this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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Today I Learned

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

thats why its called Humus, and not HUMMUS. eating dirt is a good way to get infections, especially parasites, like raccoon roundworm.

[–] percent@infosec.pub 2 points 31 minutes ago

Can those survive the baking process?

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

My wife told me her mom used to eat a bit of dirt when pregnant.

[–] KingOfTheCouch@lemmy.ca 38 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Sometimes I scroll through, see an obvious shit post in what should not be a shit post sub. I go into the comments and they are all "yeah, it's true (personal example)" and I feel convinced a group of shit posters are just brigading the sub for the luls.

This is one of those moments.

[–] nycki@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (3 children)

we're getting punked, right? this is citogenesis? someone just made it up? does anyone have a primary source??

[–] Eric@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 20 minutes ago

Pica is the name to Google

[–] poopkins@lemmy.world 1 points 17 minutes ago

NYT is a reliable source.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 30 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I don't have a source, but when I was younger there were a few black kids in my school from super poor families, and their parents would put sugar and spices in clay for them for breakfast. It had some flavor and filled them up, even if there wasn't much nutritional value.

Then they finally added breakfast (instead of just lunch) to the free meal program for poor families when I was in late elementary, and they'd just eat at school.

A lot of kids only reliably get meals from school. In college, I got involved in a program with the food bank where we'd go to schools during their last period on Fridays and place backpacks full of food in the lockers of children from the poorest families. The blue bags we used were cheap and obvious, and we'd frequently find the previous week's bag still full. The kids were too embarrassed to get on the bus with the bags that identified them as poor.

So we had a fundraiser to buy 3 cheap but normal identical backpacks for each kid in the program. One for their everyday use, and 2 for the weekend food (we'd drop off a new one and take the previous week's bag for refilling). That way they'd swap their regular bookbag in their locker for the food bag and nothing looked unusual on the bus ride home.

I hadn't thought about that in a while. I need to make a donation to the food bank.

Also - give the food bank money, not food. They can buy food cheaper than you can, and they know what they actually need.

[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 6 hours ago

Tyfys 🫡. I will need to join my local food bank as well

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 8 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Hopeful they did it far from outhouses.

Dirt is loaded with parasites even today, in countries with poor sanitation.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

one famous incident is a boy ate some sand/dirt that had raccoon roundworms in it. balisyascaris is probably the most lethal roundworm out there. the house episode was based on it. since it also is lethal to other species too, besides the raccoon itself.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

That's what the cooking is for I imagine

[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

So you're telling me these dirt eaters have really strong immune systems

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 2 points 6 hours ago

But did they have food allergies? Because there's a theory that increases in good allergies are because we live sufficiently sanitary lives that some people's immune systems basic go on a schizophrenic rampage whether somebody certain foods.

[–] bblkargonaut@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago

My grandparents are from Yazoo city, and my mom used to talk about how her grandmother and aunts used to eat dirt, specifically red dirt from a hill on the farm. I've never seen it, and never even thought about it until seeing this post.

[–] Loui@feddit.org 6 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

I've learned about Medicinal clay from my wife. You can buy it in regular shops everywhere in Germany. She takes it dissolved in water if she has bad inflammation.

I have yet to try it.

[–] v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 hours ago

It's called "Heilerde" for anyone who's interested

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[–] Mearcfara@lemmy.ml 11 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

There is a lot of authoritative speculation in the comments on this one

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I mean there was this one kid who ate dirt (he was white tho) but we all thought he was a bit touched in the head. He was the kid who pulled his underwear down to his ankles at the urinal to piss at school. I understand the joys doing that brings, but like get a fucking stall dude. I can't remember if he was also the kid who ate worms but he ate dirt so brain memory confused gets.

This means you all need to eat more dirt to make up for poor brain crippled JoshuBob. Two out of ten Veterinarians recommend you eat 8 cups of humus a day to maintain a luscious, rich sheen on your scales. Do you want to disappoint your veterinarian or get chitin pestilence? That's what I thought. Chitin pestilence it is.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 27 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

My doctor told me that vitamin B12 deficiency is common these days, because we get B12 from bacteria that live in dirt and with how cleanly our food is now, you just don't get the occasional dirt in your diet anymore (and the animals you might consume don't really get that either).

So, maybe¹ eating dirt might actually be healthy.


¹) Okay, no. Get B12 supplements. They're almost as cheap as dirt and don't give you illnesses.

[–] NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

I think B12 is found in most animal products. Interestingly, rabbits are one of few strict herbivores, and have to eat their own feces because it contains some B12 produced by their intestinal tract, as they have too few other dietary sources

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Most carnivore humans are b12 deficient. And also at risk for cardiovascular disease.

Everyone should just take b12 and d supplements.

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[–] ifGoingToCrashDont@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

How efficient! Why didn't we think of this before? We can make vitamin B12 inside our bodies, but instead of just retaining it, we'll make it so that it has to be shit out first then and re-ingested to be absorbed. Perfect!

[–] WraithGear@lemmy.world 15 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

My knock off 5 hour energy gives me 20,000% of my daily dose of B12!

[–] NIB@lemmy.world 14 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

B12 isnt easily absorbed by the body, thats why supplements and food have wild daily portions, so even if you pee most of it, you still absorb some.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 1 points 8 hours ago

Methocobalomin is.

[–] HeHoXa@lemmy.zip 5 points 11 hours ago

Born in the southern US. Great grandparents were dairy farmers in AL. Doesn't get much more rural southern.

Asked my family about this. My granddad had heard that people existed who did this when he was a child (~1940's-50's?) but never saw it nor heard of it since. Nobody else had heard of it at all.

I'm sure it must've happened, but I don't think it was as ubiquitous as the wording here makes it seem.

(Also learned of a family member who ate dirt as a young child, but this was despite the wishes of everyone around him 😂)

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