Eating Dirt, Chalk and other substances

dipat2005

One of my new friends told me that her family fed their children dirt every day. I don't know how many years she ate dirt but I did find this article about how it really isn't good to eat dirt!

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/eating-dirt

water2world

@dipat3005 Interesting article. When I was very young, about 65+ years ago, I made mud pies for my young sister and myself. We were eating them when my mom caught us! Never lived that one down!!

dipat2005

@water2world I can only imagine.

karon

moderation is key...keeping kids squeaky clean versus dirty hands and touching mouth or the occasional mud pie play meal is vastly different than spoon feeding them dirt. Too clean kids and homes have proven to create many more allergy issues than the kids allowed to play and get dirty. Many of the 'green' cleaning products on the market today were created by mom's that caught the connection between their cleaning day/products and kids allergy flair ups.

judsoncarroll4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaDiT_TpEOk

Torey

Moderation in all things.

This is an article about the benefits of exposing kids, even infants, to dirt (and other substances), for better immune systems, better gut health and better mental health.

https://www.healthline.com/health/childrens-health/mud-play

Not to mention that Vitamin B12 is produced by a bacteria in soil. Animals are sources of B12 because they ingest a bit of dirt when they eat. So vegetarians and vegans who may be low in B12 shouldn't scrub their root veggies. Eating that bit of dirt that may remain after rinsing can be good for us.

dipat2005

@torey I had heard that scrubbing your root vegetables is a no go and I have been following that rule for several years.

dipat2005

@judsoncarroll4 That was fun to watch!

judsoncarroll4

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/911703#Comment_911703

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaDiT_TpEOk

Best show ever, mainly because Lewis Grizzard was on an episode!

Kuri and Kona

I`ve heard that leaving small amounts of dirt on organic produce is healthy, although I certainly wouldn`t eat dirt by the cup. Therefore, I usually leave small amounts of dirt on my root vegetables and other organic produce items.