The five-second rule: Does it really count?

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Hello everyone here Ji, Since begining , we are taught, not to pickup any eatabes from the floor and eat them. But I find something interesting and conincing below. How many of us would agree to follow . [b]"We've all heard of the five-second rule: If an item has been on the ground for less than a count of five, it's still safe to eat (or to let your baby slobber on). But none of the moms we spoke to follow this famous benchmark. Their alternative rule of thumb? Location matters far more than timing. "I'm not upset if my daughter eats something off the floor at home," says Cheryl Lutz, a reading teacher and mother of a 3-year-old on Long Island, New York. "But if something falls at the mall, I don't want it in her mouth." Even germ-conscious Titley says she'll let her daughter eat off the floor at home, "because I know it's clean." In 2003, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign put the five-second rule to a scientific test by placing gummy bears on cultures of Escherichia coli bacteria. They found that the sticky candies became germ-ridden in fewer than five seconds. The researchers also checked for bacteria on heavily trafficked floors on campus. Surprisingly, the floors turned out to be almost free of germs. The conclusion: If you eat a dropped gummy bear, you probably won't get sick — unless it happened to fall in a Petri dish. Most floors are too dry to be especially germy, public health expert Aiello says. Still, she doesn't encourage frequent floor grazing: "It's better to err on the side of caution, especially if the floor is moist." If a grape falls into a splatter of raw meat juice, even one second is far too long, she says. Bottom line: It's all about where it lands — and clean, dry floors are fair game"[/b] http://www.babycenter.com/0_parents-vs-germs-a-dirty-world-survival-guide_1745338.bc?bclink=top&scid=preschooler_20090428:2&pe=2TYKlA8 May God bless you and have a great time.