THE REASON WHY PEOPLE TAKE CALABAR CHALK
Calabar chalk, also known as white dirt, kaolin clay, soft clay, china clay and Nzu in West Africa includes many different purposes, among them eating. Calabar chalk is located in different places around the world, practically in all continents and it is identified by several names in the regions that it is found. It appears in various colors varying from white, brownish and yellowish in these regions. People consume calabar chalk for a variety of reasons, some traditional or cultural and others for medical related motives.
Different Appearances of Calabar Chalk
White dirt feeding Among Pregnant Women
Pregnant women happen to be possibly the most
common human populations who practice the deliberate ingestion of earth-based
components. In sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in some West African nations
such as Nigeria as well as some east African nations, white dirt taking is so
common in that it is prepared and sold in markets. Women in these localities
consume an average of 30 g of white dirt per person, per day.
Over a long period time, scientists have
attempted to look for a justification on this historic practice of white dirt
eating but the needs of a woman’s body while pregnant have led to great clues
to this adaptive function of white dirt eating. In pregnancy, a woman is
commonly in a period where she encounters a little more nutritional needs than
normal as well as an increased vulnerability. A pregnant woman is vulnerable
considering that she has a compressed immunity mechanism. The immune system is
normally suppressed while pregnant so as to adapt to the presence of a fetus in
her body.
A growth in nutritional demand is therefore
sustained especially pertaining to some minerals for example calcium and iron.
This is in order to support the growth of the fetus in addition to increase the
production of blood. Furthermore, this the period when the pregnant lady
experiences such nutritional necessities comes hand in hand with certain
difficulties in relation to digestion like nausea (generally known as morning
sickness) as well as vomiting.
A woman eating a chunk of Calabar chalk
Pronounced cravings during pregnancy are
another prevalent feature. While reviewing all these features, scientists have
postulated that the desire of the earth-based materials, a practice that may be
also called geophagy, like white dirt among pregnant women is a representation
of a natural need that arises in a woman when pregnant. Three reasons as to why
women consume the earth-like compounds such as white dirt, also known as kaolin
clay would thereby be formulated. These are;
> The medical-related value in white dirt
is used to give a relief to nausea in addition to vomiting
> The nutritional gain from the mineral material
in white dirt.
> Suppression of contaminants by the
actions of kaolin clay in the digestive tract.
Many, or virtually most of the minerals that
are essential to our bodies are, mostly dirt or just rock. Even if we usually
consume these minerals in normally plant or animal forms, almost all these
plants as well as animals consumed the minerals up from the ground.
Furthermore, a lot of mammalian species demonstrate earth eating habit in one
method or another. A perfect and an obvious demonstration is salt consuming
among humans and salt licking by different animals in an effort to obtain many
different minerals including calcium, sodium, zinc and phosphorus.
Keeping this in mind, the relationship between
the mineral deficiencies in our bodies together with the practice of earth
consuming was among the early studies to be performed. Scientists have for that
reason hypothesized that earth eating is an adaptive behavior that is dependent
on the diet requirements that are present in our bodies. This habit has been
going on and has grown to become persistent over a long period of time to be a
survival method.