“The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that children in the United States consume, on average, 200–800 mg of dirt per day.”

The above quote comes from:
Callahan GN: Eating Dirt. Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol. 9, No. 8, August 2003: 1016-1021.

This article has many other interesting points. We all participate in geophagy – the eating of dirt. It happens during the consumption of air, water, and food.

Some speculate that eating dirt might be good for us, and that’s why children tend to do it when they go outside to play. Perhaps geophagy stimulates the immune system and sometimes populates our gut with beneficial bacteria. According to the author, when rabbits, guinea pigs, and mice have been raised in completely sterile environments their immune systems fail to develop normally.

The article says that one researcher found an estimated 4,600 species of bacteria per gram of soil and that other researchers have found even more species.

The article says that In the United States that the most common human parasite from dirt is the worm Toxocara canis, and it most commonly comes from ingesting soil contaminated with cat or dog feces.

Callahan writes, “It has been estimated that more than 1029 bacteria live on this planet and as many as 1014 live on each one of us.”

Other medical papers give us information on why germs in the intestines may cause disease. The theory is that germs enter our digestive tract, take up residence there, and cause disease locally, or in other areas of the body by secreting toxins.

Many diseases are speculated to be related to the gut flora, things like: colon cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel disease, osteoporosis, atopic dermatitis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, and on and on.

------

© copyright November 24, 2004 Bradley Hennenfent, MD