In South Epsteinia they eat dirt. And they only season it with salt and vinegar because they’re white.
That would explain a lot, actually.
I really don’t think it was “common” up to the 80s. I remember reading about this in high school around 1970, when it was described as an old practice, uncommon and eccentric but still found among a few rural poor. I remember they used the term “sweet dirt” to describe dirt they considered edible.
peak south USA
Drinking acid out of cans is still super common tho.
Only because they took the drugs out.
thats why its called Humus, and not HUMMUS. eating dirt is a good way to get infections, especially parasites, like raccoon roundworm.
Can those survive the baking process?
Hopeful they did it far from outhouses.
Dirt is loaded with parasites even today, in countries with poor sanitation.
That’s what the cooking is for I imagine
So you’re telling me these dirt eaters have really strong immune systems
But did they have food allergies? Because there’s a theory that increases in good allergies are because we live sufficiently sanitary lives that some people’s immune systems basic go on a schizophrenic rampage whether somebody certain foods.
That which doesn’t kill you can always main you horribly or infect you for life.
one famous incident is a boy ate some sand/dirt that had raccoon roundworms in it. balisyascaris is probably the most lethal roundworm out there. the house episode was based on it. since it also is lethal to other species too, besides the raccoon itself.
Are they preparing the subjects that eating dirt is “American”, and they should get used to it, as the prices are going to rise even more?
I knew some animals would “eat” dirt once in a while, but this sounds like desperate hunger to me
More likely pica which is a symptom of severe iron or other nutrient deficiency.
Man that make some scenes in Yellowjacket make so much more sense…
When I read about this practice a long time ago it was talked about more as an eccentric preference, like gum or tictacs, not a desperate means of nourisment - although it might have been driven by deficiency cravings. And what I’ve read about it didn’t mention baking, so it seems like a great way to ingest parasites.
I feel like there’s a decent difference between dirt and clay. Like the title made me imagine the same dirt that’s in a lawn with bugs and stuff; clay I imagine as being cleaner and more similar to eating wax or play-doh.
Explains a lot
My wife told me her mom used to eat a bit of dirt when pregnant.
Eat dirt all y’all!
I mean, I drink my urine for the sulphur qualities in alchemy, which are a different thing entirely than what sulphur is in chemistry. Makes my teeth hurt less, I find. Must be good Karma in a yellow spectrum of frequencies. Don’t eat your poop though. That’s a bad idea, kids.
If I were that Southerner, and some professor guy comes along, I would tell him such stories too.
Yeah every culture went through their phase of tricking ethnographers on this.
