This is PART TWO of a SIX PART Interview series.  

Dr. Eugene Zampieron, ND interviewed Ran Knishinsky, author of Healing with Clay: A Practical Guide to Earth’s Oldest Natural Remedy about the health benefits of edible clay.   -     -

RK: Yes, that’s correct. As I started to eat clay and consume it more, I did a bunch of research. Bear in mind, this was thirty years ago. Still at that time I had found articles in many journals including the Journal of Clinical Nutrition to the Journal of American Medicine and other scientific reports that pointed to the health benefits of eating clay. What I learned is that clay is the smallest mineral particle of the rocks that we have in the geological kingdom. It’s so absolutely tiny that if you were to put clay into a cup of water, the tiniest particle of clay, would take hundreds of years to fall to the bottom of that cup versus a sand particle that would literally take 10 seconds to fall. What really induced me at the time is that I started to eat montmorillonite clay for its detoxification benefits. But Kaopectate which was a mix of kaolinite clay mixed with pectin was sold by pharmaceutical companies throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world. So, the pharmaceutical industry had been utilizing clay for the treatment of diarrhea, for its use as an astringent.

Dr. Z:  Oh yea, most of us, fifty and older, have heard of Kaopectate, mothers gave it to you if you had an upset stomach, very well known. And I guess that clay survived the ancient times to become a more modern thing. I found it interesting that is found in Donnagel, which is prescribed even today by gastroenterologists for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

RK: It’s interesting. Out of France there is a pharmaceutical company that manufactures a competitor to Botox, which is called Dysport. But they manufacture one of the best-selling clays in the world called Smecta. And the name Smecta comes from the word Smectite, which is the family of mineral clay that includes the montmorillonite clay variety. So yes, pharmaceutical companies have been selling clay and I found this to be so fascinating. Because when you think of clay…most people think it’s an alternative therapy but it’s not quite that alternative, its more mainstream although the masses don’t quite understand it.

Dr. Z: You even pointed out in your book that clay is used for religion? You said in some of the traditions they would use a blessed clay tablet – I don’t know if it was used for detoxification? But that was interesting.

RK: Yes, I find this fascinating. I was born in Israel, so I have a deep appreciation of the Hebrew language. One item in the bible that is pointed out very commonly is that the first humans, Adam and Eve, and the name Adam comes from the root word “Adamah” which means earth or “Adom”, which means red. So, there is a thought that as individuals we may have come from red clay. This is not limited to the Bible but there are other religions that point to clay as the birthplace of humanity.

Dr. Z: You say that clay was used as a famine food? How did people survive on clay. Was it to fill them up or so they don’t eat poison, what’s the rationale behind that?

RK: At the time, the rationale was two-fold. It literally acted as a bulking agent, so it kept individuals full. Soldiers in WWI were fed clay for this reason. Second, mineral supplementation.

Dr. Z: There are a lot of minerals in clay. You have a list of that. Certain clay was looked at unkindly by some of the conventional tools that were put into mass spectroscopy, and they found that some clay had high levels of lead or aluminum. I don’t know how true this is but it interesting. But so does sea salt, it has every element including the toxic elements but in such miniscule amounts that they probably don’t do us much harm. What’s your take on this? Tell us about the different types of clay, I forgot to ask you about that!

 RK: There are many groups of clay. There are clays that are part of the smectite family which includes montmorillonite, the clay that I eat daily for over thirty years. You’ve got kaolinite clay which has been used as an astringent for the treatment of digestive disorders and diarrhea – all of this has been scientifically documented. Other clays that you might see on health food store shelves include green clay, commonly called Illite. So, there are several different clays that exist out there. Not all clays however are created equal. In the book, I talk about some of the researchers that have pulled reports on clays and have done direct studies to evaluate different clays. It was noted that certain clays don’t have a health benefit to eating – they lack the ability to absorb toxins. Their capacity for cationic exchange, which is the MOA behind the absorption, is very low. So, it’s important to choose the right clay. 

Dr. Z: What about the minerals found in the clay? A lot of people use sea salt as a mineral supplement, or they get trace minerals that are found in ancient sea beds in Utah. I know that’s a popular thing.  A lot of times when we run an analysis with their red blood cells, or hair or skin, nails, we find that they are low in macro-minerals or the very ultra-trace minerals. Does clay contain some of those things?

Read PART THREE: Interview between Dr. Z and Healing with Clay Author Ran Knishinsky or listen here: https://thenaturalnurse.podbean.com/e/the-natural-nurse-and-dr-z-040522/