Healing with Clay: A Practical Guide to Earth's Oldest Natural Remedy - Softcover

Knishinsky, Ran

 
9781644114834: Healing with Clay: A Practical Guide to Earth's Oldest Natural Remedy
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1644114836 ISBN 13: 9781644114834
Verlag: Healing Arts Press, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

Reveals how to eat clay for health and well-being

• Explores the science and long history behind eating clay, citing many clinical studies on the beneficial effects of clay consumption

• Explains how clay can be used for detoxification, protection, and nutritional supplementation

• Details how to select the appropriate type and form of clay, how and when to consume, and how to purchase a high-quality clay product

An exceptional detoxification agent, clay has been ingested as a traditional remedy and nutritional supplement throughout the world for thousands of years. It is still eaten on a daily basis by more than 200 cultures worldwide for better digestion, internal protection, and overall well-being.

In this revised and expanded edition of The Clay Cure, Ran Knishinsky explores the science and history behind eating clay, citing many clinical studies on the beneficial effects of clay consumption and revealing that clay eating is neither a crazy nor an aberrant behavior. He details how clay can be used as a protectant and detoxicant. He explains how clay is naturally absorbent and extremely gentle on the system and reveals how it’s safe to use, even during pregnancy. He also explores the newest scientific research around its detoxifying properties, antibacterial and antiviral effects, its potential use in obesity, and its role in the treatment of a handful of gastrointestinal conditions.

The author examines the extraordinarily rich mineral content of clay and its benefits throughout the body. He details how to select the appropriate type and form of clay, when to consume, and how to purchase a high-quality clay product. Revealing how eating clay can truly benefit your health, this practical guide details everything you need to know about healing with Earth’s oldest natural remedy.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ran Knishinsky is a professional health researcher and writer and the founder of NutraConsulting, a consulting firm to the natural products industry. He is the author of Healing with Clay and Prickly Pear Cactus Medicine.

Visit the author's website at www.detoxdirt.com

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 2. Everybody Eats Clay

There are many reasons why so many people of different ages, cultures, and races eat clay. Do these earth--eaters know something most people don’t?

Yes, they do. Now you will know, too.

I have found eight basic reasons why people eat clay. In fact, humans have been eating dirt for a very long time. There is good evidence to suggest that we were chomping on mud two million years ago.(1)

1. Instinct

2. Medicinal uses

3. Detoxification

4. Mineral deficiency and supplementation

5. Religious rites

6. Famine food

7. Use in pregnancy

8. A food delicacy

Clay eating has nothing to do with climate, geography, culture, race, or creed. It is found in the most “civilized” countries, where people like you or me who live in the Western world consume, and among the most “primitive” tribes in far remote places in the word. The habit does not belong to any particular group, so no one can be clearly branded as clay--eaters and non--clay--eaters. In any one family, some persons will eat clay, and while others will outright refuse. The habit is an individual one.

1. Instinct

Human beings have many inborn behaviors, or instincts. For instance, it is our very character to taste and test anything offered to us by nature; and eating clay, mud, or rocks is no more surprising than eating salt, herbs, chewing gum, tobacco, cows, or snails. These behaviors don’t appear to be acquired through experience. Instead, they are most likely “in the genes” and are passed on from one generation to the next.

According to Donald Vermeer, an anthropologist and a pioneer in the study of geophagy, many dirt--eaters in urban settings turn to the consumption of laundry starch or baking soda for want of clay. On a related note, many pregnant women feel the instinctual need to eat clay although they might not be fully able to articulate the reason for the desire.

Throughout human history naturally occurring toxins have placed constraints on what types of plants people could consume. Clay eating provided the person with a certain degree of protection, allowing greater flexibility of choice in their diet. People did not possess a deep scientific understanding of why they ate clay or could pinpoint what exactly was the healthful effect. More than likely, talk to someone who eats clay, ask them why they do it, and you’d be apt to receive a shrug with a response like, “Not sure why I eat clay, but I do.”

Interestingly, in an article published in The Quarterly Review of Biology, geophagists are said to be highly selective about the earth that they eat. In 237 of 243 cultural reports (98%), there was a preference for earth that was clay--like or smooth, rather than gritty and sandy. Intuition strikes again leading the earth eater towards clay in particular versus the plain old dirt in the school play yard.(2)

To help us to understand why instinct might play a role in the decision to eat dirt, we are led to this action by one of three reasons:

1. A response to hunger where clay has traditionally been used in times of famine and drought.

2. Micronutrient deficiencies such as iron or calcium, which is particularly high in clay.

3. And the clay’s healthful protection against harm from toxins and pathogens.(3)

2. Medicinal Uses

The earth itself may be the world’s oldest medicine. Clay eating has apparently been a recommended medicine for thousands of years. Most of us have not heard about it, since such recommendations have been practically swept under the rug in western medicine. However, the practice of eating clay is ultimately rooted in its medicinal value and dates back long before medicine in the modern world came into being.

Many think of soil as lifeless dirt. On the contrary, it is teaming with a rich array of microbial life. Recently, National Institute of Health (NIH) funded researchers discovered a new class of antibiotics, called malacidins, by analyzing the DNA of the bacteria living in more than 2,000 soil samples, including many sent by citizen scientists living all across the United States.(4) They established a website with a clever, easy-to-understand name, DrugsFromDirt, where they solicit soil samples from around the world to advance the discovery of therapeutic agents from dirt.(5)

If we go back through our history books, we’ll see that the ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates (460--370 BC), who is traditionally regarded as the father of medicine, reportededly was the first to write about geophagy. Later, Galen, a great 2nd century AD Greek physician, introduced eating Armenian earth into medical practice to cure all sorts of ills, including acne and hemorrhoids. There was also a famous Taoist nicknamed Mud--pill Ch’en, known for his successful healing treatments with clay, who cured diseases thought incurable in his time.

Incidentally, clay has always been touted as a cure for healing intestinal ailments. Mahatma Gandhi recommended earth to overcome constipation. And an institute in France uses clay in the manufacture of medicines to control and alleviate diarrhea in infants and adults. But that’s not all. On some islands in the South, the people have this cure for cholera: leaves of an herb are placed in a jar of water with a ball of clay suspended above the preparation. The leaves are boiled, the ball of clay is crushed and stirred into the water, and this concoction is given to the patient to drink.

There are virtually thousands of ethnomedicine anecdotes to share from all over the world and provide insight into why the clays are consumed.

3. Detoxification

The concept of edible clay for health purposes is becoming a more popular item in the health food stores as the word regarding its detoxicant properties is getting around. Clay may protect against toxins and pathogens by a.) strengthening the mucosal layer by binding with mucin and/or stimulating mucin production, thereby reducing the permeability of the gut wall, and b.) binding to toxin and pathogens directly, there by rendering them unabsorbable by the gut.(6)

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published an article on clay eating and detoxification (Timothy and Duquette 1991). Among the many examples listed by the authors, the following anecdotes are some of the more striking evidence for body purification through the use of clay.

When the Pomo Indians of California consumed clay with traditionally bitter and toxic types of acorns, the clay adsorbed the poisons and eliminated the bitterness. The Indians were able to survive on a staple food that, without clay, would have posed a serious potential threat to their health.

In an experiment performed under laboratory conditions, rats voluntarily ate clay in response to gastrointestinal problems induced by poisoning. Further examples cited chimpanzees who voluntarily eat clay after ingesting plant foods loaded with toxins. The article concluded that clays could adsorb dietary toxins known to induce stomach pain and vomiting, bacterial toxins associated with gastrointestinal disturbance, hydrogen ions in acidosis, or metabolic toxins such as steroidal metabolites associated with pregnancy. All these conditions result in a host of common symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea---in short, symptoms of toxic overload which make for a pretty horrific eating experience.

Many human food plants produce toxic chemicals, such as tannins and glycoalkaloids to protect themselves from biotic enemies (pathogens and herbivores). Other sources of harmful chemicals in the human diet are enterotoxins secreted by food and...

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Verlag
Healing Arts Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1644114836
ISBN 13 
9781644114834
Einband
Taschenbuch
Auflage
2
Anzahl der Seiten
144
Kontakt zum Hersteller
preigu GmbH & Co. KG
mail@preigu.de

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