Pollution!

March 22nd, 2014| Topic: RaMbLeS | 4

Your Mom was right all along.

You dropped your toast butter-side down on the carpet. And you utter some choice words that takes your sanctification down a couple of notches. And you put another slice in the toaster. Another five minutes wasted.

Next time, don’t waste either your sanctification or the five minutes. Be cool. Just count: 1-minnesota, 2-minnesota, 3-minnesota, 4-minnesota, 5-minnesota … and perform salvage operations on said food before you get to 5. Yes, you’ll have to brush off all that lint and hair and stuff, but bugs? Nope, unless it takes you more than 5-minnesotas.

Who’d’ve thunk it? I mean, there’s tons of bugs all around. 8,000,000 of them dwell on your kitchen sponge. A 100,000,000,000 of them in your mouth. A 100,000,000,000,000 of them in your digestive tract. Etc.

So I thought the mommy tribe was all wrong with the rule:

If a food or other consumable item is dropped onto the floor, it may be picked up and eaten within five seconds, without undue risk of getting it contaminated with germs.”

But what do I know? Science says Moms are right and I am wrong.

A new study from Aston University in Birmingham, U.K., confirms the mommy thesis. A bunch of Biology students under microbiology prof, Anthony Hilton, studied the transfer of E. coli or S. aureus (i.e., “Staph”) from an assortment of indoor floors to an assortment of foods, including, importantly, a “sticky sweet.”

They checked for accumulation of bugs on these edibles that came into contact with floors for anywhere from 3 to 30 seconds. Their conclusion:

Time is a significant factor in the transfer of bacteria from a floor surface to a piece of food.”

(Of course, type of flooring matters, carpeted floors being safer than hardwood/tile floors. That surprised me, too!)

Here’s Dr. Hilton:

Consuming food dropped on the floor still carries an infection risk as it very much depends on which bacteria are present on the floor at the time; however the findings of this study will bring some light relief to those who have been employing the five-second rule for years, despite a general consensus that it is purely a myth.”

Now don’t go around serving cheesecakes on the floor. Of course, a clean surface is to be sought for. But, hey, if you drop something yummy, if you have nimble fingers and quick reflexes, begin counting …..

The Aston researchers also looked around to see who exactly employed the 5-second rule: 87% of people in general, and 55% of whom are women (surprise!).

Hilton declares that their research has shown the 5-second rule to be “much more than an old wives’ tale.”

There’s a more surefire way to accomplish cleansing. The biblical way. May not do much for dropped sticky toffee pudding or cheesecake, but it will, for our broken lives, and that cleansing will last forever.

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD.
Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow.”
Isaiah 1:18

God’s plan to cleanse us from sin, to bring us into relationship with himself:

The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7

Jesus Christ, incarnate God, died on the cross and rose again, paying the price of our sins. Therefore, for all who believe in this work of Jesus, cleansing is accomplished, once and for all.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9

Trust Christ for salvation. Doesn’t even take a second.