Sometimes food exists in markets, but families simply cannot afford enough of it.
That distinction is central to understanding food insecurity.
A household may be surrounded by shops and market stalls selling rice, vegetables or cooking oil and still experience severe hunger if its income is too low or prices rise beyond what it can pay.
In Haiti in 2008, global food prices were rising rapidly. The Associated Press reported significant increases in the price of rice and other staples. Clay cakes remained extremely cheap by comparison.
For families already living close to the edge, relatively small increases in food prices can have enormous consequences.
A middle-income household may respond to inflation by buying cheaper brands, eating out less often or reducing unnecessary spending.
A family already spending most of its income on food has far fewer choices.
First, it may stop buying meat.
Then fruit and vegetables may disappear.
Portions become smaller.
Adults may skip meals so children can eat.
Families may borrow money, sell belongings or remove children from school.
Eventually, almost every conventional coping strategy can be exhausted.
The mud cookie became such a powerful image precisely because it represented that final stage of desperation: putting something in the stomach even though it cannot provide the nutrition a human body needs.
Clay Can Fill a Stomach, But It Cannot Replace Food
The human body needs energy, protein, fats, vitamins and minerals to function properly.
Clay cannot provide a balanced combination of those nutrients.
A person may experience the physical sensation of having something in the stomach after consuming clay, but that sensation should not be confused with adequate nourishment.
The difference is critical.
Calories supply energy. Protein helps maintain tissues and supports growth. Dietary fats play important roles in energy storage, cell function and the absorption of certain vitamins. Micronutrients such as iron, zinc and vitamin A are essential for many biological processes.
A clay cake made largely from earth, salt and a small amount of fat simply cannot perform the nutritional role of a normal meal.
When such products displace nutritious food, the underlying nutritional deficit remains.
For children, prolonged inadequate nutrition can be particularly dangerous because their bodies and brains are still developing.
And Haiti is currently experiencing a serious child-malnutrition crisis.
UNICEF reported in August 2026 that preliminary findings from Haiti's National Nutrition SMART Survey showed global acute malnutrition among children aged 6 to 59 months had increased from 5.1 percent in 2023 to 7.4 percent in 2026—approximately one child in thirteen.
A subsequent analysis released in September estimated that approximately 253,725 Haitian children between 6 and 59 months could suffer acute malnutrition during the June 2026–May 2027 period, including nearly 94,000 expected to experience severe acute malnutrition.
Those numbers describe Haiti's broader nutritional emergency; they should not be interpreted as evidence that those children are eating clay. But they show how severe the country's current struggle to provide adequate nutrition has become.
Eating Earth Can Also Carry Health Risks
There is another problem with relying on clay as food: soil is not produced under the controlled safety standards expected for conventional food.
Its composition depends on geology, environmental contamination, handling and processing.
Scientific research into geophagy has found that some clay and soil products can contain microorganisms or potentially toxic metals.
A study published in Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, for example, examined geophagic soil samples from several regions and found that some were contaminated with microorganisms and contained significant concentrations of lead. The researchers concluded that consuming large quantities of such materials could be particularly concerning during pregnancy.