposure means many different thing depending on the context, but if you actually took the time to read the article you linked, it’s clearly referring to external exposure - as in playing in dirt, getting covered in dirt, etc… Which makes sense as we evolved to be outside - our immune systems need exposure to germs to calibrate properly.
But that is very different to advocating for consumption of dirt, which this article isn’t doing. Literally the only part of the article that actually references consumption of dirt is this paragraph…
So let them play in the dirt. If their hands end up in their mouths, or some of the dirt ends up in their mouths, keep an eye on them. If they develop a rash or fever, take them to a doctor. If they don’t, they’re probably fine.
Which is clearly telling parents to not stress out about accidental consumption. This article is at best neutral about the practice, with a side of caution.
Right!
If their hands end up in their mouths, or some of the dirt ends up in their mouths, keep an eye on them. If they develop a rash or fever, take them to a doctor. If they don’t, they’re probably fine.
The article I linked was just the top result of many scientific articles and anthropological studies reiterating the same scientific viewpoint that oral exposure to uncontaminated soil(also known as eating dirt) is not dangerous and potentially-leaning-toward-likely healthy.
And how can you confirm that when you didn’t read far enough into the article you linked to realise it didn’t actually say what you’re trying to cite it as?
As @BarrelAgedBoredom@lemmy.zip said, a child incidentally ingesting dirt while playing outside is very different from intentional Geophagy. Conflating the two and acting like everyone else is stupid for pointing that out doesn’t look good on you.
In any case, if you want to discuss an article that is actually about Geophagy, and gives a fairly balanced and objective look into Geophagy and its potential health benefits and risks, I’ll give you one.
Certain types of Clays (not just everyday soil) are believed to be able to provide real medical benefits when consumed, mostly in the realm of relieving GI tract conditions ranging from stomach irritation all the way to parasitic infections.
However, that is not the same as saying that regular Geophagy is healthy. Again, certain types of clays can contain minerals in high quantities of Macro and Micro nutrients that the body cannot naturally produce.
But there is a good reason why the cultures where Geophagy is most prevalent are also cultures where there either is or was a high level of regular food scarcity. The bioavailability of these minerals is generally quite low compared to organic sources, and these mineral rich clays often contain an unsafe level of heavy metals to boot - which can cause many, many issues with chronic consumption.
TLDR: Acute consumption of uncontaminated dirt definitely won’t hurt you, and can in some cases may actually carry medical benefits - but chronic Geophagy is not the health kick anybody should be looking for - ranging from sort-of harmless to potentially very harmful over a long enough time period.
Assuming other people haven’t read an article because you’re having trouble understanding it is kinda funny.
maybe you guys can start a reading group with each other rather than trying to make things up or put words in others’ mouths; nobody else is having the comprehension problems you share.
I was trying to give you benefit of doubt that you didn’t do enough due diligence when grabbing an article to link - hence I tried to throw an olive branch in the form of an actual article on geophagy to discuss.
But seeing how impolitely persistent you are that this article says something that it plainly does not makes me think that you’re actually a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect and that you simply do not understand that the article title “Should we let kids eat dirt?” Isn’t literally what the article is about.
Which is to say that if you’re so confident that everybody disagreeing with you is wrong, please give us any quote in
where it even just implies that eating dirt healthy for children?
And as for everybody agreeing with you? You should really check the like:dislike ratio on your comments before saying that, because they tell a very different story. Literally your only comment with a positive ratio was the first one, and I’d be more than willing to bet that was from people who scrolled by it, felt your comment affirmed their belief, then left without actually reading the article.
Calm down everyone. They dug it from preferred dirt, cooked it, and seasoned it with salt and vinegar. Serving size = about a handful. Lay’s sells a product with those exact same specifications.
Did… did you just compare dirt to salt and vinegar potato chips?
The chips are probably worse for you tbh
Potatoes are dirt tumors.
All of Ireland clenched their fists at this comment.
Ireland has only had taters for 400 years and the famine was caused by british landlords.
Two different people brought up the potato famine… not what I was trying to bring up with my simpleton joke. I went with a country that, rightfully, enjoy potatoes and are known to.
I don’t think tubers=tumors. They’re delicious.
No, they compared dirt to Lay’s salt and vinegar chips. That’s not the same as comparing dirt to any and all said and vinegar chips.
Hopeful they did it far from outhouses.
Dirt is loaded with parasites even today, in countries with poor sanitation.
So you’re telling me these dirt eaters have really strong immune systems
Monkeys on Gibraltar do it, too. To treat stomach aches when they ate unhealthy. There is an abundance of bad food for them which they steal from tourists.
Should you start eating dirt now? You shouldn’t, scientists say. Germs.
After cooking with high heat there should be no germs left. As stated in the article there are no health risks involved except if you eat such a large amount it blocks your intestines. Also even if you didn’t cook it the germs that live in soil are not the same germs that make you sick, those you get from your fellow humans.
Also even if you didn’t cook it the germs that live in soil are not the same germs that make you sick, those you get from your fellow humans.
Ya, sure, you’ve obviously never heard of gardia, tetanus, botulism, histoplasmosis, anthrax, E coli, salmonella, and the ever popular listeria. Plus you could pick up a party of parasites and worms.
Very pastoral. Very grounding. Touch grass, acquire necrotizing fasciitis.
All the ones you listed are either:
Not native to soil but may be on soil if faeces got on there Or Not dangerous in soil but will become dangerous if food gets into contact with it before fermenting Or Only dangerous getting into your blood, but not your mouth.
As long as there is no literal poop on the soil you can eat it raw. These people mentioned in the article were digging deep clay which would carry absolutely no risk of faeces contamination.
How would you know that no animal had ever crapped over the clay deposit and had rain drift in durable, long-lasting bacterial spores from the waste whiøe the rain was on its way through the clay to join the groundwater? That a burrowing critter didn’t die just upstream in the ground of where you’re digging? It’s not terribly likely that those would get you sick maybe but ‘absolutely no risk’ is a high bar to clear.
Also there can be other sorts of non-obvious contamination like if there are trace amounts of heavy metals. Kaopectate got sued by California because the clay contained in their popular anti-diarrhea pills had traces of lead, such that the adult version pills would have fifty micrograms of lead a pop or six to twelve micrograms for children. For reference California currently mandates a warning slapped on if a product exposes you to half a microgram of lead per day. It’s difficult to know the provenance and full risks of stuff dug from a hole for a regular person. Even trained people with a lot on the line sometimes screw up and get people hurt.
You are right about the risk of heavy metal contamination so wont comment on that. But if we are speaking about an animal that crapped on top of the clay pile then that should not be an issue. Soil in general but especially clay has an absolutely enormous surface area that adsorbs both bacteria and viruses. That’s why ground water is usually safe to drink but surface water is not. A large amount of faeces leaking into the soil water from above would potentially contaminate the water with nitrate which could be a slight cancer risk if consumed in large quantities but there should be no risk of getting infected if you are digging deep unexposed clay, even if an animal crapped on top of the pile. As long as there is no heavy metal contamination eating deep clay is probably safer than eating a wild picked berry.
My doctor told me that vitamin B12 deficiency is common these days, because we get B12 from bacteria that live in dirt and with how cleanly our food is now, you just don’t get the occasional dirt in your diet anymore (and the animals you might consume don’t really get that either).
So, maybe¹ eating dirt might actually be healthy.
¹) Okay, no. Get B12 supplements. They’re almost as cheap as dirt and don’t give you illnesses.
I think B12 is found in most animal products. Interestingly, rabbits are one of few strict herbivores, and have to eat their own feces because it contains some B12 produced by their intestinal tract, as they have too few other dietary sources
Most carnivore humans are b12 deficient. And also at risk for cardiovascular disease.
Everyone should just take b12 and d supplements.
Most carnivore humans are b12 deficient.
How are carnivores at high risk for B12 deficiency?
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12-HealthProfessional/
Perhaps you mean the standard diet, which is omnivore and 70% plant based already, in which case yes - lots of people are under eating essential animal proteins and at risk for deficiencies.
And also at risk for cardiovascular disease.
I’d love to see a non epidemiological source for this. Especially in zero carb carnivores, heck even ketogenic people, not the 70% plant based omnivore that is carb loading and eating processed food all day. We know from early pre westernizationed health surveys of carnivore populations they didn’t have CVD.
From my reading CVD is driven by inflammation and hyperinsulinemia. Zero carb carnivore fixes the insulin so the cardio vascular system works properly and can repair properly, and is very low inflammation.
The good news is that people like this won’t spread disinformation for long…because they’ll die very young
it’s disinformation to ask for the sources of your statements? My reading of the literature indicates a metabolically healthy individual eating meat and not inflammatory compounds like seed oils, and not suffering from hyperinsulinemia (excessive dietary carbohydrates) does not have a meaningful CVD risk. I’m happy to share my sources.
Wishing you all the best health and long and happy life.
Yeah, and I can cherry pick scientific literature that says smoking tobacco is healthy too
we’re getting punked, right? this is citogenesis? someone just made it up? does anyone have a primary source??
Human geophagia is a form of pica – the craving and purposive consumption of non-food items – and is classified as an eating disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) if not socially or culturally appropriate.[6] Sometimes geophagy is a consequence of carrying a hookworm infection. Although its cause remains unknown, geophagy has many potential adaptive health benefits as well as negative consequences.[5][7]
I don’t have a source, but when I was younger there were a few black kids in my school from super poor families, and their parents would put sugar and spices in clay for them for breakfast. It had some flavor and filled them up, even if there wasn’t much nutritional value.
Then they finally added breakfast (instead of just lunch) to the free meal program for poor families when I was in late elementary, and they’d just eat at school.
A lot of kids only reliably get meals from school. In college, I got involved in a program with the food bank where we’d go to schools during their last period on Fridays and place backpacks full of food in the lockers of children from the poorest families. The blue bags we used were cheap and obvious, and we’d frequently find the previous week’s bag still full. The kids were too embarrassed to get on the bus with the bags that identified them as poor.
So we had a fundraiser to buy 3 cheap but normal identical backpacks for each kid in the program. One for their everyday use, and 2 for the weekend food (we’d drop off a new one and take the previous week’s bag for refilling). That way they’d swap their regular bookbag in their locker for the food bag and nothing looked unusual on the bus ride home.
I hadn’t thought about that in a while. I need to make a donation to the food bank.
Also - give the food bank money, not food. They can buy food cheaper than you can, and they know what they actually need.
It had some flavor and filled them up
Ok, but why not, for example, wood, straw? Them are mostly inert and even somewhat healthy. I don’t know about clay specifically but eating pebbles exposes you to high levels of toxic minerals.
People who are soo poor they’ve resorted to eating clay to feel full may not be in a position to know the healthiest way to temporarily the body into thinking it’s not hungry.
