A woman who craved eating clay while pregnant has spent over £3,000 on her habit - and continues to eat the chalky substance today.
Dymund Dina, 31, from Orpington, southeast London, started craving mabele, a type of clay commonly eaten in parts of Africa, during her first pregnancy with her first son in June 2013. (Video by SWNS)
Dymund Dina, 31, from Orpington, southeast London, started craving mabele, a type of clay commonly eaten in parts of Africa, during her first pregnancy with her first son in June 2013. (Video by SWNS)
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hello, my name is Diamond and I have a habit of eating clay.
00:13 So I don't really know the source of it but I just remember being young, my mum used to
00:19 eat a lot of clay when she was pregnant and in my culture it's just one of those things
00:24 that women do when they're pregnant.
00:27 All my aunties almost, all of my mum's friends, they always have eaten clay.
00:32 So when I felt pregnant, for some reason I just had a crave for it and initially I didn't
00:39 know it was a crave for clay because what I was craving was just that earthy smell,
00:47 that fresh smell of rain that you get.
00:50 That is really what drew me to it.
00:52 And then I tried clay and I first tried it when I was pregnant and my son is now 10 years
00:58 old and I still continue to eat it.
01:02 I recently had a baby, the baby is one and yeah, one year on and I still have the habit
01:07 of eating clay.
01:18 At first eating my bile, which is called my bile, we're calling it clay but in my native
01:24 tongue we call it my bile.
01:25 So at first when I started eating it, it just helped me, it was just like a form of a craving
01:32 during my pregnancy but as I suffered with hyperemesis which is a severe form of morning
01:39 sickness and I think when I say severe I feel like severe is not even the strongest word
01:43 to describe hyperemesis but it's just like severe morning sickness, you'll vomit in every
01:50 chance you get and you know there were times where I was medicated, I had to go to hospital
01:56 and get IV fluids, I was dehydrated and I was producing a lot of saliva.
02:02 So what I found is that actually eating my bile helped me with that and it kind of helped
02:07 to reduce the nausea as well.
02:10 So yeah, so it started off as something where it was just like I was craving my bile but
02:14 soon it almost became something that I started depending on this to deal with my hyperemesis.
02:25 What is that?
02:37 Okay so I know the habit itself is a bit of a strange one but I know I'm not crazy because
02:43 there are legit websites that you can go on and actually order these clays and you can
02:49 find it in many different areas like regions of Africa, you can get it in North Africa,
02:53 West Africa, South Africa and East Africa as well, it just depends and different regions
02:59 call it by different names but yeah like I said there are legit websites where you can
03:04 actually go on there and buy these.
03:06 Of course you can't go to your local supermarket and purchase these clays because it's not
03:12 that common but there is a community out there.
03:23 But a lot of my African friends, they really like it so again I don't know if that's something
03:28 to do with just our background or whatever or like I said just like that memory in our
03:33 brain but yeah you can't get this from a local newspaper shop but yeah there are websites
03:40 where you can go and purchase these.
03:54 I believe I've probably spent about £3,000 on these bad boys and a lot of people don't
04:02 understand why because a lot of my friends have tried it but my thing is just that it
04:06 kind of leaves that very distinctive memory in your brain so I feel like that's why I
04:11 continuously go back to it and every pregnancy I always crave it like I have other cravens
04:18 as well I do crave ice but I definitely feel like this has been the most expensive habit
04:24 that I've had during my pregnancy and the thing is I don't understand why I still crave
04:28 it my mouth is even watering just talking about it.
04:42 I literally eat at least two bags of these clays a day and it's funny because the other
04:49 day someone asked me do you even know what it's made of I have no idea I have no idea
04:53 all I know is it's baked some are salty some have little grains of like stones in it but
04:59 I prefer the ones that are like really smooth and really salty and yes my mouth is watering
05:06 talking about it but yeah it's just a craving I'm hoping of course that you know the need
05:13 for it declines in the future because I almost feel like I don't need it for like pregnancy
05:20 related issues but I feel like now it's just something that's just embedded in my brain
05:25 that once I feel the need to eat it I have to eat it and if I don't eat it I will literally
05:32 drive my partner crazy he has to go find me a bag.
05:35 I'm going to go to bed now.