How long can you survive eating only dirt/soil?

[cbrunny]

Assuming abundant fresh water for drinking. Planning for impending apocalypse.

 

[DigDog]

why soil? you would probably die the first day. soil has no nutrients we can absorb, can be loaded with bacteria, and will hurt your stomach.
easier to survive eating insects, fruit; also mushrooms and berries (as long as you recognize them), and why not, animals - rodents, birds, reptiles.

 

[Imp]

If you've evolved to handle tetanus and e.coli found in soil... You deserve to live forever.

 

[rga]

I have a feeling that this is a trick question. There may not ben any fresh water after an apocalypse; if there is, I think that soil is nutrient rich enough to sustain life to it's natural end.

 

[mmntech]

You been hanging out with Mayne's sister?

 

[Crono]

You been hanging out with Mayne's sister?

Is this her?

 

[KMFJD]

Ask a Hatian? They eat these mud cakes

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pic...ures-of-the-day-4-February-2010.html?image=21

'A resident prepares mud cakes at the zone of Cite-Soleil in Port-au-Prince. The cakes, made of mud with a bit of salt and vegetable oil spread, are a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs'

 

[waggy]

depends. is there wild fruit/corn i can eat? i know enough about farming i can get a small plot going.

 

[SKORPI0]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1279487/

Geophagia is defined as deliberate consumption of earth, soil, or clay1. From different viewpoints it has been regarded as a psychiatric disease, a culturally sanctioned practice or a sequel to poverty and famine. Prompted by a remarkable case in our own practice2 we became increasingly aware of geophagia in contemporary urban South Africa. In view of the high prevalence of geophagia there and in many other regions of the world1, we hypothesized that ancient medical texts would also contain reports of the disorder.

 

[ninaholic37]

I imagine you would live just as long if you didn't eat soil?

 

[cbrunny]

Sounds like the community thinks I should not eat dirt.

 

[lxskllr]

Ask a Hatian? They eat these mud cakes

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pic...ures-of-the-day-4-February-2010.html?image=21

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01571/haiti-mud-cakes_1571686i.jpg

'A resident prepares mud cakes at the zone of Cite-Soleil in Port-au-Prince. The cakes, made of mud with a bit of salt and vegetable oil spread, are a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs'

That's some strange looking mud. Looks like baby poop. A bit of dirt is probably good for you, but I don't think I'd want to eat more than one mud cake per week. That's a lifetime supply in that picture :^D

 

[Naer]

Just eat food silly

 

[jwhorfin]

A person eats a bushel of dirt before they die. YMMV.

 

[manimal]

A person eats a bushel of dirt before they die. YMMV.

mine!



if i can put it on bread and make it into a sandwich sure

 

[lxskllr]

A person eats a bushel of dirt before they die. YMMV.

I always heard it as being a peck(1/4 bushel) of dirt.

 

[jwhorfin]

I always heard it as being a peck(1/4 bushel) of dirt.

That's an ordinary person. I worked in construction, that's what we say

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'd probably eat leaves and tree sap before resorting to dirt if there's not enough berries. Dirt is going to wreck your digestive system and it's going to seriously hurt coming out.

 

[zinfamous]

Interesting question, OP. One might think that such ancient knowledge, surely derived from from our earliest hominid ancestors had been long established through cultural and even biochemical knowledge (our instinctual terror of snakes and spiders, for example), that this wouldn't be an issue worth pondering.

In fact, it would be less than shocking if several of our long, long-extinct hominid cousins, perhaps many of those we have yet to discover, died out simply from a failure to learn and, more importantly, pass on the knowledge gained from experimenting with a soil-based diet.

One would think this knowledge is well enough established in our shared evolutionary history, but it appears that things like this still manage to skip certain generations along the human tree.

 

[Ns1]

Ask a Hatian? They eat these mud cakes

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pic...ures-of-the-day-4-February-2010.html?image=21

'A resident prepares mud cakes at the zone of Cite-Soleil in Port-au-Prince. The cakes, made of mud with a bit of salt and vegetable oil spread, are a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs'

WTF

 

[cbrunny]

How much is a bushel? Like a bushel of apples?

 

[Muse]

What kind of nut eats dirt? Read Between a Rock and a Hard Place for a blow by blow account by someone who had almost no food with him, very little to drink and was pinned between a boulder and a cliff out in the boonies (nobody around) with little in the way of clothes for 127 hours. Very good read!