Eat More Dirt

Yankees have been laughing Southerners for years because we supposedly eat dirt. The truth is that certain Southern clays have proven to be effective at treating upset stomachs. Some women in the South have used clay to help with the morning sickness that sometimes comes with early pregnancy. These same Yankees also pay big money for Kaopectate which most of them don't know is made from the good old Georgia clay called kaolin. Now it seems clay has been shown to actually provide something more than helping with an unhappy tummy.

Scientists have discovered a new and highly effective weapon against deadly superbugs like the MRSA sweeping through Britain's dirty hospital wards – green French muck.

The dramatic antibiotic success of agricur, a clay made from ancient volcanic ash found near the Massif Central, marks it out as a potential rival to penicillin, the wonder drug of the 20th century. In experiments, the clay killed up to 99 per cent of superbug colonies within 24 hours. Control samples of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) grew 45-fold in the same period.

The clay has a similar effect on other deadly bacteria tested, including salmonella, E. coli, and a flesh-eating disease called buruli, a relative of leprosy which disfigures children across central and western Africa. It has been classed as "an emerging public health threat" by the World Health Organization (WHO).

[snip]

Clay has long been used as a health treatment in spas, but that is because it holds heat longer than water, and draws toxins out of the skin. Clay is also sometimes eaten as a folk remedy for nausea. "It's fascinating," said Dr Haydel, a microbiologist. "Here we are bridging geology, microbiology, cell biology. A year ago, I'd look at the clay and say, 'Well, that's dirt.'"

The effectiveness of the French green clays, which are mostly made of minerals called smectite and illite, was first demonstrated by Line Brunet de Courssou, a French doctor fighting buruli at clinics in Ivory Coast and Guinea.

Maybe my little friend was trying to kill me when she made me mud pies! Seriously beside Kaopectate you can by (at least in Europe) a product called Smecta which is great for upset stomach.