The ‘five-second rule’ for eating food? Scientists just demonstrated how gross it is.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

The ‘five-second rule’ for eating food? Scientists just demonstrated how gross it is.

By Ben Guarino September 13

Imagine it’s lunch. You are holding a fat slice of watermelon. It looks delicious. You move in for a bite. But something goes terribly wrong. The fruit slips from your juice-slicked fingers. Time slows as the nutritious treat tumbles to the linoleum.

Eh. You shrug, scooping up the slice. Maybe you make a halfhearted attempt to brush it clean. Maybe you even invoke that childhood decree — the five-second rule — as you sink your teeth into its melon flesh.

If you are unfamiliar with the rule, if you were never a klutzy fourth-grader with a sweet tooth and a fistful of M&Ms, it is simply this: If you drop food to the ground, you have a five-second window to pick it up and the snack will remain clean enough to eat.

Like most ideas concocted in cafeterias where the French toast sticks are haute cuisine, this rule does not hold up under intelligent, or basically any, scrutiny — including a new study published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/13/the-five-second-rule-for-eating-food-scientists-just-demonstrated-how-gross-it-is/

__________________________________________________________________________________

Related: Longer Contact Times Increase Cross-Contamination of Enterobacter aerogenes from Surfaces to Food (Applied and Environmental Microbiology)

[madaboutharry]

1. I was in a Pizza Hut

and saw a mom pick a slice of pizza up off the floor and give it back to her 3 year old girl. It took every once of will in me to keep me from saying something. Maybe I should have.

[Maru Kitteh]

22. She probably did that kid a favor. That kid will probably grow up with a strong immune system

and fewer worries about allergies.

Like many other things, our immune system is strengthened with use.

Sterility leads to atrophy and inadequacy, and over-reactions.

Unless the Pizza Hut floor was covered with asbestos or lead paint chips, I wouldn't sweat it too much.

[madaboutharry]

23. I was thinking about the bacteria tracked back from

the bathroom floor on the bottom of people's shoes.

I know over sanitizing isn't the greatest approach, but eating food picked up off the floor in a public place is kind of gross.

[Maru Kitteh]

24. I agree it's gross, but feces are everywhere.

Once you allow the horror to wash over you, it's not quite as frightening anymore.

[Atman]

32. I totally agree. Eat shit and don't die.

Seriously...we've become a society of paranoid loons. Eat some germs. They will STRENGTHEN your immune system. The people constantly dousing their kids with anti-bacterial sprays usually have the the peanut-allergy, everything-allergy weiner nerd kids. Let them get dirty! Let them kiss frogs and hug dogs and live life. We've become a nation of total pussies.

[Maru Kitteh]

35. I was SO with you right up until that last word.

[LanternWaste]

37. +1

+1

Some will never learn, other however, simply refuse to learn.

[TheFrenchRazor]

39. oh, stop being such a pu.... just kidding. i agree. nt

[Buzz Clik]

2. The key figure from the article:

You could make a case that dropping food (other than watermelon) on carpet or gummy candy on any surface might follow the 5-second rule, but it depends upon the level of risk you're willing to accept.

[Kablooie]

14. Looks like watermelon would be a great cleaning agent. Picks up all contaminants instantaneously.

[A HERETIC I AM]

40. "Why is everything in your kitchen all sticky?"

"Oh, I clean with watermelon"

[Orrex]

3. I've never heard anyone invoke it as an actual rule

Every single time I've ever heard it was in a "I'm going to rationalize the fact that this is full of germs because I still want to eat it" sort of way.

I like that they've run a formal study on it, but who seriously thought that the five-second rule was a real thing?

[cyberswede]

8. ^this nt

[Blue_Tires]

11. +1000

And even then, I've never heard that "rule" invoked anywhere past say, third or fourth graders...

[alcibiades_mystery]

26. Indeed, it's always said tongue in cheek

As it were.

[radical noodle]

29. Yes

Similar to saying that if the cookie is already broken, there are no calories left in it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[FSogol]

33. Next, I hope they test the adage; the quickest way to a man's heart is thru his stomach.

[pipoman]

4. Germs transfer on contact....germs don't move or climb

Therefore there isn't more germs after 20 seconds than there is after 1 second...

[Codeine]

5. Unless I'm eating in a literal pigpen

I'm pretty sure nothing on the floor is likely to kill me. I've spent the last 46 years retrieving the occasionally- dropped morsel from the floor with no issues.

Real cross-contamination happens in the kitchen, before you ever have a chance to drop your sammich on the ground.

[Buzz Clik]

16. That is an incorrect assumption.

God awful bacteria and viruses can be tracked in on shoes or the feet of pets. Various pathogens cling to clothing and hair. When ill, some pathogens immediately form aerosols upon the flushing of a toilet, and these aerosols settle on all surfaces.

[jonno99]

28. Agreed - with a few caveats: if what is dropped is "wet", it gets tossed. However,

if it's "dry" I'll blow it off and continue on - as long as I'm in a "known good" location (friends, family, etc.).

[malaise]

31. Hehehehhe

That ice cream cone story was on a public sidewalk

[jonno99]

34. Again ewww...that's just wrong. I mean, folks SPIT on the sidewalks. blechhh! nt

[snooper2]

6. Mythbusters did this years ago....little late to the game LOL

[Buzz Clik]

17. Sort of.

Myth Busters' experiments were quite different than those in the paper:
1) One kind of surface only
2) Only two kinds of food
3) Only two short time periods
4) General colony counts from the floor rather than selecting out a pathogen
5) No replication, no statistical analysis.

[malaise]

7. Filed under things I will never forget

A group of us were at this delicious ice cream place on 57th Street in Manhattan way back in the early 70s. It was a very very hot July afternoon and the line was very long. This woman bought hers and was licking away when the ice cream literally fell from the cone. She bent down, picked it up, replaced it on the cone and continued licking. I no longer wanted ice cream.

[jonno99]

30. Ewww... well, dropped ice-cream violates my "wet" rule - so it's tossed (reply #28).

[milestogo]

9. I thought the 5 second rule was about getting the food before your dog

gets there and eats it.

[Brother Buzz]

13. A three-second dog would starve in my house

My border collie beats food to the ground every time.

[Buzz Clik]

18. And a dog corollary to that rule: Eat it quickly. If it is not food, throw it up later.

[former9thward]

19. My dog recommends your post.

[hunter]

21. And if it still seems to be food, try again.

[sammythecat]

20. Made me laugh n/t

Not a LOL though. It was more a LTM (laugh to myself).

Off topic but, now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever had, in my whole life, a ROFL. Hope I get one someday. Sounds like a good time.

[maxsolomon]

10. ain't nothing killed me yet.

I'm not picking food up off the sidewalk, but GMAFB - I clean my house regularly. We have immune systems and f-tons of symbiotic bacteria that live on and in us.

[Orrex]

12. I have a friend who's a microbiologist

As he once put it: "The dirtiest thing we eat today is cleaner than the cleanest thing they ate a century ago."

Not sure that it's 100% accurate, but I think of it every time I retrieve a potato chip from the carpet.

[pinboy3niner]

15. I guess that's one way to get more fiber. nt

[Avalux]

25. I worked with an Infectious Diseases physician who did that.

I remember one time in particular, he dropped a piece of chicken in the break room, picked it up off the floor and ate it. He joked that it was good for the immune system.

[Warpy]

27. Mythbusters did a better job

Anything wet or oily is going to be completely contaminated if it falls on a contaminated surface like a floor. Dry things like pills or dry roasted nuts stay relatively clean and a simple wipe will dislodge any bugs they pick up.

[JonathanRackham]

36. You break the news to my dog.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

38. The "Five-seconds rule" has served me well these many years.

I'm not going to listen to some sciencey whippersnapper.

What doesn't kill you ...

[Glassunion]

41. Fuck science. You never leave a man behind. Especially if his name is

Chris P. Bacon.

[jcgoldie]

42. Well of course

Everyone knows its a THREE second rule. Who knows what creepy crawly shit is getting off the floor onto your food during those extra 2 seconds! Sheesh!

[Skittles]

43. the five second rule does not apply to fruit

jeez

[burrowowl]

44. Thanks for posting!