History Main / EatDirtCheap

There's a tendency in fantasy to have certain species or characters, especially stone-based ones, eat earthen materials. Often, this extends to having their entire diet consists of these things, and they're unable to digest pure organic matter. Analogies to actual human food may be drawn as well: nitrogen-rich soil may be especially tasty, for instance, or gemstones may be considered rare delicacies.

** Aron and it's relatives eat iron, which makes them a nuisance and railroads. Nosepass apparently uses it's magnetism to attract it's prey to it, which suggests that it eats mineral-based creatures.

** The Geodude evolutionary line eats rocks.

->''"I am one of the Gorons, the stone-eating people who live on Death Mountain."''
-->-- '''[[CaptainObvious A Goron]]''', ''TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''

-->-- '''[[CaptainObvious A goron]]''', ''TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''

* According to ''{{Spelljammer}}'', this is actually the natural diet of tarrasques. The more familiar all-devouring, all-destroying monsters are all just homicidally insane -- most planetary atmospheres don't agree with them.

** The aurumvorax, an eight-legged wolverine-like animal that eats metals and oars but holds a special affinity for gold.

** Xorn feed on rare minerals. In module S4 ''The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth'' they ate crystals and gems.

* Certain minerals of a "stone-like" nature can be consumed for medicinal purposes in Chinese herbal medicine, but only in small dosages which are boiled for hours. One such mineral, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsum Gypsum]] (or, in TCM:[[http://www.yinyanghouse.com/theory/herbalmedicine/shi_gao_tcm_herbal_database Shi Gao]]), can notably be purchased in large quantities from the Home Depot, as it is mostly used as drywall.

* Many animals have stomach-like organs known as gizzards, which lack the powerful acids that true stomachs have to break down food. For this reason, many creatures with gizzards swallow stones (known as gastroliths) to help crush the food in the gizzard.

* Rockbiter the stone giant in ''TheNeverendingStory''.

** Though they'll also eat clay, insects, and the occasional rabbit.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Spike is an ExtremeOmnivore, but seems to prefer gemstones over anything else (luckily for him, gems in that universe are less valuable than fool's gold). The gemstones thing appears to be extended to other dragons in the series as well.
* Shows up in ''{{Futurama}}''. After Lrrr[[hottip:*:RULER OF THE PLANET OMICRON PERSEI VIII!]] accidentally conquers Earth the next thing we see is the main cast [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture sentenced to the mines]] to supply his wife with gemstones to eat.

* In ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_Park Prehistoric Park]]'', much to the annoyance of the park staff, Titanosoars are able to consume whole trees and thatched huts, but they prefer rocks. {{Justified}} in that the rocks allow their digestive system to crush the massive quantities of fibre they consume, easing indigestion; they can't dig except by uprooting trees, so finding an appetizing rock is not as easy as one might expect.

* In ''MasterOfOrion'', the Silicoids and custom Lithovore races.

* ''FinalFantasyI'' had a talking stone giant blocking the path to get to the Earth Cave. He wants a tasty ruby to munch on.

* Many animals have stomach-like organs known as gizzards, which lack the powerful acids that true stomachs have to break down food. For this reason, many creatures with gizzards swallow stones to help crush the food in the gizzard.

* In ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Spike is an ExtremeOmnivore, but seems to prefer gemstones over anything else (luckily for him, gems in that universe are less valuable than fool's gold). The gemstones thing appears to be extended to other dragons in the series as well.

[[quoteright:248:[[{{Femmegasm}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2011-04-14_7224.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:248:[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Spike has...interesting tastes.]]]]

** Yes, actually. One Goron says they've become such gourmets (and he literally uses the word "gourmets") that other rocks may as well turn to ash in their mouths, for all the satisfaction they get from eating them.

[[caption-width-right:248:[[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Spike has...interesting tastes.]]]]

* In ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Spike is an ExtremeOmnivore, but seems to prefer gemstones over anything else (luckily for him, gems in that universe are less expensive than fool's gold). The gemstones thing appears to be extended to other dragons in the series as well.

* In ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Spike is an ExtremeOmnivore, but seems to prefer gemstones over anything else. The gemstones thing appears to be extended to other dragons in the series as well.