Science And Technology - Briefs

Health
Dirty truth


If you stop your children from eating mud, read this. Craving for earth—geophagy—can be one of the natural ways to protect stomach against pathogens. After studying 480 reports and analysing theories that geophagy is driven by hunger and for nutrients in the soil like iron, zinc or calcium the researchers found that protection against pathogens was recurring in the data. The study points out that geophagy is mostly found in women in the early stages of pregnancy and in pre-adolescent children—both sensitive to pathogens. The Quarterly Review of Biology, June