In certain circumstances, however, surmises the anthropologist, the leaching effect of the dirt must be an advantage. "Dirt may help to remove poisonous substances from the body." This theory is backed up by something that Young noticed after studying over 2,700 relevant cases in literature on the subject: small children and pregnant women -- people for whom poisoning could be particularly serious -- make particularly frequent use of this natural resource. Up until now, morning sickness has been seen as an evolutionary mechanism developed to protect the unborn child from harmful substances in food. Could geophagy be an additional strategy? In an attempt to give more substance to her theory, Young is currently having 30 loamy samples from Pemba, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia and other areas analyzed by the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, in order to understand to what extent they have the chemical potential to get rid of toxic foodstuffs. The analyses could provide scientific proof of what many earth eaters have always said: dirt cleans the stomach.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 12:49:07 +0000
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