Will this latest TikTok trend make you soil yourself? Some TikTokers are now telling you to eat dirt. Yes, dirt, as in the stuff that’s on the ground. Or rather the ground itself. They’re claiming that eating dirt can have all kinds of health benefits such as boosting your gut health, preventing or reversing aging, reducing acne and wrinkles and decreasing body fat. You’ve even got folks—including those calling themselves “crunchers”—telling you about how much they enjoy eating dirt. But are such claims firmly grounded in, you know, scientific evidence? Umm, not exactly.
For example, take a look at this this video posted by @stefanie_adler on TikTok:
As you can see, the video asked the question, “Want to improve your child’s (and your own) gut health” and then promptly answered its own question with “Eat dirt” before you could respond with something else. So, why would you go against what parents typically do, namely keep their kids from eating dirt? Well, the video offered the following rationale, “[One] teaspoon of organic biodynamic soil has more microorganisms than humans on earth.”
OK, yes, dirt can have a lot of microorganisms. And, yes, there is evidence of health benefits arising from having a more diverse population of microorganisms in your gut microbiome—you know, that city of bacteria and other microbes that live in your intestines. Indeed, diversity is a good thing in many aspects of nature and the world. Different bacteria can serve different functions in your gastrointestinal tract. There is also evidence that human microbiomes have gotten less diverse over the years, potentially due to all the stuff that we’ve shoving down our gastrointestinal tracts such as preservatives and antibiotics.
But, at the same time, isn’t having a lot of microorganisms also kind of the reason why you typically try not to eat dirt? It’s the whole reason why if someone were to drop a burrito on the ground, roll it in the soil and then offer it to you, you wouldn’t immediately say, “Thanks” and not worry about getting a bad case of the runs or worse. It’s also the reason why you wouldn’t have dinner where the host said, “I ran out of dishes so I am going to use these dirty flower pots instead. Yeah, soil can have plenty of ickies in it such as dangerous bacteria and parasites. In other words, the problem with eating dirt is, well, it’s dirty.
Some might argue then that you can simply eat “cleaner” dirt. And how do you find cleaner dirt? You can, surprise, surprise, pay for it. Yeah, when have you ever seen something being promoted on social media also being sold? Just search for “edible dirt” on Amazon and Etsy and you’ll find plenty of oh so dirty products such as clay. These products can cost you anywhere from a handful of dollars to over a hundred dollars. You didn’t think you could get dirt for free, did you?
The trouble with so-called “edible dirt” is that it may be difficult to tell how safe these products may be to consume. The manufacturers don’t always explain what kind of testing may been performed and what regulations they have followed. Buying dirt to eat may not be quite the same as buying milk at the grocery story that has conformed to U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards.
Plus, a lot of these claims about the health benefits of dirt are sort of twisting and extending the bits and pieces of scientific evidence that’s out there. Just because having a more diverse microbiome is better and dirt has a lot of different microorganisms, doesn’t necessarily mean that eating dirt will be good for you. That would be a bit like saying ideally a good spouse should make you laugh and clowns make you laugh so therefore you should marry a clown.
Additionally, just because mud masks, mud baths and other similar applications of soil have been used on the body for years doesn’t mean that you should put such things inside your body. That would like saying it’s OK to eat your shorts literally.
Ultimately, more studies are needed to test the safety and efficacy of eating dirt before believing the claims on social media. Basically whenever anyone makes such claims, get down and dirty with that person. Find out what their science and health background and qualifications are. Ask the person to show you studies where people were fed dirt in controlled settings and the results. If they can’t then they may just be doing you dirty.
