WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Why Do Some People Eat Dirt?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren vogelbaumb and this is a classic episode of

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<v Speaker 1>the podcast. In this one, we dig no pun intended

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<v Speaker 1>into the branch of paika called geophagy, that is, the

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<v Speaker 1>craving and eating of dirt. It's perhaps surprisingly widespread, though

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<v Speaker 1>still not well understood, partially because of sciences biases. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb. Here in gas stations and

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<v Speaker 1>flea markets all around the southeastern United States, you can

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<v Speaker 1>find packets or boxes containing crumbles of white clay. In Kenya,

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<v Speaker 1>you can buy reddish dirt on the street, formed into

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<v Speaker 1>little pellets that look like baby carrots. In Uganda, you

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<v Speaker 1>can buy Yankee Doodle brand dirt at the grocery store.

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<v Speaker 1>A website called Earth's Clay Store sells clay from all

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<v Speaker 1>over the world and ships them right to your home.

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<v Speaker 1>But what are you supposed to do with it when

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<v Speaker 1>it gets to you, Well, you eat it. You might

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<v Speaker 1>have a vague sense that you've heard of people eating

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<v Speaker 1>dirt before pregnant women. Maybe pica is the overarching term

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<v Speaker 1>for craving and eating things that are not food. In

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<v Speaker 1>the sixth century, ce, the physician Flavius Aecius noticed people

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<v Speaker 1>sticking non food items in their mouths the way that

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<v Speaker 1>magpies pica in Latin pick up random objects in their beaks.

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<v Speaker 1>He figured these people had entirely indiscriminate appetites for just

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<v Speaker 1>any old thing, and termed the behavior after the magpie.

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<v Speaker 1>It turns out pika is kind of a misnomer because

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<v Speaker 1>pika cravings are actually very specific, though according to the

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<v Speaker 1>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, it

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<v Speaker 1>includes a range of behaviors. Some people crave paper clips, batteries,

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<v Speaker 1>or coins. These potentially dangerous cravings are considered by the

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<v Speaker 1>DSM to be actual disorders, but pica can also include

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<v Speaker 1>cravings for a rawstarch that's amylophagy, ice that's pagophagy, and

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<v Speaker 1>dirt that's geophagy. Geophogy is one form of pika found

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<v Speaker 1>in almost every country in the world. We spoke with

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<v Speaker 1>Sarah Young, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at

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<v Speaker 1>Northwestern University. She said, I was surprised when I first

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<v Speaker 1>saw it. I was studying pregnant women ethnography in Zanzibar,

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<v Speaker 1>and I asked a woman what she ate when she's pregnant,

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<v Speaker 1>and in Swahili, she said, every day, I take earth

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<v Speaker 1>from this wall and eat it. I was just learning

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<v Speaker 1>Swahili and was pretty good at it, but I really

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<v Speaker 1>didn't think I was understanding correctly. My research assistant was like, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>you heard right. Young ended up writing her PhD dissertation

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<v Speaker 1>on geopogy and winning the Margaret Meade Award in twenty

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<v Speaker 1>thirteen for her book Craving Earth, which detailed her research

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<v Speaker 1>about geofogy practices worldwide. In her research, Young tracked down

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<v Speaker 1>medical literature, historical texts, research on animal behavior, soil science,

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<v Speaker 1>and parasitology, and came to the conclusion that there are

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<v Speaker 1>four possible explanations as to why people eat dirt. The

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<v Speaker 1>most common and longest running take on geofogy is that

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<v Speaker 1>there's no good reason for it, that it's a pathology,

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<v Speaker 1>it's an aberrant behavior of some unknown origin. Young explained

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<v Speaker 1>the racism, sexism, and classism behind that simplistic take quote

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<v Speaker 1>it's the women they know, not what they do explanation.

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<v Speaker 1>It was basically white men writing about this for the

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<v Speaker 1>past few hundred years, and it was dismissed as aberrant

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<v Speaker 1>We can refute this. There are so many species of

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<v Speaker 1>animals that go to great risk to get clay in charcoal,

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<v Speaker 1>like the colobus monkey that steals charcoal from villagers. But

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<v Speaker 1>even so, we know very little about geophagy because for

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<v Speaker 1>centuries scientists were stubbornly lacking curiosity about it. When scientists

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<v Speaker 1>did start looking into it, the first hypothesis they came

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<v Speaker 1>up with to explain why hundreds of thousands of people

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<v Speaker 1>worldwide crave and eat dirt is that there must be

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<v Speaker 1>something useful in the clay, micronutrients of some kind. Young said,

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<v Speaker 1>the mother Nature's multivitamin explanation is a really intuitive one,

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<v Speaker 1>but unfortunately it doesn't really shake out for starters. Although

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<v Speaker 1>the clay her study participants in Zanzibar were eating was

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<v Speaker 1>tinged with red, indicating iron content, investigations into whether that

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<v Speaker 1>iron could be absorbed and used by the body came

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<v Speaker 1>up empty. Plus. According to Young, people generally prefer whiter clay.

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<v Speaker 1>If you give a geophogist to the option of snacking

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<v Speaker 1>on Georgia white calin or the reddish clay found on Zanzibar,

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<v Speaker 1>they'll almost always pick the white kalin, which does not

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<v Speaker 1>contain iron, So we turn to another hypothesis. Could dirt

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<v Speaker 1>provide protection from germs. The explanation that eating dirt is

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<v Speaker 1>somehow an immune system boost might not make sense on

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<v Speaker 1>the surface. After all, we're supposed to stay away from dirt,

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<v Speaker 1>wash our hands, clean our clothes, take off our shoes

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<v Speaker 1>when we enter the house. But clay face masks can

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<v Speaker 1>draw germs and oils and dead cells from your skin

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<v Speaker 1>and they're made of dirt, right. According to Young, eating

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<v Speaker 1>clay might collect stuff inside of the gut, similar to

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<v Speaker 1>how a mud mask collects stuff from your face. But

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<v Speaker 1>why would somebody need an intestinal mud mask. The answer

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<v Speaker 1>is protection from pathogens and harmful compounds. Many harmful microorganisms

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<v Speaker 1>and compounds can enter your body via the things you eat.

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<v Speaker 1>You digest the food and it's absorbed through the wall

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<v Speaker 1>of your intestine and into your bloodstream. But lots of

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<v Speaker 1>potentially harmful stuff can get to us in this way too.

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<v Speaker 1>Clay may stimulate the mucous membranes on the surface of

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<v Speaker 1>your guts to create more mucus, thus forming a sort

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<v Speaker 1>of protective barrier against those pathogens and compounds. Young said.

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<v Speaker 1>It can also bind with whatever harmful thing you're eating.

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<v Speaker 1>For example, in the Andes, people eat wild potatoes which

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<v Speaker 1>contain these toxic chemicals called glycoalkaloids, but after they dip

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<v Speaker 1>the potatoes in clay, they become safe to eat. But

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<v Speaker 1>while eating clay might protect from pathogens and harmful chemicals,

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<v Speaker 1>which is especially important in pregnant women. There's something of

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<v Speaker 1>a Goldilocks principle at play here. You want to shield

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<v Speaker 1>yourself from the harmful stuff, but you also don't want

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<v Speaker 1>to protect yourself from the nutrients you need. For example,

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<v Speaker 1>if you eat a steak that's full of both bioavailable

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<v Speaker 1>iron and pathogens, but you eat clay at the same time,

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<v Speaker 1>the iron could also become bound by the clay and

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<v Speaker 1>wouldn't be absorbed by your gut. Although the clay might

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<v Speaker 1>be protecting you from pathogens to some extent, it's also

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<v Speaker 1>preventing you from absorbing the nutrients. The fourth hypothesis for

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<v Speaker 1>why people eat dirt or clay is that it might

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<v Speaker 1>help with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea by coding stomach. After all,

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<v Speaker 1>a number of anti diarrheal treatments have kalin in them.

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<v Speaker 1>Kalin puts the ko in chaopectate though the reasons for

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<v Speaker 1>geophogy are still rather mysterious, Young stresses that it's far

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<v Speaker 1>more common than we realize, partially because of those old

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<v Speaker 1>stigmas against it. Young said, people don't like to talk

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<v Speaker 1>about it or admit it. When I'm doing ethnographic interviews,

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<v Speaker 1>I always ask how much earth do you eat? Instead

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<v Speaker 1>of do you eat earth? Because so many people have

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<v Speaker 1>sworn they don't eat it and later tell me that

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<v Speaker 1>they do, but they lied because I didn't want you

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<v Speaker 1>to think I was poor. Today's episode is based on

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<v Speaker 1>the article why do people eat dirt? On how Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>Works Up, written by Jesselyn Shields. Brain Stuff is a

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<v Speaker 1>production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com

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<v Speaker 1>and is produced by Tyler clang But four more podcasts

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<v Speaker 1>my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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<v Speaker 1>wherever you listen to your favorite shows.