I don’t SEE any hair on it…

Who doesn’t practice the five second rule? Certainly no one in my circle of friends. How reliable is it though? Could dangerous pathogens really hop onto my food if it hits the floor for a brief moment in time? Is food poisoning even common? Let’s find out…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in the United States, food poisoning causes about 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and up to 5,000 deaths each year. One of the most common bacterial forms of infection, the salmonellae organisms, account for $1 billion in medical costs and lost work time.

A study by food scientists recently dropped food (pieces of bologna and slices of bread) on the floor for intervals of 5-60 seconds. The 5 second samples contained an alarming 1,800 types of bacteria! Without frequent sterilization of surfaces, you’re probably better off not eating food fallen for only one second.

If you don’t have time to sterilize your floors on an hourly basis, check out these tips on effective, but quick cleaning.

Stomach Bugs…

For decades people believed that peptic ulcers were caused by stress, alcohol, and spicy foods.  It wasn’t until 1982 that Dr. Barry Marshall and Dr. Robin Warren discovered a bacterium that can inhabit the acidic human stomach.  It is called Helicobacter pylori and it is the cause of the vast majority of peptic ulcers.  H. pylori buries itself in the mucus lining of the stomach where the immune system cannot touch it.  It then secretes protective enzymes as well as a toxin that kills the cells in the wall of the stomach.  This is the actual cause of the ulcer.  Increased stomach acid and even stress can further irritate the ulcer, but thanks to Nobel Prize winning doctors Marshall and Warren, we know the real offender is H. pylori.

Gum…to swallow or not to swallow…

Now who hasn’t heard that if you swallow your chewing gum it will stay in your intestines for 7 years?  Well, by my calculations that means I should have about 6 pieces still in me.  Myth-understandings is now happy to report that the gum indeed does NOT stay in your system for years.  It will only be with you for hours-days at most-just like any other food you happen to ingest.

Wrigley recently commented on the subject: “Chewing gum has five basic ingredients – sweeteners, corn syrup, softeners, flavors and gum base (the part that puts the “chew” in chewing gum). The first four ingredients are soluble, meaning they dissolve in your mouth as you chew. Gum base doesn’t. And although it isn’t meant to be swallowed, if it is, it simply passes through your system, just like popcorn or any other form of roughage.” It starts traveling down your esophagus, into your stomach, enters the small intestine, and makes its way to the large intestine. This normally takes only a few days.”

If you are the experimenting type, don’t think you’re going to see the gum once it’s been…uh…processed.  The color of gum base is not the pink, green, or blues you might expect to see.

So don’t be afraid to chew!  Wrigley lists the following as benefits of chewing gum:

• Fights plaque
• Stress relief
• Helps curb cravings (weight loss, quitting tobacco use)
• Improves focus, concentration, alertness, etc.

The only question that remains is who started the rumor and why did they choose seven years as opposed to one year or the rest of your life?