Pica: The Urge to Eat Dirt

It's been said proverbially, that every man must eat a peck of dirt before he dies. While the metaphorical wisdom which refers to humility and endurance may be undeniable, many people take its meaning literally. That’s the message of filmmaker Adam Forrester, whose movie “Eat White Dirt” tells the story of practitioners of the bizarre behavior. In fact, Forrester claims that hundreds of thousands of people around the world participate in the strange ritual of eating dirt.

Apparently human beings have been savoring sod for a long time. According to researchers, we were indulging even before we were human. Anthropological records indicate that our Homo Sapiens predecessor, Homo Habilis, was consuming mud from riverbeds, shards of pottery as well as juicy clods of terra firma over 2 million years ago on the African savannah.

These days, children are especially prone towards dirt munching, although they’re by no means the only ones with an appetite for earth. In fact, the condition, called “geophagia” (which literally means dirt-eating), has been used as a part of a medical treatment for alleviating nausea and as a diet aid to provide a sense of fullness for patients trying to shed some pounds.

Geophagia is a form of a relatively common doctor-sanctioned disease known as “pica”, characterized by the desire to eat all kinds of strange substances including paper, sand and glass in addition to soil. Pica is a name for the magpie, (whose genus species name is Pica Pica) a crow like bird recognized for its broad diet and indiscriminate eating behavior.

Although it’s a somewhat normal childhood occurrence, The New York Times says that Between 10% and 32% of children ages 1 - 6 exhibit the odd behavior. Pica is linked to various developmental disorders. Autistic kids are especially prone to the disease, which may involve a form of sensory stimulation. The mouth is packed with nerves and non-nutritive substances may provide sensations that are unavailable from ordinary foods. It can also be associated with nutritional deficiencies, especially minerals. A lack of zinc can be a particularly significant cause of the condition. Many pediatricians recommend supplementation with the important mineral, which is a common deficiency for everyone: adults and children like. Likewise iron. A 2003 article in the Indian Journal of Pediatrics concluded that low levels of both zinc and iron could be a cause pica. Other studies show that the strange eating behavior associated with pica diminishes with iron or zinc replacement.

Pica is a not an uncommon occurrence in pregnancy. Unfortunately, as moms are eating for two, this may have harmful effects for the fetus. In addition to the toxins, microbes and even heavy metals that may be part of the ingested substances, like soil and cigarette ashes (!), inedible substances like sand and pebbles may actually block nutrient absorption from healthy foods, leading to deficiencies that can affect both mom and baby-to-be. Depending on what’s eaten, bowel impaction and trauma to the digestive tract can also occur. As with the childhood version, treatment with iron and zinc is suggested to treat the strange symptomology of pica in pregnancy.

In addition to nutritional supplementation, if you like you can always go the medical route. Psychiatrists have accorded pica the sacred status of treatable mental disease and use powerful anti-psychotics Clozaril, Risperdal, Zyprexa and anti-anxiety medications like Valium and Prozac as pharmacological intervention. From a non-medical perspective psychiatrists have used behavioral interventions including reward as well as negative reinforcement, sometimes, according to a July 2015 article in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, quite successfully.