Malone ponders the benefits of bacteria
My mother stayed at the weekend. It was really nice to have Nana around. Someone to back me up and discipline: “Listen to Nana!” “Nana will tell you!” Having her around has reminded me that hand washing seems to have gone out of fashion.
I had forgotten about this ancient practice of hand washing before every meal. Obviously she had brought me up to do this, but it’s something I never do before a meal, unless I’m about to cook, or I’ve been rolling around in faeces. I don’t wash my hands just to sit down and eat dinner. Yet my mother was determined to ensure my five year old did. I understand children do get mucky and probably do need more hand washing than adults, but then I couldn’t think of any families where children were told to wash their hands before dinner. It’s like a forgotten tribal ritual.
“It’s like a forgotten tribal ritual”
I wonder with the prevalence of modern advancements in chemical cleaning, (these antibacterial sprays in our homes, that kill all bacteria good and bad) that now perhaps we need those last remaining germs on the hands of our children in our sterile homes! Or maybe there are no germs on our children’s hands anymore. Maybe all the germs have moved abroad to find work. ‘There’s no work around these days, it’s not like the old days. We’d run-a-muck!’ In the ‘50s when my mum was a child, she’d spend a lot of playtime in woods, fields and the family garden, needing a good wash after. After all, you can’t clean nature with an anti-bacterial spray. Well you can…but forests wither… Nature needs bacteria.
The human body contains more bacterial cells than human cells. Nowadays few people can afford a garden, and who lets their children outside anymore? So maybe our children are the ‘cleanest’ generation yet. I recall a doctor telling me that babies need germs to build their immune system up. If the immune system has no invaders to fight against, then it builds up no walls of defence, it doesn’t produce the good bacteria army to fight the battles of the future. I do wonder if the new chemical clean world we live in is giving our bodies nothing to fight against, is this why so many people suddenly have allergies? When I was at school I don’t remember anyone having allergies.
Do I need to start cleaning the house with vinegar and soap my hands before dinner? We used to wash our hands in plain soap, now we wash them in a nature death spray “antibacterial with pomegranate”. Maybe a bit of bacteria left after washing was good for us. It’s food for thought.
