For 31-year-old Elizabeth Smith Leath, eating dirt, as ‘disgusting’ and disturbing as that might sound, is an everyday occurrence.

The mother of six says eating dirt is not an act she enjoys, neither is it a need for some diet fad or a need to taste the dirt to check its quality for gardening but one borne out of compulsion.

A compulsion so bad she has to eat a cup of dirt every day.

When Leath was 17, she was diagnosed with pica, an eating disorder characterised by eating non-food items, such as paint, plastic, and tissues, metro.co.uk reports.

Pica mostly occurs during pregnancy as ‘strange’ cravings, but it can be experienced outside of pregnancy too.

Elizabeth began eating dirt as a way to cope with stress and found that her cravings were so intense she would down five cups of soil a day.

While she has cut back on her dirt consumption, satisfying those desires has come at a cost – the mum has lost four of her teeth.

“There’s no taste like it,” said Elizabeth.

“I went to a therapist who told me to grind up wheat thins and eat those because it’s a similar texture.

“Sometimes it works until I get super stressed out.

“I’m on medication to help manage it but I still get the cravings. I will go outside, get a cup full of dirt and just sit and chew on it.

“If I can’t get dirt, I’ll eat sand because it’s the closest thing to it.

“It’s messed up my teeth, they’ve really deteriorated, and I’ve lost four.

“When I was really bad, I was on five cups a day.”

The stay-at-home mum, from Iowa Park, Texas, US, collects the dirt from her garden and eats it outside to keep the habit secret from her children, Dama and Jacob, 17, Sonia, 12, Solee, 11, Rosetta, 10, and Bella, four.

Although her children have never seen her eating dirt, Elizabeth fears that they’ll pick up on her habit as her youngest child, Bella, has started to eat ash.