The problem is not dirty floors or food dropped on dirty floors but compromised or destroyed gut function...

Most people now have compromised immune and gut function because of the abuse of antibiotics and the ridiculous practice of using anti-bacterial cleaners, so killing even more of the good bacteria which keep you healthy, so they are more susceptible to bacterial infection.

There is also growing evidence that vaccines impact gut function and so the chances of having a healthy gut in this day and age, from the moment of birth, is severely compromised. Expect more cases of food poisoning and it won't be about floors or food but about gut function.

If you live in the Third World where you are exposed to more bacteria and potential infection and you have not destroyed your gut with over-use of antibiotics and the health-damaging anti-bacterial cleaners and wipes then you could probably pick up food from any floor in the First World and be absolutely fine.

While there may be faecal matter on the floor, the fact is, living somewhere like India where people commonly defecate in the street, you are breathing in faecal matter all of the time. Whenever you walk into a toilet in the First World, public or private, you will be breathing in someone else's faecal matter so this hardly rates as a danger.

Given that babies and toddlers spend a great deal of time dropping toys on the floor and sucking them or crawling and sucking their fingers, hands and toes given half a chance, the 'dirtiness' of a floor is hardly likely to be much of a factor - unless you have compromised or destroyed your immune response and your healthy gut bacterial through too many antibiotics or antibacterials.

So the premise of the article makes little or no sense except for those who are not healthy anyway and they would be wise to restore their health as opposed to becoming fanatical about floors and food.

 

 

 

The 'five-second rule' is a dirty myth › Dr Karl's Great Moments In Science (ABC Science)

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