Abstract:
Geophagia or geophagy is a habit for an uncontrollable urge to eat earth that commonly is occur in poverty-stricken
populations and particularly there are in children under three years of age and pregnant women. The custom of
involuntary or deliberate eating of soil, especially clayey soil, has a long history and is amazingly widespread. Some
researchers have described an anomalous clay layer at a prehistoric site at the Kalambo Falls in Zambia indicating
that clay might have been eaten by hominids. Von Humboidt reported from his travels in South America in early
18th century that clay was eaten to some extent at all times by the tribe in Peru. In the mid 19 century it was
customary for certain people in the north of Sweden to mix earth with flour in making bread whether the clay
effected an improvement in taste. In Iran, geophagia has seen in some of children and pregnant which that is solved
with eating starch daily. For example, some reports are shown that there has been geophagia disease in some parts of
Fars province, around Shiraz city which have been made different health as well as environmental complications.
Clay with a large cation exchange capacity that is also fairly well saturated can release and supplement some
macronutrients and micronutrients such as Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn. Deficiency of these elements led to dwarfism,
hypogonadism, anemia, hepatosplenomegaly and skin problems. Almost all of these health complication evidences
are seen in most of people who has been suffered from geophagy in Iran. However, geophagia has a history of 2000
years and the effects of soil and environmental chemistry on human health have been studied for hundreds years ago
in China. In this review it has tried to introduce the geophagia as a nutritional and environmental complication in
Iran as well as in the world which could be a serious health risk for human.
