- Geophagia, an eating disorder in which people consume things that are not food, is not necessarily abnormal, as a group of students at Tufts University discovered.
- A question has risen over the years- is geophagia abnormal or adaptive? Today it is clear that geophagia is more widespread in the animal wildlife than what was previously thought.
- Some indigenous people in the Americas used dirt as a spice and prepared naturally bitter foods such as acorns and potatoes with a little bit of clay to balance out the sharp taste.
- One of the main reasons as to why animals and people consume dirt is that soil contains minerals, like calcium, sodium, and iron, that support energy production and other vital biological processes.
- Among human populations in Africa, those who already have access to calcium do not practice geophagia as often as those who do not have access to calcium. The need for calcium also explains why geophagia is commonly associated with pregnancy, because a mother needs extra calcium as the fetal skeleton develops.
- Eating dirt is also a form of detoxification, because negatively charged clay molecules easily bind to positively charged toxins in the stomach, which prevents those toxins from entering the bloodstream by carrying them out of the body in the feces.
- Of course, ingesting dirt can also be poisonous. Along with detoxifying minerals, you might unintentionally ingest bacteria, viruses, parasitic worms, and dangerous amounts of lead.
- As a whole, the evidence argues that geophagia is not a sign of a mental illness. It is a specific defense.
- I think that eating dirt is beneficial only to those who are deficient of certain minerals or have certain disorders. If it isn't necessary for you to consume dirt, then I would avoid it.
Why people eat dirt:
Anemia- 75%
Gastrointestinal distress- 96%
Hunger- 22%
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