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| Bacterias do not wait to attach to your food! |
The famous five-second rule —the one that says that if
you drop a piece of food on the floor and pick it up very quickly within five
seconds, it is still safe to eat— has been exposed again!
Researchers showed in 2010, last year and many other times that germs do attach themselves to
different surfaces even within the amount of time stated in the rule, which may
lead to different types of diseases, such as a simple cold or even bronchitis.
A new study co-funded
by Clorox and conducted by researchers at San Diego State University
found that germs do attach themselves to food items when dropped on the floor. Using
carrots, researchers dropped the food on various surfaces such as countertops,
kitchen sinks, floor carpets, tiled floors and tables. None of the surfaces was able keep food clean for a full 5 seconds.
The countertop was found to be the
dirtiest surface, with the carpeted and tiled floors following in
second and third place.
But there is a big difference between picking up a grape from the floor
versus a jelly sandwich that falls face down in a house with pets: it all
depends on the surface in which food is dropped and the amount of germs that it
may hold.
In the following video, some other details about the five-second rule are shown:
Another important fact is that according to a survey conducted by researchers
at San Diego State University, 65% of parents said they had used the five second rule in
their homes.
As Amy Rolph, a Seattlepi columnist, stated:
"Turns out, the five-second rule is something your parents invented
because they were too lazy to get you new Cheerios after you dumped them on the
floor."
Have you ever applied the five-second rule? Do you think it is healthy or unhealthy?
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ReplyDeleteI knew the five-second rule just a few years ago, when my cousin, Alex, dumped his food on the floor. My parents never told me that before so I was impressed when he said: Don't worry! It's time to apply the five-second rule. For me, it was a little bit obvious that this rule was a lie because germs are not going to wait to contaminate my food. Of course this is unhealthy. Germs and bacteria are everywhere: floor, walls, tables, windows, grass, mud. What if your food dumped on the mud? Are you going to eat it using the five-second rule? I think that is disgusting. I prefer to care myself for getting an infection rather than eating something contaminated.
ReplyDeleteI have picked up cookies from the floor sometimes…because I have never thought that this action might be result in something dangerous for my health…
ReplyDeleteAs most of the people, I knew about this and I was very curious about this all five second rule thing, but nobody could come up with any evidence that support the myth, until one day watching Mythbusters (the famous Tv show) I got the necessary data in order to argue with all those who said that nothing happen when picking up food from the floor. The results are incredible, it seems that time is the less important matter, but the place in which you dropped out your food is. Think about it is not that crazy, as germs are not waiting for attack your groceries they are just there and in two seconds your meal might be as full of germs as five second…
Even though we cannot avoid microorganisms as they are actually everywhere, at least we can try to not eat them if we know that there are plenty of them on the floor.
Here is a video I found; I think it may be more illustrative!
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/39535-mythbusters-five-second-rule-video.htm
Thanks a lot Vera for the link! That was the video I was looking for but I couldn't find it.
DeleteYou are very welcome María José!
Delete