The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
serious crayons:
Well, now you've got me curious enough to do some intensive research -- i.e., skim a Wikipedia entry. Here's an excerpt:
In more recent times, according to "Dixie's Forgotten People: the South's Poor Whites," geophagia [soil eating] was common among poor whites in the Southeastern United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and was often ridiculed in popular literature. The literature also states, "Many men believed that eating clay increased sexual prowess, and some females claimed that eating clay helped pregnant women to have an easy delivery."[9] Geophagia among Southerners may have been caused by the high prevalence of hookworm disease, of which the desire to consume soil is a symptom.[10] Geophagia has become less prevalent as rural Americans assimilate into urban culture.[8] However, cooked, baked, and processed dirt and clay are sold in health food stores and rural flea markets in the American South.[11]
...
Clay minerals have been reported to have beneficial microbiological effects, such as protecting the stomach against toxins, parasites, and pathogens.[32][33] Humans are not able to synthesize vitamin B12 (cobalamin), so geophagia may be a behavioral adaption to obtain it from bacteria in the soil.[34] Mineral content in soils may vary by region, but many contain high levels of calcium, copper, magnesium, iron, and zinc, minerals that are critical for developing fetuses which can cause metallic, soil, or chewing ice cravings in pregnant women. To the extent that these cravings, and subsequent mineral consumption (as well as in the case of cravings for ice, or other cold neck vasoconstricting food which aid in increasing brain oxygen levels by restricting neck veins) are therapeutically effective decreasing infant mortality, those genetic predispositions and the associated environmental triggers, are likely to be found in the infant as well. Likewise, multigenerationally impoverished villages or other homogenous socioeconomic closed genetic communities are more likely to have rewarded gene expression of soil or clay consumption cravings, by increasing the likelihood of survival through multiple pregnancies for both sexes.[33][35]
There are obvious health risks in the consumption of soil that is contaminated by animal or human feces; in particular, helminth eggs, such as Ascaris, which can stay viable in the soil for years, can lead to helminth infections.[36][37] Tetanus poses a further risk.[36] Lead poisoning is also associated with soil ingestion,[38] as well as health risks associated with zinc exposure can be problematic among people who eat soils on a regular basis.[17] Gestational geophagia has been associated with various homeostatic disruptions and oxidative damage.
I'm guessing that's not what Rebecca Mead was talking about, though. :laugh:
Jeff Wrangler:
Yes, chewing ice is another symptom of pica. I see this problem in my work, though not lately. The questions never go into the science behind it. It just gets treated as a pathology.
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on September 26, 2020, 05:48:55 pm ---The article is about therapy through gardening. When you get your hands into soil, you begin to heal. Your thoughts on this?
--- End quote ---
Upon rereading the article, I see it makes no mention of eating or putting hands in soil. That was a phrase I made up, and I didn't expect it to turn into a research project!
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on September 28, 2020, 11:57:47 am ---Upon rereading the article, I see it makes no mention of eating or putting hands in soil. That was a phrase I made up, and I didn't expect it to turn into a research project!
--- End quote ---
No problem, it's an interesting subject. I mentioned it in a conversation with someone lately and they didn't believe it, so I'm glad I confirmed I wasn't imagining things.
I would go out right now and get a big bowl of soil myself, but unfortunately here there have been infestations of "jumping worms." I don't know that much about them except they're the latest invasive species. None in my yard that I know of, although I may lose my huge ash tree in the backyard to emerald ash borer.
It's kind of like the thing about how people used to get up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night and do stuff. When I mention it to people, they never believe that, either. It is even weirder in a way, because it would have been back in the days before electricity or maybe even gas lanterns. But it does help explain middle-of-the-night insomnia.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/24/sleep-twice-a-night-anxiety
Next up: fecal transplants. Jeff, you probably know about this.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325128
I wish the New Yorker would write about these things (if they haven't already). I was so glad when they ran a story about LSD therapy, because people never believe that either but if you can't believe the New Yorker (and Michael Pollan, who wrote the article and whose book I have on Kindle but haven't read), who can you believe?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/trip-treatment
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on September 28, 2020, 01:17:12 pm ---
Next up: fecal transplants. Jeff, you probably know about this.
--- End quote ---
Unfortunately, yes. :P
To the best of my knowledge, we are not (yet) plagued with jumping worms (jumping worms?) or emerald ash borer, but the spotted lantern fly is a real problem (though not as deadly as that other import from China).
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