# Re eating clay.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-eating-clay/492434>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [April 8, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-eating-clay/492434 "2009-04-08T21:21:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rainbowringer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@rainbowringer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainbowringer)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-eating-clay/492434/1 "2009-04-08T21:21:41Z")

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Interesting, however, it is rather unfortunate, but read the ingredients, Kaopectate no longer has kaolin OR pectin! (they have essentially copied Pepto-Bismol (salysillicate).

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**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-eating-clay/492434/2 "2009-04-08T21:26:44Z")

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[Is it crazy to eat clay?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1098/is-it-crazy-to-eat-clay)

Just so we know which of Cecil’s 10,000 articles you’re commenting on.

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-eating-clay/492434/3 "2009-04-09T19:49:25Z")

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Maybe eating clay is not so crazy, though the art student’s eating a teacup sounds risky. :eek:

The use of clay as medicine is found in widely separated cultures, for what that’s worth. Clay has been found to be useful in fighting the “super-bacteria” MRSA.  
[www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=abTk9IWZiw9g&refer=home](http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=abTk9IWZiw9g&refer=home)

Remember the mysterious “placebo effect,” where patients given an inert substitute for an active drug reported improvement in their symptoms? Placebos are commonly called “sugar pills,” but more often the filler is clay, not sugar. If clay can be medicine, perhaps the placebos weren’t really placebos.

I’m not a clay-eater, myself, except by accident when doing gardening work. Also, in my part of Indiana, the soil is big on clay, so anyone downwind of farm plowing is going to breathe in some of it.