BACTERIA AND THE DEMISE OF THE FIVE-SECOND RULE
I was munching on the last chocolate in a box the other day when it slipped from my hand and landed on the kitchen floor. I scooped it up instantly, like a professional baseball player — in under five seconds — quickly enough to safely eat.
Then I remembered that it didn’t matter anymore: the fivesecond rule is dead, another myth murdered by science. According to a recent two-year study no matter how fast you pick up dropped food, it’s blanketed in bacteria.
It’s just the latest bad news from Studyland. After learning that dieting is hopeless, flossing may be useless and barbecue bristles kill — now, we can’t even eat off the floor anymore. What’s the world coming to?
I’ve been scooping up, then scarfing down dropped strawberries, almonds and I admit, occasional pizza slices (topping side up) for years, though I draw the line at ice cream.
I never actually believed the food I “rescued” was clean — the five-second rule was just my excuse for eating something I really wanted. I’d dust off a chocolate truffle, but not a cauliflower wedge.
But now my flimsy alibi has been exposed and I have to face the fact I’m just munching on dirt.
Many of us learned the fivesecond rule in childhood to convince us not to waste food. The rule’s origins are shrouded in legend. Some say it goes back to Genghis Khan’s edict that fallen banquet food, like candied boar’s head, Khan be eaten safely for 12 hours.
Others blame chef Julia Child who famously flipped a pancake on TV that landed on the stove — then cooked it anyway saying: “Remember, you are alone in the kitchen. Who’s going to see?”
But whatever its source, the five-second rule is now history.
The recent study, by Rutgers University, was remarkably thorough, testing foods from buttered bread to watermelon to gummy bears — falling on wooden floors, ceramic floors, marble floors, metal floors and carpet, for anywhere from one second to 300.
But it all made little difference: even one second was enough to coat any food with bacteria. Not surprisingly watermelon attracted the most germs and unbuttered bread the least.
Some floors proved safer than others. So if you’re planning to dine à la floor, munching off a carpet is your healthiest option. But the longer any food lies there, the worse the dirt.
The bad news is there are 9 million cases of food-borne illness a year in America. But the good news is home floors aren’t particularly unsanitary. In fact the cellphones we handle constantly often carry the most bacteria — so stop eating off your phone’s screen immediately.
The recent study provokes other questions I’d like answered. For instance, how many seconds can you shake a sick person’s hand before you get their cold germs? Is a high-five safer than a two-second handshake? More research is obviously needed.
Beneath the question of the five-second rule is another deeper one: how bad is dirt for us anyway? This study is just the latest skirmish between clean freaks and dirt defenders, debating some very modern questions:
To clean, or too clean? Who’s healthier: Mr. Clean or Pigpen?
Until the mid-1990s, North America was at war with dirt and obsessed with eliminating it. In our modern, ultra-hygienic world we were urged to scrub everything clean with an arsenal of antibacterial soaps, sprays, wipes and disinfectants that would “kill germs dead!”
The result of this germ warfare is a generation of kids with far higher allergy rates, because they’ve never been exposed and “inoculated” to bacteria that are easily encountered by say — eating off the floor.
Other studies show that farm children get almost 50 per cent less asthma and allergies than city children because they’re exposed to soil and animals. Dirt proponents are spreading like germs.
There are books with titles like Why Dirt is Good, and bestselling parenting guides like Let Them Eat Dirt. They offer healthful instructions like: don’t bring up your kids to be too clean. Encourage them to play in the mud. If some gets in their mouth, that’s good.
KID (ringing doorbell): Mom! I’m finished playing — can I have a snack?
MOM: Teddy — you’re spotless! Go right back outside and dirty up.
Foodie chefs in Europe and Asia are joining this dirt renaissance, serving meals garnished with edible “pseudo soil.” One French restaurant in Tokyo, famously features gourmet dishes like potato dirt soup and dirt ice-cream, using special soil from deep beneath the ground.
So maybe it’s time to put a little dirt in your diet. Start by learning to drop your bread, butter-side up — then advance to bagels, with cream cheese side down.
Next time your fork falls on the floor, forget the five-second rule. Let it lie there for 50 seconds for more health benefits — then enjoy some dirty dining.