CHOICES SHAPE YOUR FUTURE
By Judith Ashton
What is the most important thing that your kids should eat? According to Canadian micro-biologists, B Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta the answer appears to be some plain good old healthy dirt according to their book “Let them eat dirt: Saving your child from an over sanitized world.”
They are not advocating that kids “chow down on filth, but we all need to come off our high horses on hygiene. For hundreds of years we have thought that cleanliness is next to godliness, however, we’re beginning to realize that over sanitization actually damages our children’s health.”
I refuse to buy into the TV ads that promote anti-bacterial household sprays. Do our kitchens need the same level of sterilisation as hospital operating theatres, do all surfaces have to be squeaky clean? Somewhere deep down I always had my doubts and that there was nothing wrong with a good old fashioned wipe of a cloth… apparently, I’m right.
Undoubtedly, good hygiene is essential and because of good practice, life expectancy has doubled from 40 years in 1841 to 79+ in 2011.… In the 1800s countless women died of infection after childbirth. In 1847 Dr. Semmelweiss demonstrated that good old hand scrubbing with carbolic soap would reduce incidence of infection. This was ridiculed by the medical and scientific establishment and he was later committed to a mental asylum by his colleagues and died soon after. Today he is known as “The saviour of mothers”.
In recent times we have gone overboard with too much sanitization, resulting in a huge increase in chronic non- infectious diseases eg: allergies, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease and many auto-immune diseases.
From 1990 to 1998 (only 8 years!) the UK wheezing rates of kids aged 1 to 5 doubled and each year the number of British allergy sufferers increases by 5 %, and those with food allergies had doubled in a decade and continues to increase! It was predicted that by 2025 asthma would be the most common chronic childhood disease in the UK. What is going on?
To find answers, Arrieta and Findlay undertook a study which showed that 3-month-old babies with 4 specific microbes in their faeces were significantly less likely to develop asthma. Whilst acknowledging that asthma has genetic components some other factors are also crucial. Microbes were the answer. They say that, “In our quest to get rid of the bad bugs we have been getting rid of the good ones too and we desperately need these. Our modern hyper-clean lifestyles are contributing to the rise of these diseases.”
This “hygiene hypothesis” is not new. In 1989 Prof. David Strachan linked the lack of exposure to germs and the surge in allergies.
When a baby is born, it has a gut full of immature immune cells and it spends the first few months of its life being colonized by bacteria. If over sanitization prevents this natural occurrence from happening the immune system does not mature and the child is unable to fight off diseases efficiently.
A study by the Centre for Environment and Health in Belgium in2015 concluded that exposure to bleach in the home was associated with a 20% rise in the risk of flu and a 35% rise in recurrent tonsillitis in schoolchildren. In 2016 the US Food & Drug Administration banned some of the chemicals used in anti-bacterial products.
For health’s sake let’s get rid of all those products that over sanitize our homes. Chemical-free household and beauty products from your local health food shop are better for your health and the environment.
Findlay and Arrieta also advise parents, “let kids play in the dirt. Don’t wash toys unless they are visibly grubby, don’t panic about washing hands unless they are about to eat, relax about sanitizing your home. Oh, and get a dog. Dogs reduce your children’s risk of getting asthma by 13%. It doesn’t work that way with cats as they are too aloof with kids. Dogs on the other hand, will slobber all over them. Also limit white flour and sugar in kid’s diets as these starve our good gut microbes and limit the use of anti-biotics
So, your kids need to get out of doors and get dirty! Over sanitization makes us sick!! My granny used to say,” A bit of dirt never hurt anyone.” Turns out that she was right all along.
