In Defense of Dirt

A recent New York Times article tried to destroy the five-second rule because dropped food will have bacteria on it, instantaneously. Yet for healthy youngsters growing up near the dirt is good, as in the children develop fewer allergies and less asthma. Exposure to real dirt, the kind without harsh industrial chemicals, is probably critical to our immune system development. That’s probably why toddlers are so driven to taste dirt. All those mud pies were meant to be tasted. Not eaten, but tasted. Maybe once is enough.

I get it. Germs can make you sick. However, your body needs a few germs to learn to fight them. There are many other one-celled animals that are healthful to our bodies, so many of them that it is one of the next frontiers to science to learn to leverage our microbiota. Our food grows in dirt.

We are made from dust, and dust is made of one-celled creatures. We are made of cells that are engaged in warfare with deleterious one-celled animals and it turns out our little immune system soldiers need weapons training and drills.

Unless the immune system is compromised or the soil is contaminated with heavy metals or other really bad stuff, reconsider de-instituting the five-second rule. Moms know best.