The Ancient Andean Tradition of Eating Clay May Have Helped To Protect Health
Farmers in Peru's Andean highlands have been consuming clay for centuries. Scientists now think it may have allowed them to eat wild potatoes, which are rich in toxic chemicals.
Talking about clay makes Amilcar Apaza nostalgic for his childhood in Juliaca, Peru, a city in the Andean highlands. He remembers gathering with his family in his grandmother's fields in the nearby countryside for the potato harvest. There, they would build a small oven to cook the fresh potatoes and eat them, dipping the potatoes in a sauce made of clay, water and salt.
"The flavor is like a creamy milk, very thick and salty," says Apaza, who now lives in Lima. During harvest time, the clay sauce is eaten
