See, for example, Halsted "Geophagy in Man," and "
Earth Eating and Anaemia," Lancet (April 18, 1970): 826.
Yang Liwei was spending some of his time above the
Earth eating from a choice of 20 Chinese dishes - including nuggets of spicy shredded pork, diced chicken and fried rice cooked with nuts.
We think some of the star guests will create quite a stir with their down-to
earth eating habits.
Earth eating, or geophagy, in one form or another, has been widespread since the dawn of humanity because most minerals essential for our lives--calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, selenium, cobalt, sodium, and others-derive from the earth.