While it has become a common affair for us to waste food, there are people in every corner of the world who are dying of hunger. Few years ago, a video of Haiti, one of the poorest nations on earth, went viral as it highlighted the amount of poverty being so serious that few people were eating dirt to survive by fashioning "cakes" made of mud. The mud cakes are in the news again after Indian batsman Virender Sehwag shares a video from Haiti on Twitter with a heart touching message, urging people not to waste food.

In a dusty courtyard, women are seen moulding clay and water into hundreds of small platters and lay them out under the sun to harden it. These are not to hold food, but they are food. Commonly known as mud cakes, these "delicacies" have been eaten by pregnant women in Haiti for calcium and now the cakes are a staple food for entire families. As gross they sound, Haitians have been eating them for years and surviving on the cakes for nutrition.

Read the tweet the Virender Sehwag shared along with the heart melting video. 

Natural disasters, constant political strife, rising cost of food and fuel have altogether become a huge crisis in Haiti. The country is still recovering from the massive earthquake that hit in 2010. Whenever they are hungry, they eat these mud cakes which are made by mixing a special type of mud with salt, margarine and water. Localities call it ‘Galette', a name given to a French delicacy.

But one may wonder, how are they are surviving on this dirt. The habit of eating clay, any sort of mud or dirt is known as geophagy. Medical experts believe that the eating clay may have some real health benefits. They believe that clay or mud contain high levels of calcium, iron, copper and magnesium which are essential minerals for the human diet. Gerald N. Callahan, Immunologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, United States believes that eating clay could be a way to build up the immune system during pregnancy.

Whether it is for medicinal reasons or just to keep starvation at bay, it is heartbreaking to discover that somewhere in the world, people are living by eating mud. Especially in times when food is being wasted every minute across the world. We are not really exaggerating the living condition of Haitians neither  is Virender Sehwag . His tweet is just a reminder towards the shortage of food in the world. Think as many times as you can before wasting food. Give it to someone who needs it more than you do.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 21, 2018 05:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).