Eating Chalk

In the same vein as making oneself appear pale, many women would reportedly eat chalk. We know what you’re thinking, but no, the chalk wouldn’t be absorbed into the body and lighten the skin. It would simply make the person feel sick and thus look more pallid. There’s actually a term for the eating of soil-like substrates such as clay or chalk, called geophagia. Humans have reportedly been subsisting by geophagia for millennia, and there’s documented evidence Homo habiis, the immediate predecessor to Homo sapiens, would eat calcium-rich clay as well.