But after they dip the potatoes in clay, they become safe to eat."īut while eating clay might protect from pathogens and harmful chemicals, which is especially important for pregnant women, there's something of a Goldilocks Principle at play here: you want to shield yourself from the harmful stuff, but you also don't want to protect yourself from the nutrients you need. For example, in the Andes, people eat wild potatoes which contain these toxic chemicals called glycoalkaloids. "It can also bind with whatever harmful thing you're eating. "In rabbits, clay has been shown to stimulate the production of mucin, creating a barrier to potential harmful pathogens or chemicals getting into your bloodstream," says Young. Clays can bind to the mucin (mucus) layer inside your gut, forming a barrier. You digest the food and it's absorbed through the wall of your intestine and into your bloodstream - lots of pathogens and chemicals get to us in this way, too. Most toxins enter your body in the things you eat. In her research, Young tracked down medical literature historical texts research on animal behavior, soil science and parasitology, and came to the conclusion that there are four explanations as to why people eat dirt. dissertation on geophagy, and winning the Margaret Mead Award in 2013 for her book " Craving Earth" which detailed her research about geophagy practices worldwide. My research assistant was like, 'Yeah, you heard right!'" "I was studying pregnant women ethnography in Zanzibar, and I asked a woman what she ate when she's pregnant, and in Swahili she said, 'Every day I take earth from this wall and eat it.' I was just learning Swahili and was pretty good at it, but I really didn't think I was understanding correctly. "I was surprised when I first saw it," says Sera Young, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Northwestern University. Geophagy is one form of pica found in almost every country in the world.
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