The New York Times reports on eating clay in Kyrgyzstan. (The article’s about a month old–IHT carried it a month ago–but I missed it and azcentral.com has it again.)
Although people have been eating the clay in Central Asia for thousands of years, the practice is neither highly regarded nor praised as a tradition.
Rianzhanov said the odd behavior was caused by anemia, or iron shortage in the blood, because the patients quickly stabilize with proper supplements.
“These people are sick,” he explained.
“When they have low iron, they develop the desire to eat this clay, plaster, chalk or uncooked meat. They’ll eat eggshells, pull the bark off trees. It’s even written in the medical literature that they will eat building material.”
Women describe one of the varieties of clay as tasting like butter. Well, I don’t know about that. I’ve never really had the urge to eat clay, but whatever floats their boats I guess.
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I spent ten months in Karakol and there were a few things that I never quite figured out while I was living there. When I used to go to the market there was always a big silver block of something edible that could be purchased at whatever weight desired. I almost purchased it once to try, and now I am glad that I did not! Clay would make sense…that’s what it looked like.
Jamie – I’m sure that what you saw was actually Central Asian halva, made from sunflower seeds rather than sesame (which is used in the middle east and the usa).
I think that the clay would likely be sold at the same kiosk as herbal teas and infusions.
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