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Q. Did eating a little bit of dirt ever hurt anyone?
问：吃下一点点泥土是否对人有害？
A. Sometimes but not always, by any means. The key to staying safe is “a little bit,” and preferably dirt that is not contaminated by things like insecticide, fertilizer, flakes of lead paint and especially parasites, according to Medline Plus, a service of the National Library of Medicine.
答：有时候会，但也未必。据美国国家医学图书馆(National Library of Medicine)的Medline Plus服务称，确保安全的关键在于泥土的量只有“一点点”，而且它们最好没有受到杀虫剂、化肥、铅涂料，特别是寄生虫的污染。
A 2003 review article in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tends to confirm the old saying, “You eat a peck of dirt before you die.”
2003年，美国疾病控制和预防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)主办的《新发传染病》杂志(Emerging Infectious Diseases)上发表了一篇综述文章，恰似证实了一句老话：“哪个人死前没吃过一抔土。（You eat a peck of dirt before you die。引申义为：人生在世总会受点委屈。）”
Child or adult, the article says, “each of us inadvertently eats a little dirt every day,” found in “contaminated food, soiled hands and inhaled dust.” Many small children also eat dirt on purpose, usually show no ill effects and usually grow out of the habit.
该文称，无论小孩还是成人，“我们每个人每天都在不经意间吃下过一点点尘土”，它们可能来源于“受到污染的食物、脏手和吸入粉尘等”。许多小孩子还会故意去吃泥土，一般也没出现什么不良影响，而且随着他们逐渐长大，通常就会慢慢改掉这种习惯。
Eating large amounts of dirt is called soil pica, or geophagy. It can cause constipation or intestinal blockage.
进食大量泥土的现象称为土壤异食癖，或食土癖。它可引起便秘或肠梗阻。
In 2000, a committee of the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry set an arbitrary amount of 5,000 milligrams of soil a day, about a teaspoon, as the division between “a little bit of dirt” and the amount that constitutes a disorder if consumed.
2000年，美国有毒物质和疾病登记局(United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry)的委员会主观地将每天5000毫克土壤（约一茶匙）设定为划分“一点点尘土”与“如若食用可导致疾病的量”的界限。
Eating comparatively large amounts of dirt, often clay rather than topsoil, is common behavior in some cultures, especially among pregnant women, and it has been suggested that it helps people obtain missing mineral nutrients or absorb and counteract nauseating toxins. It has even been proposed, but not proved, that children are instinctively compelled to eat dirt to vaccinate themselves against infectious agents.
进食较大量的泥土（通常是粘土而非表土）在某些文化中是相当常见的行为，在孕妇中尤其如此，据称，此举可以帮助人们获得缺失的矿物营养素或吸收并抵消让人感到恶心的毒素。甚至还有人提出（但未经证实），小孩有吃土的本能，这是一种让他们的身体对传染性病原体产生免疫的方式。
