Sorry Catherine, but Bob is actually right. Google the “hygiene hypothesis”.
And it gets worse. Seems that some of the parasites we rid ourselves of were actually a part of our immune system.
“helminth therapy”
And it gets even WORSE.
“fecal transplant”
If Bob is as healthy as he says he is, he’s EXACTLY the person you’d want to prepare your meals. He’d pass on a healthy balance of bacteria.
Being too sterile has killed the Western immune system. We’ve had germs and parasites (symbiotes) as part of our systems for time immemorial. We were designed to deal with that to the point where their absence makes us sick.
When my kids were little, they were ‘allergy babies’. Allergic to everything. But then they’d go spend a month or two on grandma’s farm. They’d play in the hay, run barefoot through the barnyard with bird crap and worse, splash in the algae-infested, muddy creek...
And they would be healthy. After a month back at home with Lysol, bleach and Purel, they’d be back on the inhalers and coming down with strep, bronchitis and skin infections.
And with that all said, I just bleached my counters and used hand sanitizer. I still can’t get past the ‘ick’ factor. But I am MUCH more relaxed than I was before. I do think there’s a happy medium.
Marie, with all due respect, there’s nothing right about not washing your hands after going to the bathroom. It’s just filthy, period. People in Third World countries at least have the excuse of not having the facilities, or even the knowledge to do so. I’m a big fan of sanitizers, bleach, Lysol, and all that, and thank the Lord, I can’t remember the last time we got sick.
Bottom line-—I don’t want poop in my soup.
When my brother and I were kids we played in the hay barn, went barefoot in the chicken yard, made mud pies and sometimes ate a bite, slept with a dog and a cat in our beds drank unpasteurized milk right from Suzie the cow and we were both asthmatic and had terrible allergies. According to you we shouldn’t have had any allergies, go figure.