I almost forgot about this…
Two weeks ago, scientific research again butted heads with what I have always believed. Scientists from San Diego State University performed experiments and came to the conclusion that a practice many people cling to, is merely a baseless tradition.
I am talking about the 5 Second Rule.
Yes, studies have again disproven the idea that if a piece of food is dropped on the floor, and then picked up within the requisite 5 seconds, germs will not have time to adhere to the surface of the food, and it will be safe to consume. Here is a news report of the study: News Report.
This is not the first study of this kind. A scientist in 2004 won the Nobel Peace Prize for her research into the five-second rule and public health. (But that was before we knew that Nobel Peace Prizes are the societal equivalent of a Cracker Jack toy.) Even better, Mythbusters debunked the five-second rule – and if Adam and Jamie say it’s busted, it’s busted.
Yet I am a still bit conflicted. Let’s dig a little deeper…
For starters, let’s “Shoot the Messenger.”
• San Diego State University (SDSU) has been widely known as being one of the Nation’s top “Party Schools.” How are we expected to believe research if we don’t even know if the researchers were sober or hungover?
• SDSU has a “Surfing Team.” How do we know that the bacteria that stuck to the food didn’t come from something one of the students picked up that morning out in the ocean?
• I mean really, how many of these SDSU kids have actual children?
• BYU and SDSU had a 33 year sports rivalry. During that time, BYU won 79% of the football games, and 67% of the basketball games between the two schools. This has absolutely nothing to do with the study – I just like saying it.
Even if you buy into this idea of “scientific” proof that the 5 Second Rule is not valid, I think we can all find solace in knowing that there are many things we know that were not disproven by this recent study.
The SDSU study did not address any of the following:
• Wiping a dropped binkie on your jeans will sanitize it.
• If you knock a piece of meat off the grill, and it lands on the patio – and no one sees it – it never happened.
• The more kids you have, the more resistant to bacteria they become. For example:
1st child drops spoon? Get a new one out of the drawer.
2nd child drops spoon? Wash with antibacterial soap and give it back to kid.
3rd child drops spoon? Rinse under tap water for three seconds, and give it back.
4th child drops spoon? Pick it up and give it back.
5th child drops spoon? Let the dog finish licking it, then give it back.
• Re-dipping a spoon (or finger) into the peanut butter jar will not contaminate the peanut butter if you focus really hard on not leaving any germs in the jar..
• Blowing on candy that has been dropped dislodges all germs.
• Germs are less likely to adhere to the last piece of chocolate than the first.
• People that are in love can share a straw, all other straw-sharing is life-threatening. And just plain gross.
• Ice cream does, in fact, fill up the cracks, and freezes bacteria at the same time.
• Double-dipping tortilla chips is safe, but only if the salsa is hot enough.
• Tofu is really, really bad for you, or they wouldn’t call it tofu.
• Miracle Whip is an abomination. (Just trying to be consistent here, folks.)
• Dog kisses are fine, Especially if you don’t mind ringworm and fecal matter kisses.
Well, I hope that helps you out as you start your day. I am happy to be of service, and inform you of important things that science just hasn’t gotten around to researching.
Have a happy, healthy day!
mormon humor lds humorist MMM
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Some people will continue to believe the wildest things, even after science proves otherwise:
– Lucky numbers
– Horoscopes / astrology
– Psychics
– UFOs
– Herbal supplements of all kinds
– Traditional Chinese medicine (single biggest driver of extinction)
– Loch Ness Monster / bigfoot / Yeti
– Danger of fluoridated water
– Vaccines causing autism
– shall we go on?
That said, I will continue to practice the 5 second rule depending on the tastiness of the object dropped and the location of such drop.
I agree with most of your statement, except for the “herbal supplements of all kinds” statement. While there are a lot of bogus products out there, there are some that are backed by legitimate scientific studies. Echinacea, St. John’s Wort, Black Cohosh, Gingko Biloba and Saw Palmetto to name a few. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
I don’t have kids, but I’m totally a guilty aunt. After all, a little dirt never hurt!
LOL . . . You and your attractive, charming, and oh-so-dynamic readers are totally twisted . . . No wonder I enjoy your blogs! ;o)
My mother-in-law shared with me this story about her childhood.
When she was very young her mother called the doctor and complained, “Everytime Susan goes outside she eats dirt! What should I do?”
The doctor replied, “Send her out with a clean spoon.”
I hope you don’t mind that I shared this with everyone I know. The post and comments are the stuff of legends.
I’m fine with you sharing. But I’m a bit concerned that you are so critical of one of the things God gave us to bless our lives. Fish. Jesus ate it.
I remember the joyful moment when my friend who is a nurse picked up some food and proclaimed the 5 second rule (although I seem to remember she may have even said 15 second)!
I have always believed that a little natural exposure builds the immune system. Life is so much simpler and more pleasant that way.
The double dipping chips was busted. When you bite the chips enough breaks off in such a way to not deposit germs from mouth onto chip.
I have always had disdain for the 5 second rule. Dry food=easy to brush off and eat; wet food= probably should be thrown out. I just don’t want to see the brushing off dry food technique proven wrong.
Last winter when #5 came down with bronchiolitis I was told by the doctor that she will probably never be sick in kindergarten due to all the exposure to germs she is getting before then. Just proves what my grandma always said, “Every child needs to eat a pound of dirt before they are grown.”
So what you’re saying is that before we have child #5, we need to get a dog…
Dunno. Sometimes the 5th kid can serve a dual-role.
I’m with you brother . . . highly suspicious of this pseudo-science in the face of generations of application of the ‘the rule’ in the real world. Never-the-less I’d propose a compromise: Let’s just make it 3 seconds and call it good.
I’m good with going by “intention.” If you dropped it accidentally, you can still pick it up and it will be fine.
I know this is completely unrelated, but I’ve been listening to a lot of church music lately and have decided that when I read your posts, MMM, this is the voice reading it in my head.
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/We+Thank+Thee+O+God+For+A+Prophet/3D9psd/overview?src=5
It’s from this group called “Afterglow”.
That really is unrelated and interesting. I listened to the song, and I’ll be fine for you to use that voice in your head when you read my posts.
In actuality, I think my voice is more similar to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbdm2vsDYWk&noredirect=1
Oh wow… 🙂 I would think of something witty to say, but I’m too busy laughing.
I read a book by Dr. Katan (I think that was his name)who had a severe illness, (like Chrons disease) lost weight down to 90 pounds or so, tried every diet to try to endeavor to get better until finally his father gave him a little bag of dirt to sprinkle on his meals… it worked.
Now doctors are saying don’t use anti bacterial soap so much as it will in the end make your immune system suffer. So I agree with Vatermann, a little bit of dirt doesn’t hurt.
And that rhymes: a little bit of dirt, doesn’t hurt. Good child-raising philosophy if I’ve ever heard one.
We’re onto the 7th kid now, so we pretty much disregard bacteria of any kind. There is actual scientific evidence that children exposed to a lot of bacteria early in life have better immune systems later: http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/2384-early-bacterial-exposure-immunity.html
This is great! And totally agree about SDSU having lived in San Diego most of my life. Any research they do definitely has to be taken with a grain of salt!
“Re-dipping a spoon (or finger) into the peanut butter jar will not contaminate the peanut butter if you focus really hard on not leaving any germs in the jar.”
This is good to know since sometimes I run out of peanut butter before I run out of chocolate chips and dipping for more PB is a necessity.
Did you really just give us the BYU-SDSU rivalry statistic after just posting ‘The King of the Hill’? I am just saying…. 🙂
I only included that to see if you were paying attention….
My left foot…
My husband won’t share a straw with me. Does that mean he’s not in love with me? I don’t get it… he’ll kiss me, so what’s the difference? It’s mouth germs either way.
Maybe he’s just a sissy. A germ-sissy. Good to know he will still kiss you. (Maybe you backwash a lot?)
My EC will share a straw or water bottle, but never a fork or spoon. And if I’m half asleep in the morning and accidentally use her toothbrush, it might as well be used for cleaning the toilet after that – time for her to get a new toothbrush!
On my mission, my companion and I had just purchased some cookies from the little neighborhood store and were waiting for the bus. We both opened our bags of cookies, and as my companion opened his, he pulled too hard and most of the cookies went flying. They landed on the dry, sandy dirt. I looked at him and said something along the lines of ‘are you going to eat that?’ or ‘you don’t want those?’, which of course he didn’t. I’d been out around 18 months and had seen and eaten much worse. I was only his second companion, still in his greenie area. I picked them up, brushed them off, and started eating them. His response was that he was going to write his mom and tell her the unbelievable thing I had just done. It only dawns on me now thinking back about it that I should have picked them up for myself and then handed him my bag of clean cookies rather than eating both bags.
LOL
I think you did the right thing by eating both. Greenies have to learn the laws of survival at an early mission age.
Brother Smyth, I hope you weren’t in Peru. We went down to Lima to pick up our son from his mission and he was happy to inform me that most of the very dry dirt and dust that I could see was composed of desiccated dog poop. Yum.
Lol…i think this is my new favorite comment and subsequent chain
Thanks for the laugh, I’ll admit that diet coke nearly came out of my nose when I was reading about the sanitizing the spoon with the kids.
Depends on the food, snickers bar can sit on the outhouse floor for up to an hour and be perfectly fine, however, any piece of fish that has been within 10 feet of the cleanest floor will instantly become riddled with e coli, hauntavirus, and all other forms of flesh eating diseases and possible rattle snake venom.
Fish? Fish is awesome! Even raw!
Fail! I’m with Chris.
Bein from the south where we done got outhouses– I know you’re cheatin’ Chris- there done never been a snickers on the floor of an outhouse for more than 5 seconds.
You got me there Sandee, I guess maybe if it fell out of an overall pocket by one guy and got picked up by the next guy would be the only way.
I totally agree that tofu is horrible for you, bacon is much better. But as a mother of two I say strengthen the immune system from the beginning, put dirt in their food early why should the younger kids get all the benefits of those extra minerals?
As soon as I saw the words 5 Second Rule I thought of Mythbusters. They did bust the myth. And it was Adam and Jamie. Who is Bob?
Thanks Doug. I fixed it. That’s what I get for typing early in the morning.
I’m sorry, but wiping a dropped binky on your jeans is not enough. I then have to put it in my mouth. Better for me to die of a disease than my baby. Plus, I know how to get the lint/hair out of my mouth and my baby does not. Gross? Yes. But that’s what we do because we love our kids. The sacrifice is great. Great!
You need to be careful with that binkie sanitization technique. It usually only works on the 3rd kid and beyond.
Well, since I’m on my sixth… 😉
Good work, Cheryl!
The wash the binky in the mouth technique is much better for strengthening the immune system because your mouth has literally too many germs to count them unlike the floor which probably only has several.