SC - Themed feasts

[david friedman]

Anne-Marie,
Thank you very much for finally clearing this up. I too think that "messin'
with personal flora" is just plain baaaaad. I think I need to really learn
exactly "what" questions to ask my doctor.

Micaylah
- - who has flora in greenhouse effect most of the time, due to kidney
disease, and hates anything antibiotic when it becomes personal! : )-



>Hiya from Anne-Marie, your friendly neighborhood degreed microbiologist and
>token science geek...
>
>"weeding out" and killing "99%" of your normal flora (no matter how many
>are left) is something I choose not to do. Its up to you...you're not going
>to bring about the downfall of western civiliazation if you use
>antibacterial soaps on your body, so do as you see fit. Me, I choose not
>to. Now the no-water antibacterial hand gels...those are most cool.
>
>And hot water is not "selective" in any way. The process of washing sluices
>off all bugs, regardless of their virulance. They have no legs, see, and
>cant hold on.
>
>What does this have to do with cooking? Actually, quite a bit. Our modern
>American mentality has this thing about killing all the bacteria. To no do
>so is "dirty" and so bad. In the process, I see a lot of very unsafe food
>practices, all in the name of being "clean". 
>1. bacteria by their ownselves are not bad. where we get into trouble is
>when the delicate balance is offset, either trhough disease or through
>goofiness.
>2. Too many bacteria is bad. The number on a normal healthy clean and fresh
>chicken, for example, is not a problem. Bacteria double every 24 hours.
>Leave that healthy chicken unchilled, or cook it and leave it not warm
>enough and you got trouble. Wash that clean and fresh chicken in an unclean
>water supply and you're got trouble (you just added to the bacterial load).
>3. Some of the endproducts of some bacteria are bad. When you eat bad food,
>its not always the bacteria that give you grief, its sometimes the toxins
>they make. Thorough cooking will often (NOT ALWAYS) zap the toxins.
>4. Heating something up in your kitchen does not make it sterile. It may
>kill most of the bugs (the others curl up and go to sleep to be wakened
>next time conditions are better), it may zap most of the toxins. but as
>soon as you take it out of the oven, the bugs in the air see a nice fresh
>hospitable home. Again, bugs double every 24 hours, so it may take a bit
>for the bacterial load to get to the danger zone.
>5. Bacteria are little blobs of protein, covered in a nice waxy coat. A
>good hard scrub will knock them off for the most part. Soap will zap them
>pretty good so they dont get onto something else. Antibacterial soap makes
>you feel that you're really socking it to them, and if you're in a
>situation with, say, someone with a communicable disease, that little bit
>of reassurance is a good thing, maybe. 
>6. Too few bacteria is bad, at least on/in you. You have an internal normal
>flora that allows you to digest milk, keeps your teeth healthy and keeps
>ahem various orifices at the proper pH. You also have an external flora of
>bacteria, and even some spider mites (!) that doa whizbang job of keeping
>your skin healthy by eating the dead stuff and keeping foriegn nasty bugs
>at bay (ther's no room at the inn, so the type of Streptococcus that eats
>your face cant get a toehold)
>
>Again, using antibacterial soaps is NOT going to select for a strain of
>Ebola (the stuff doesnt work on Ebola anyway, you would have to soak in it)
>that will take over the world. It may lead to some nasty skin rashes and
>you've messed with your normal external flora, but hey, no skin off my nose
>:). 
>
>I make my living playing with bugs and cells. Some of them pathogens, some
>of them potentially contaminated with nasty viruses and the like. We dont
>use "antimicrobial" soap in the lab. For our hands, we use hot water,
>regular pump soap and frequency to control cross contamination (wash the
>hands between projects, when you put gloves on, when you take gloves off,
>etc). We kill cultures and decontaminate using bleach (10%)by dumping
>bleach in and letting it sit, or sluicing down a surface and letting it sit
>a bit before we wipe it off. Everything we do (well, ok, except for the
>biosafety cabinets :)) you can do at home (I do!). If people are
>interested, I can discuss easy ways at home to keep things clean and keep
>your friends healthy.
>
>hope this helps clear some stuff up...
>--AM
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