Some of the things I run into online really get me shaking my head. I just this evening came across a Huffington Post offering that tried to scare me (and everyone else) into not using lemon wedges in my drinks because of all the microbes I might ingest. (Like the entire world and the air around us aren't loaded with such things!)
Come on, now. I do have an immune system that has been pretty damn efficient in protecting me from all manner of microbial dangers for nearly 80 years! You would shudder to see what I fell in and was drug through on that ranch I grew up on. under a microscope, it would be hard to tell where I begin and the microbes in all areas of my body leave off.
Studies have shown that babies who are exposed to more dirt and bacterial cultures are far healthier with much stronger immune systems, less asthma, etc. than those who are fanatically isolated from any possible contamination. Playing in the dirt, making mud pies, eating with garden soiled hands and any number of other things humans are prone to experience don't necessarily pose a threat. And don't companies make millions selling us yogurt and pills to get that "good" bacteria into our guts? I got the same thing drinking raw milk, eating butter churned from naturally soured cream and walking across the farmyard!
As an aside, when I was a ministerial assistant in New York, one of the more humorous members mentioned how careful they were to sanitize everything their first child consumed and came in contact with. He said things loosened up considerably with the second one and that the third one "ate with the dog." I wonder which one was the healthiest.
The article did mollify things toward the end, proving that they only chose the subject and title to get people upset and worried. Most of us will have an "ho hum" reaction, but the mentally unbalanced among us will run with it and create a multitude of problems for themselves and those close to them.
I like to write and influence the opinions of others, but let's use a little restraint lest we stir the pot of paranoia.
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