I grew up in the South...never heard of this until today, reading your post...interesting though.
The American South Is Still Eating White Dirt https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/the-american-south-is-still-eating-white-dirt
It’s almost always women, and almost always black women, and they don’t eat just any old dirt. There’s a certain type of clay that they crave. An odd dietary habit to be sure, but they don’t seem to have been harmed by it, to my knowledge. So, I say, so what?