How much dirt does the average person eat in their lifetime?

People have been known to eat a lot of strange things some voluntary, some not so much. Insects, rodents, all kinds of things you don't see on a menu. An old wives tale speaks of the average person eating eight spiders in their sleep.

As it turns out, the average person ingests about 100 milligrams of dirt every single day. Overall, that equates to roughly six pounds of dirt in an average lifespan!

The dirt we consume arrives in several different formats: eating food off of the ground, eating without washing hands prior, ingesting dust, are just some examples of soil ingestion. Most solids that make up humans and other creatures either are now or recently were dirt transformed by sunlight into plants or animals.

The consumption of dirt by the average person isn’t enough to create serious health issues, not that there's anything we could do about it anyway except to take the recommended precaution of washing hands before eating.