She said, “One of my friends was making a clay toothpaste that you swallow instead of spit out. But I first heard about the benefits of eating clay from a taxi driver. He was African and was saying that, where he’s from, the women eat clay when they’re Pregnant. Seriously — ask your taxi drivers where they are from and about their customs. You will learn a lot. So, I’ve discovered that clay is great for you because your body doesn’t absorb it, and it apparently provides a negative charge, so it bonds to negative isotopes. And, this is crazy: It also helps clean heavy metals out of your body. My friend starting eating it, and the next day, she called me and said, ‘Dude, my shit smells like metal.’ She was really worried, but we did some research together, and everything said that when you first start eating clay, your bowel movements, pee, and even you, yourself, will smell like metal.”
Explaining the cultural context, Dr. Roshini Raj, a gastroenterologist, told Today, “This is a practice in some indigenous cultures, and I think that probably came about because they did not have access to certain nutrients in their diet, like calcium from dairy, or iron, and there are some minerals in dirt or clay…[Outside of this cultural context, there are no scientifically proven benefits to eating clay.] Because I think, now, most people have access to more effective ways of getting those minerals through vitamins, or through foods.”