This Old Woman Eats 4 Pounds of Sand a Day, Is the Picture of Health
Sandbox, meet lunchbox.
A 78-year-old woman from India named Kusma Vati has made headlines for her strange diet, in which she eats nearly four-and-a-half pounds of sand each day.
Some people are meat and potatoes eaters. She's a meat sand potatoes eater.
This isn't some fad, either -- Vati's been noshing on the unorthodox cuisine for six decades and even enjoys scarfing down gravel, too. Wash that down with Drano and -- voila -- you've got a snack that kings would die to eat (or, more likely, die from eating).
You think it's weird? Vati doesn't.
I have been eating sand and gravel for around 63 years now, I love eating them and I don’t think they have any harmful effects. I haven’t suffered any problems in my stomach and mouth and my teeth are absolutely fine -- if anything it’s made them tougher. I can bite into the hardest stone without a problem."
Well, that's important because we all need to eat rocks, right? Look, the only stone a person should be eating should have the words "Cold" and "Creamery" surrounding it.
Vati doesn't believe the sand has had any ill effect on her health. Indeed, she says, "It is very sweet, keeps me fit and helps in digestion....I love it." And, bonus: when she goes to the beach, she won't waste money on ice cream at the snack bar.
Her grandchildren want her to quit, but good luck with that. That'd be like convincing your mother she doesn't still need to pay for AOL dial-up. Vati began eating sand when she was 15 after she had a stomachache and she never stopped chowing down on the stuff, crediting the minerals for giving her energy and keeping her in good health.
Maybe there's something to all this because she sure looks like she's got an hourglass figure. Get it? Hourglass? Sand? Oh, forget it.