Why do I often crave eating clay?

What the deal with eating clay. I eat a ton of it and I am 40 and have never had any health problems. Kaolite tastes like rain with a hint of peanuts and it melts in your mouth like chocolate. It gets rid of heavy metals like murcury, so it doesn't give you murcury. It binds at the molecular level to get rid of toxins and heavy metals. My brain has not suffered like most in our population due to vaccinations and being injected with these metals.

Human beings have been eating dirt and clay since we left the cave. It is just that society shuns what it doesn't understand. You can get help for it if you want, but it is perfectly natural. I would never recommend just eating dirt of the ground, bateria and parasites - but clay from Georgia mines or Red Teramin clay is fine.

You sound like a gay Aiken's lover or ManBearPig. Move to San Francisco, anything goes there.

"I eat almost a 1/2 cup at least once a week."

I'm speechless...

...now can someone pour me some milk, so I can wash the clay down...

I guess it's better that eating paste.

Medicine would call this 'pica'...a disease.

I have been eating clay from about the age of 7 or 8, when my mother used to ive it to me. I can confess that I am addicted to eating clay, and it has become a habit, that I do not particuarly want to stop.
I generally eat what is called calabash chalk. There are differnt types, but I eat the small grey one, shaped like a egg, which is described by Ghanaians as 'Ayelo' or 'Shile' I know what the health risks are, although i have done a lot of research on this topic and I have not found any confirmed cases of lead posioning, or the other side affects often described.
If you like eating chalk, please let me know. i am certain I am not the only one.

PICA. Pica is a medical disorder characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive (e.g., clay, coal, soil, feces, chalk, paper, soap, mucus, ash, gum etc.) or an abnormal appetite for some things that may be considered foods, such as food ingredients (e.g., flour, raw potato, raw rice, starch, ice cubes, salt, blood).[1] In order for these actions to be considered pica, they must persist for more than one month at an age where eating such objects is considered developmentally inappropriate. The condition's name comes from the Latin word for magpie, a bird which is reputed to eat almost anything.[2] Pica is seen in all ages, particularly in pregnant women and small children, especially among children who are developmentally disabled, where it is the most common eating disorder.[3]

Pica in children, while common, can be dangerous. Children eating painted plaster containing lead may suffer brain damage from lead poisoning. There is a similar risk from eating dirt near roads that existed prior to the phaseout of tetra-ethyl lead in gasoline (in some countries) or prior to the cessation of the use of contaminated oil (either used, or containing toxic PCBs or dioxin) to settle dust. In addition to poisoning, there is also a much greater risk of gastro-intestinal obstruction or tearing in the stomach[citation needed]. This is also true in animals. Another risk of dirt eating is the possible ingestion of animal feces and the accompanying parasites. Pica can also be found in animals, and is most commonly found in dogs.

omg i eat it too!
I can eat 15 pcs a day but im trying to stop now cuz its affect my teeth.

My family is from Batesville MS and we grew up eating red clay dirt . I loved it. We could fry it and eat it warm or we could eat it just the way it was. It's been awhile sense i've had any, but i wouldnt mind

That is so strange! I like the smell of Playdoh, but I've never thought of eating it..

That's some funky shit! How many calories are in clay? Is there any nutritional value at all? Does it fill you up? Maybe someone can market it as a diet plan. lol. Why not? People have done stranger stuff.

No question, telling people you eat teacups does have a way of bringing conversation to a halt. But be bold. Say to yourself, it's not weird, it's performance art. What you've got is a form of pica, the craving to eat the inedible or to eat normal food in obsessive quantities. If you think teacups are a little over the top, try toilet air-freshener blocks, which one lost soul used to consume at the rate of one or two a week.

Some cravings are so common they have names of their own, such as pagophagia, a hankering for ice (one sufferer admitted to a five-tray-a-day habit supplemented by bags of crushed ice obtained at convenience stores); xylophagia, a yen for wood toothpicks; coniophagia, a lust for dust from venetian blinds, and my personal favorite, gooberphagia, pathological consumption of peanuts... Other cravings include ten bunches of celery a day, a peppermint Life Saver every five minutes, salad croutons by the handful, coal, foam rubber, and worse. One woman, a nonsmoker, reportedly "would burn cigarettes to obtain the ashes" and when her husband smoked would follow him with cupped hand to catch the ashes as they fell.

The particular condition you've got is called geophagia, the desire to eat clay or dirt... It's common among poor rural black women, especially during pregnancy--in fact, during the 19th century dirt- and clay-eating was called cachexia africana. It's so common that one writer (R. Reid, Medical Anthropology, 1992) thinks we should reassess our whole attitude about it, the idea evidently being that if one person does it it's sick but if thousands do it it's an affirming cultural experience, possibly even conferring some medical benefit, although Lord knows what. Incidentally, many geophages are switching to laundry starch, something to think about if your taste for teacups begins to flag.

Geophagia and pica in general are often associated with iron-deficiency anemia... No one knows whether anemia is a cause or an effect, but it's worth looking into in your case, since one can't help thinking that art students as a class could stand a little more, you know, red meat... According to the medical literature, a lot of pica sufferers, including pregnant women with pickles-and-ice-cream-type cravings, have been cured by giving them iron supplements.

Then again, maybe you just like clay. Admittedly the stuff isn't as weird as the match heads and such that some folks go in for... And given that kaolin, a type of clay, is the active ingredient of the well-known childhood remedy Kaopectate, I'll venture to say you don't suffer much from diarrhea..... Still, a fair number of clay-eaters have shown up in emergency rooms with obstructed or even perforated intestines, the latter problem being one you put yourself at particular risk for if you start eating fired teacups in quantity... It's all very well to obsess, but lets not get carried away...

There it is in a teacup, er, nutshell..

btw, I come in peace...

HEIFERS RULE wrote:

No question, telling people you eat teacups does have a way of bringing conversation to a halt. But be bold. Say to yourself, it's not weird, it's performance art. What you've got is a form of pica, the craving to eat the inedible or to eat normal food in obsessive quantities. If you think teacups are a little over the top, try toilet air-freshener blocks, which one lost soul used to consume at the rate of one or two a week.
Some cravings are so common they have names of their own, such as pagophagia, a hankering for ice (one sufferer admitted to a five-tray-a-day habit supplemented by bags of crushed ice obtained at convenience stores); xylophagia, a yen for wood toothpicks; coniophagia, a lust for dust from venetian blinds, and my personal favorite, gooberphagia, pathological consumption of peanuts... Other cravings include ten bunches of celery a day, a peppermint Life Saver every five minutes, salad croutons by the handful, coal, foam rubber, and worse. One woman, a nonsmoker, reportedly "would burn cigarettes to obtain the ashes" and when her husband smoked would follow him with cupped hand to catch the ashes as they fell.
The particular condition you've got is called geophagia, the desire to eat clay or dirt... It's common among poor rural black women, especially during pregnancy--in fact, during the 19th century dirt- and clay-eating was called cachexia africana. It's so common that one writer (R. Reid, Medical Anthropology, 1992) thinks we should reassess our whole attitude about it, the idea evidently being that if one person does it it's sick but if thousands do it it's an affirming cultural experience, possibly even conferring some medical benefit, although Lord knows what. Incidentally, many geophages are switching to laundry starch, something to think about if your taste for teacups begins to flag.
Geophagia and pica in general are often associated with iron-deficiency anemia... No one knows whether anemia is a cause or an effect, but it's worth looking into in your case, since one can't help thinking that art students as a class could stand a little more, you know, red meat... According to the medical literature, a lot of pica sufferers, including pregnant women with pickles-and-ice-cream-type cravings, have been cured by giving them iron supplements.
Then again, maybe you just like clay. Admittedly the stuff isn't as weird as the match heads and such that some folks go in for... And given that kaolin, a type of clay, is the active ingredient of the well-known childhood remedy Kaopectate, I'll venture to say you don't suffer much from diarrhea..... Still, a fair number of clay-eaters have shown up in emergency rooms with obstructed or even perforated intestines, the latter problem being one you put yourself at particular risk for if you start eating fired teacups in quantity... It's all very well to obsess, but lets not get carried away...
There it is in a teacup, er, nutshell..
btw, I come in peace...

Well, I'll be. I learn something new every day. The only weird things I know of that people eat are Elmer's Glue and hair. Also, boogers.

You can run but you can't hide!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA

StarryStarry wrote:

<quoted text>
Well, I'll be. I learn something new every day. The only weird things I know of that people eat are Elmer's Glue and hair. Also, boogers.

Tell the truth. You ate paint chips as a child. We all know you did.

Sharlita Taylor wrote:

My family is from Batesville MS and we grew up eating red clay dirt . I loved it. We could fry it and eat it warm or we could eat it just the way it was. It's been awhile sense i've had any, but i wouldnt mind

Hello, I am an artist working in Atlanta and I am currently researching the practice of clay eating in the south. If you would be willing I would like to ask you some questions about your clay eating, its history, your feelings and thoughts about the practice and how you "contextualize" it. Meaning what does it mean to you to eat clay? If you are interested please reply to this message.

Thanks Jon

hi i have started eating clay since 6 mnths.its like a grey stone.i liove the muddy taste and smell.let me know about your research as im worried about ths habbit. thanks

negnog wrote:

<quoted text>
Hello, I am an artist working in Atlanta and I am currently researching the practice of clay eating in the south. If you would be willing I would like to ask you some questions about your clay eating, its history, your feelings and thoughts about the practice and how you "contextualize" it. Meaning what does it mean to you to eat clay? If you are interested please reply to this message.
Thanks Jon