My granny told me about my great grandparents occasionally biting into raw potatoes, and eating whole raw onions.
They also ate fermented Beans and Sweet Potatoes, these people were dirt poor and lived like mountain goats, eating practically anything they could to keep from going hungry.
Impressive.
Clay is different than dirt, and there are differences between clays, though I wouldn't be surprised if there's some good clay around my area somewhere. It's another old folk knowledge that has been largely forgotten.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirthttp://kremesti.com/water/silt_clay_mud.htmSome wild elephants travel hundreds of miles or "make perilous nocturnal climbs to hillside caves" to obtain the choicest clays, which they return to each year, with some dying from the hard journey or falls.
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/22/science/clay-eating-proves-widespread-but-reason-is-uncertain.html Quality clay is apparently a matter of life or death for the elephants. Those that don't reach good enough clays in time at least once per year die, according to one documentary I saw.
Elephants are also able to communicate better via clay soils that better conduct the soundwaves from their vocalizations:
Elphants' toes get the messageI also eat raw potatoes sometimes, as well as a range of other raw tubers. Sometimes I blend them into smoothies, sometimes slice them thin and add them to wild green salads. I recall the first few times I did this I got gas, but after that it's been fine. Seems to me that our microbiomes take time to adjust to new eating practices, but it does adjust.
I haven't had the mouth tingling from any raw potatoes in a while. I wonder if I'm better adapted now too. I've never gotten any gas from them, so I guess I started off able to digest them pretty well, which is not that surprising given that I was raised on plenty of potatoes.