[Sca-cooks] Trying again

[Daniel Myers]

On Friday, January 24, 2003, at 04:14 PM, Maggie MacDonald wrote:

> At 09:21 AM 1/24/03,Jim Fox-Davis said something like:
>
>> OBFOOD:  So, what foods help -develop- the immune system, and did our
>> ancestors try to express these things by use of the 'humours'?
>>
>> Jared
>
> Maybe that is where the old grandma saying "You eat a pound of dirt in
> your
> life." came from? There's no better way to immunize yourself against
> the
> local crawlies than just eating them.

It's not the "local crawlies" you need to worry about.  Dirt usually
contains a wide variety of bacteria, but most are pretty harmless and
easily killed by stomach acid).  E. coli, Salmonella, and the like come
from animal excrement, and if you eat fresh manure in an attempt to
build up immunity I can guarantee that you're going to get sick.

> Did you ever read the Mother Earth News article where they discussed
> natural remedies for first aid? I especially remember one where they
> told
> you if you had a cut on your finger, to put it in your mouth and suck
> on
> it. You removed foreign bodies from the cut, and gave yourself a
> shortcut
> to working on resistance to whatever ickies were in it. After that, if
> there was an issue, for some reason i seem to recall they recommended
> dressing it with honey (which is .. anerobic? antimicrobial? something)

Apples and oranges on this one.  There are many kinds of bacteria that
are normally harmless when ingested, but very harmful when they get
into your bloodstream (S. aureus for one is all over your skin and
rarely causes trouble when it gets in your mouth, but when it gets in a
cut it can cause all sorts of trouble).

When you suck on the cut you're increasing blood flow which helps wash
the bacteria out - possibly reducing risk of infection.  Any bacteria
you swallow in the process does not add to your immunity because it is
killed by the acid in your stomach (in the same way that bean sprouts
are, otherwise people would have mung beans growing out of all sorts of
odd places).

While honey has an extremely high sugar content which inhibits
spoiling, putting something sticky like honey on a wound is just
begging for trouble - bacteria will more easily stick to it, and since
the honey will be contaminated with blood an whatnot the sugar
concentration may drop to the point where it suddenly becomes an ideal
medium for bacterial growth (bacteria, sugar, protein, moisture, lack
of light and air, and access to the human bloodstream = *bad* *idea*).

The best way to treat a minor cut to prevent infection is to wash it
with clean water and soap and to cover it with a clean bandage.  You
can use an antibacterial spray in addition to this or antibacterial
soap.

- Doc


--
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  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  http://www.medievalcookery.com/
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