Up to 80% of people in Africa, especially women, regularly eat clayey soil – this habit is known as geophagy. A previous study has already shown that it is a form of craving. Now researchers have ...

The practice of geophagy – eating earth – is surprisingly common, and while in some parts of the world it is regarded as an eating disorder, in others it is actively encouraged. But why would people ...

Animals eat food because they’re in constant need of nutrition replenishment and energy to survive. On the other hand, some animals resort to eating soil, which lacks the nutritional value needed for ...

Gibraltar’s macaques have been observed engaging in geophagy, the consumption of soil and clay, in an apparent attempt to quell their nausea from eating fatty and salty foods offered by tourists ...

If you crave a snack of dirt and clay, you may be pregnant. New research shows that eating dirt, also called geophagy, is most common during the early stages of pregnancy and in young children, where ...

When I ask people if they have ever eaten soil before, they tend to give me a strange look. But geophagy – the deliberate ingestion of any kind of soil – is a practice that archaeological evidence ...

Few habits sound more startling than eating dirt, yet geophagy, the deliberate consumption of soil, clay, or earth, has ...

Researchers have documented Gibraltar’s Barbary macaques eating soil to ease digestive issues caused by high-calorie, low-fiber snacks from tourists. The study found the behavior, known as geophagy, ...

Geophagy—the deliberate ingestion of soil or sediment—is a widespread behaviour among terrestrial vertebrates, notably herbivorous mammals and some bird species. Mineral licks, whether natural ...

Editor’s note: The UK’s Food Standards Authority and Health Security Agency both advise against eating clay, soil or earth. Links to their guidance are included in this article. When I ask people if ...