Geophagy

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Geophagy is a practice of eating earthy substances such as clay, chalk, and laundry starch, often to augment a mineral-deficient diet.

While most often seen in rural or preindustrial societies among pregnant women, it also occurs among children and as a psychological eating disorder. Geophagy is a type of disorder known as pica.

In parts of Africa and among some African Americans, clay consumption may be correlated with pregnancy as women eat clay to eliminate nausea possibly because the clay coats the gastrointestinal tract and absorbs dangerous toxins. The clay may also provide critical calcium for fetal development.

Bentonite clay is available worldwide as a digestive aid, kaolin is also widely used as a digestive aid and as the base for some medicines.

Geophagy was also practiced by Native Americans who would eat earth with acorns and potatoes to neutralize potentially harmful alkaloids. Clay was used in the production of acorn bread.

Geophagy has also been observed in birds. Notably, South American macaws have been observed at clay licks in South America by scientist Charles Munn, whilst Sulphur-crested Cockatoos have been observed ingesting clays in Papua New Guinea by Jared Diamond (Discover, 1998) as well as in the Blue Mountains of Australia by David W Cooper (Parrots Magazine, 2000). Pet birds are often permitted to ingest grit and bone, which they use not for nutrition but to store in their gizzards to aid in grinding the food they eat.

There is also evidence that supports the usefulness of the flora found in soil. Some have even suggested that it is useful, if not vital in the establishment of healthy bacteria within the digestive tract, addressing the problems presented by Crohn's Disease and Leaky Gut Syndrome.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Wiley, Andrea S. "Geophagy." Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. Ed. Solomon H. Katz. Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 120-121.
Wiley, Andrea S., and Solomon H. Katz. "Geophagy in Pregnancy: A Test of a Hypothesis." Current Anthropology 39, no. 4 (1998): 532–545.
Lagercrantz, Sture. "Geophagical Customs in Africa and among the Negroes in America." Studia Ethnographica Upsaliensia 17 (1958): 24–81.
Callahan GN. Eating dirt. Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 2003 Aug . Available from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol9no8/03-0033.htm