Why Do Southern Women Eat Dirt?

Impolite Society: Exploring the Weird, Taboo & Macabre

In this episode, Laura and Rachel delve into a bizarre but very real practice: eating dirt.
Women in the American South have been snacking on white dirt for generations and today we're taking a look at the historical, cultural, and scientific aspects of what might be going on behind this regional craving. We're exploring geophagy, pica, and why in the world humans do the weird things we do.
Get dirty with us- we know you want to.
00:00 Introduction
00:36 The Southern Dirt-Eating Phenomenon
03:06 Kaolin and Kaolinite
09:18 Understanding Pica and Geophagy
15:08 Theories Behind Dirt-Eating
20:37 Pregnancy and Geophagia
23:10 The American South's White Dirt
24:09 White Dirt on Amazon
27:55 Cultural and Historical Perspectives
30:53 Food, Comfort, and Tradition
35:08 Concluding Thoughts
Sources:
https://bittersoutherner.com/eat-white-dirt
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/04/02/297881388/the-old-and-mysterious-practice-of-eating-dirt-revealed
https://www.vice.com/en/article/pgxwvk/the-american-south-is-still-eating-white-dirt
https://www.amazon.com/Grandmas-White-Dirt-Georgia-Kaolin/dp/B01M8MSIG0
https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/science-medicine/clay-eating/
https://www.adamforrester.com/eat-white-dirt
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0031938476901712
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020602/
https://jeatdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40337-023-00777-0#:~:text=Our%20results%20showed%20that%20females,%25)
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