On TikTok, more and more users are filming themselves eat kaolin blocks. A surprising trend when we know that it is a white clay mainly formed of hydrated aluminum silicate. “It is used in cosmetics, to make porcelain, in the glass and paper industry and in medicine,” explains Stanislas Agbo, general practitioner.
A well-known practice in traditional African medicine
According to Olivier Spatzierer, head of the gastroenterology unit at the American Hospital in Paris, this consumption dates back to Antiquity: “it is a very well-known practice in traditional African medicine. First, because eating earth is symbolically absorbing the energy of this earth. But it also has more obvious therapeutic properties which concern healing, the digestive plan or the cutaneous plan.
Eating dirt has a name: geophagy. “Consumers – since they are usually women – say they use it to manage stress, to calm stomach aches, against nausea, vomiting (especially in pregnant women) and sometimes for pleasure or like a hunger cheating”, adds Stanislas Agbo.
However, this practice can be dangerous for health: “Ingesting kaolin does much more harm than good, warns Stanislas Agbo. Excessive consumption is dangerous because it can lead to addiction”. Olivier Spatzierer adds that “when you take too much, it can lead to real digestive blockages, lead to syndromes occlusifs and under occlusives or relatively deep anemias”.
This article is produced by Brut and hosted by 20 Minutes.