Mud Pie is Good for You
I came here on vacation with my parents the summer I was nine years old. I played almost every afternoon with my five-year-old cousin in her garden. We would play with little tin plates and small worn pots relegated to toys. We would make "tea" from certain types of plants we picked, "rice" with seeds from other weeds, and mud pies with the loose earth we gathered under her mother's flowers. The little area behind the large cement sink was her "kitchen." The chickens wandered all over, sometimes leaving their droppings in the "kitchen." The pig sty was nearby, and so were the flies that feasted on their effluvia.
For me it was something new. Back in Boston we lived in a third floor apartment and I rarely ventured down into the yard, which was left to its own devices. I played on the back porch mostly, or rode my bike up and down the street. Our house wasn't shiny clean, but it wasn't filthy. My cousin, however, had grown up on a farm surrounded by animals. Her house was clean, but she was still exposed to all different types of microbes. I wasn't. Every summer I came here and even when I first came to live, I would get diarrhea. My parents didn't. I developed asthma in my childhood. My cousin didn't. Nor did my husband, who also grew up surrounded by animals and dirt, and ate fruit right off the tree without washing his hands or the fruit.
There have been small scientific studies which suggest babies and children who are exposed early on to different microbes and catch colds and other small illnesses, strengthen their immune system. Also, that they have less autoimmune disorders, such as asthma. I don't know if there's a correlation, but I have never been a fan of sanitizing every surface in the house.
When the A variant of the yearly flu showed up doctors became worried because it generally attacked young to middle aged people the most, killing some who had previous health issues. To avoid catching it they promoted hand hygiene: wash your hands regularly and always before touching your face or eating. But to me it seemed some people exaggerated by taking hand sanitizer everywhere. And that some cleaning product companies made a killing in profit. Kitchen sponges showed up that would kill bacteria, more expensive than the regular ones, of course. To be a good housewife you had to use them to protect your family. Floor cleaners, dish washing detergent, bathroom cleaners, even detergent. Everything was imbued with special ingredients that would kill all known and unknown bacteria. I never used them.
On the one hand industries were peddling yogurt with lactobacillus that would keep us healthy. On the other hand, they were peddling anti-bacterial products that would kill any and all microbes to keep us healthy. What to do?
I simply ignored most of the hype. I did catch the A variant of the flu. So did my husband and daughter, but not my father. It turned out it was the variant most prevalent when he was a child, so it didn't affect him more than a little runny nose. And, despite not using all the bacteria-killing paraphernalia, we are not sicker than those who do. Yet our dishes are clean, as well as our clothes and most of our house, and we haven't caught strange illnesses caused by scary bacteria. Actually, with each passing year we seem to catch less colds and similar ailments. My immune system seems to have finally adjusted to the rural world and diarrhea is generally a thing of the past.
Maybe a little dirt is better than a lot of soap.
For me it was something new. Back in Boston we lived in a third floor apartment and I rarely ventured down into the yard, which was left to its own devices. I played on the back porch mostly, or rode my bike up and down the street. Our house wasn't shiny clean, but it wasn't filthy. My cousin, however, had grown up on a farm surrounded by animals. Her house was clean, but she was still exposed to all different types of microbes. I wasn't. Every summer I came here and even when I first came to live, I would get diarrhea. My parents didn't. I developed asthma in my childhood. My cousin didn't. Nor did my husband, who also grew up surrounded by animals and dirt, and ate fruit right off the tree without washing his hands or the fruit.
There have been small scientific studies which suggest babies and children who are exposed early on to different microbes and catch colds and other small illnesses, strengthen their immune system. Also, that they have less autoimmune disorders, such as asthma. I don't know if there's a correlation, but I have never been a fan of sanitizing every surface in the house.
When the A variant of the yearly flu showed up doctors became worried because it generally attacked young to middle aged people the most, killing some who had previous health issues. To avoid catching it they promoted hand hygiene: wash your hands regularly and always before touching your face or eating. But to me it seemed some people exaggerated by taking hand sanitizer everywhere. And that some cleaning product companies made a killing in profit. Kitchen sponges showed up that would kill bacteria, more expensive than the regular ones, of course. To be a good housewife you had to use them to protect your family. Floor cleaners, dish washing detergent, bathroom cleaners, even detergent. Everything was imbued with special ingredients that would kill all known and unknown bacteria. I never used them.
On the one hand industries were peddling yogurt with lactobacillus that would keep us healthy. On the other hand, they were peddling anti-bacterial products that would kill any and all microbes to keep us healthy. What to do?
I simply ignored most of the hype. I did catch the A variant of the flu. So did my husband and daughter, but not my father. It turned out it was the variant most prevalent when he was a child, so it didn't affect him more than a little runny nose. And, despite not using all the bacteria-killing paraphernalia, we are not sicker than those who do. Yet our dishes are clean, as well as our clothes and most of our house, and we haven't caught strange illnesses caused by scary bacteria. Actually, with each passing year we seem to catch less colds and similar ailments. My immune system seems to have finally adjusted to the rural world and diarrhea is generally a thing of the past.
Maybe a little dirt is better than a lot of soap.
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