Meet the ‘crunchers’ who purchase ‘edible’ dirts, clays and chalks online for a number of supposed health benefits.
Numerous retailers have set up shop on digital marketplaces like Etsy and eBay to offer rocks and other geological detritus for human consumption, priced at less than £10.
Suppliers use descriptives terms you’d recognise in a wine shop, touting their product as having ‘a very pleasant earthy taste with a medium hard crunch’.
Another online retailer sells something called ‘blue clay’, and claims it features a scent of wild herbs followed by a ‘slight tart aftertaste’.
Multiple clay and chalk eating accounts have been set up all over TikTok, where people sit with a stick, clump of bowl of earth to consume in front of their followers, sometimes racking up millions of views.
Technically called geophagy, the act of eating clays, chalks and soils has been practised for many hundreds of years in some parts of the world.
Traditionally, it has been seen as way to ingest trace minerals that could be lacking in people’s diets, such as zinc, or to bulk out food in times of hardship.
It also has a reputation for being a cure for digestive issues and being able to absorb toxins from the body, as the multiple sellers claim.
One advert seen by MailOnline claims that ingesting it will help fix acne and beat hunger pangs. Another says it can act as a ‘mood enhancer’.
Some even tag it as being able to ease allergic symptoms as well having ‘anti-inflammatory’ and ‘anti-ageing’ properties.
Website chalkineurope describes their Ural Clay as a bestseller ‘a very pleasant earth taste with a medium hard crunch and is crispy all the way to the end
Another seller describes ‘blue clay’ as having a ‘delicious crunch’ with notes of ‘classic “wet concrete floor” with the scent of wild herbs’ followed by a ‘slight tart aftertaste
Surprisingly, the claim that clay may alleviate issues like diarrhoea has some merit.
The NHS has prescribed a type of white clay called kaolin in the past with the substance helping to absorb toxins and help them pass out of the body.
However, it has fallen out of favour compared to other over the counter remedies.
Some sellers also specifically mention that their clay can help satisfy ‘pica cravings’.
Pica is a term given to an common type of eating disorder that involves the compulsive consumption of non-edible items such as hair, paper and earth.
If pica constitutes a risk to health depends largely on what specific items a person is eating.
Professor Gunter Kuhnle, an expert in nutrition and food science at the University of Reading, said people may be leaning on the historic assumption that clay helps remove toxins from the body when deciding to eat it.
However, he cautioned that these earthy cravings may ironically be increasing exposure to toxins.
‘There would, of course, be contaminations in the dirt — I would especially worry about heavy metals’, he said.
One retailer on Etsy selling edible African clay claimed it could help with facial acne and satisfy certain cravings
Other retailers even claimed consuming their products could help improve people’s mood
Professor Kuhnle said that as dirt, clay and chalks are not considered ‘food’ by safety regulators, these products are not subject to any health checks.
He urged anyone interested in eating clay for health benefits — for instance to address a mineral deficiency or digestive issue — to seek help from a medical professional.
Not only is this because there often better, and safer options available, sometimes deficiencies and digestive issues can be a symptom of a more significant health issue that needs investigation.
TikTok trends have been proven potentially dangerous in the past.
Earlier this month, MailOnline reported on how a boy was left fighting for his life after a dangerous social media deodorant trend went disastrously wrong, causing a cardiac arrest.
Cesar Watson-King, from Doncaster, allegedly inhaled a can of anti-perspirant last month after being shown the craze, ‘chroming’, by an older boy.
The trend involves inhaling toxic fumes, from deodorant cans, hairspray and nail polish remover in order to achieve a ‘high’.
Another TikTok craze that recently made headlines was the viral ‘cucumber trend’ where people created salads featuring vast quantities of the vegetable in plastic containers.
But experts warned that eating too many cucumbers could trigger unpleasant side effects including diarrhoea, flatulence and even kidney problems.
