Most people sweep dirt into the trash, but a grassroots social media trend suggests sprinkling it on your lunch as a healthy treat. Health experts, however, say the risks of injury and disease far ...

Geophagia is the official term for craving and eating dirt, including earth, soil, or clay. Eating dirt may relieve gastrointestinal pain for some people, but it can also cause health problems such as ...

Geophagia has been around for centuries. In the 18th century, Roman physicians reported on the effects of eating dirt. Scholars have studied the act of eating dirt in contemporary urban South Africa.