Dirt: It's What's for Dinner

I'm like those people who watch shows they hate and then bitch about how much the show sucks. I can't stop reading the NY Times. It is, after all, the self-proclaimed Paper of Record, and sometimes I find an article that actually speaks the truth.

For more years than I can remember, I've been saying that a little dirt never hurt anyone. That's not merely a justification for my crappy housekeeping skills. It's based on fact, i.e., my opinion. Anyway, here's a piece that says eating dirt is good for babies.

From the article:

In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of a healthy immune system. Several continuing studies suggest that worms may help to redirect an immune system that has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma.

These studies, along with epidemiological observations, seem to explain why immune system disorders like multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma and allergies have risen significantly in the United States and other developed countries.

Scientists and other sane people have been claiming for quite a while now that the more we sanitize our houses and ourselves, the sicker we become. Considering that vaccines are made from weak solutions of the very virus, bacteria or flesh-eating disease the vaccine prevents, it makes sense that a little dirt can protect you from something much worse.

Have you seen the commercials for sanitizing products? Panicked mothers wiping and spraying down everything in sight. "Don't forget to spray the kid while you're at it." Corporations that produce these products love to feed on the fears of parents. "Use our product or your kids will die!" We're cleaning our kids to within an inch of their lives, leaving them with no defenses against the world around them. Maybe we should just lock them in a round room with soft walls. Then they'll never get sick or hurt until they leave home, and we'll end up with generations of adults suffering from allergies,  constant, nasty colds and the inability to eat anything more interesting than oatmeal.

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Just for fun, here's the text of one of Julia Sugarbaker's famous Terminator Tirades from Designing Women (and if anyone can find a video of it, please send me the link. I spent an hour looking for it):

Yes, you can give him a message. You do take shorthand, don't you? Good, we take it in the South too. Anyway, just tell him that I have been a Southerner all my life, and I can vouche for the fact the we do eat a lot of things down here........ and we've certainly all had our share of grits and biscuits and gravy, and I myself have probably eaten enough fried chicken to feed a third world country ---- not to mention barbecue, cornbread, watermelon, fried pies, okra, and ...........yes.........if I were being perfectly candid, I would have to admit we have also eaten our share of crow, and for all I know --- during the darkest, leanest years of the Civil War, some of us may have had a Yankee or two for breakfast. But........... speaking for myself and hundreds of thousands of my Southern ancestors who have evolved through many decades of poverty, strife, and turmoil, I would like for Mr. Weaks to know that we have surely eaten many things in the past, and we will surely eat many things in the future, but --- God as my witness - -- we have never, I repeat, NEVER EATEN DIRT!!! -- from the episode Getting Married and Eating Dirt