Gut flora yogurt or the three second rule?
 

I keep seeing all these commercials for Activia and I keep thinking to myself, "Does occasionally eating food off the ground keep me healthy, to a degree?"

I feel fine, so I don't see the point in paying for my germs.

My guess is they're different germs, and for different purposes. Activia I think is out to help your insides regulate appropriately.

As for the three-second rule, I live in a house that wouldn't pass health department inspection. Oh, the bathroom's fine, but the kitchen is likely not so much. I haven't had a garden-variety bug for years. Until yesterday....

These poor people in these commercials aren't regular?

Pickled sausage.

Bifidus regularis don'tcha know...Jamie Lee Curtis swears it keeps her pooper pipes in tip top shape.

I dunno why but I always thought there was at least some truth to the 3-5 second rule but a recent video that I watched showed that bacteria spread over whatever piece of dropped food in fractions of fractions of a second.

I use the 30 minutes rule.

Apparently it depends on the food...

Bread is fine even after 10 seconds, but uncooked pasta on the other hand is full of crap after less than a second!
Weird...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...-safe-eat.html

Mythbusters did it as well. I don't remember what they found (I believe it all depends on moisture content of the food), but as an aside they busted the myth that double dipping can spread germs.

They were testing whether double dipping is as bad "sticking your mouth in the bowl": the show wasn't about comparing it with single dipping, though they did find that "double-dipping adds just a small amount of bacteria to the salsa". Also, "if you want to keep your germs to yourself, your best bet is to just eat out of your own private bowl." is what this link about the episode says.

Then there are articles like:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/worl...ticle-1.305947

So whose word do you take? :p I also remember watching another episode of some science show which confirmed that double dipping was far worse than single dipping.

Entirely different strains of bacteria. However, I believe that casual exposure to "bad" bacteria is essential to good health. Otherwise your immune system gets weak.

germs and bacteria are everywhere. There are usually much more of them on the table and countertop than on the floor.

I'll trust Mythbusters. lol As I recall, the difference between the double dipped sample and the control was negligible. Not that I plan on starting. Reality is that you probably pick up more bacteria from the bowl of chips after people have been digging through it.



Oh.....thinking about it. The samples were disgusting after the first test.....then they sterilized the chips before the second test. Much better results.

Huh! Drop a tostito chip on fresh dog poo, wait for 3 seconds, retrieve and eat. That'll show how much of a man you are for sure.

I find this extremely difficult to believe. The second sentence anyway.

Not actually true apparently!


Kitchen floor, in front of sink: 830 bacteria/square inch

Kitchen countertop: 488 bacteria/square inch

Kitchen tabletop: 344 bacteria/square inch

Toilet seat: 295 bacteria/square inch

Sponge or counter-wiping cloth: 134,630 bacteria/square inch

Surprising that you are better off licking your toilet seat than your kitchen sponge!

http://www.webmd.com/news/20070625/t...cteria-at-home

Well thank goodness for that!.....*puts kitchen sponge down*.....

There's a rule?

::GEORGE CARLIN WARNING!!!::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29lF43mUlo

George Carlin FTW!

I guess the reason I started this thread was out of curiosity to how "valuable" Dannon's trademarked strain of Bifidobacterium Animalis is as compared to the copious amounts of environmental bacteria that we are constantly exposed to.

Apparently, strains of this are normally found in the large intestines of most mammals - including humans. So that would lead me to believe that we already have some of this stuff in us, just not the trademarked strain. (or maybe we do?)

I think it's snake oil.

You're not understanding the concept. This is a strain of bacteria that flourishes in the intestines. Exposing yourself to various germs by touching things, breathing contaminated air, eating off of dirty silverware, etc. is not going to somehow put the strain of bacteria in question in your intestines. Then again, I am not a doctor, so I could well be wrong. I just don't think it is plausible at all.