Cleanliness in the UK and the US

I do wash my fruit & veg before eating it. Is that paranoid?  

I had a friend at University (in Horticulture) who trying to prove her "country" cred and ate a finger full of dirt.  

Now I'm not saying that country folk eat dirt - but this woman was talking about how her country grandma used to (for whatever reason) and she showed us young'uns how its done.

A few weeks later she was at the doctor because she had soil borne bacteria flourishing in her stomach.  

Poor cultures will eat dirt (for the minerals), but it's pretty unsafe if you can get your minerals in otherways.

Plus what Mindy said.  

What about leeks?

I peel the outer layer, it's too touch too eat.

What about things like apples, pears, peaches, berries, etc.?

I just eat them.    Unless I actually *see* mud, they go straight in.


Vicky

No problem -- I love my cat but I wouldn't eat chicken he had licked either! Not after observing how he cleans up after a bowel movement! 

I don't have a problem with a cat licking my food. I have a problem with leaving raw chicken on a counter.

No. Because if you're eating organic fruit and veg that would be fertilised with manure which would make you VERY ill if you ate some by mistake.  And if you're eating non-organic fruit and veg that would have all sorts of chemicals used for pesticides and fertilizers and they are probably not really very good for you.  Common sense, really.

NOt to mention that each item of produce is handled HUNDREDS of times and each set of hands carry their own set of bacteria.  

What does really bother me here is when I order sandwiches at a sandwich bar, they prepare the food and handle the money.  You just don't see that in North America.    At the food places where i work, there are wipes meant for wiping the hands after handling money but rarely do they ever use them.  

The worst, was one food prep person, dumped her change on the cutting board where she prepares the food.  And didn't wipe it down afterwards.  i  never ate there again.  

I peel the outer layer, it's too touch too eat.

Leeks often have mud all the way into the inner layers. 

I'm sure there are places in the US (hell in other parts of the world) that have poor hygiene.  I remember this one place in Chicago many many years ago that recycled food.  (Like if the customer didn't finish the soup the remaining soup goes back into the soup pot for the next customer YUM)  But a lot of things go behind the scenes so you don't notice it.  The bakery thing is questionable to me because it is out in the open for everyone to see.  Where is the health inspector with the red flag?

While we are on the subject of wash and no wash, do people here have a n-second rule?  My old roommate used to have one where if it was on this surface it's good for 2 seconds and if it's on the ground in our old apartment it was okay as long as she picked it within 5 seconds and rinsed if necessary?  She called it the 5 second rule.  Anyone do that or was my roomate incredibly weird?

30-second rule!  (and sometimes you get bonus bits!) 

NOt to mention that each item of produce is handled HUNDREDS of times and each set of hands carry their own set of bacteria.  

 

That's the reason I do give my fruits and vegetable a wash/rub-down under the tap at the least, even though I don't advocate the paranoia approach to germs!  

I guess this is just one of my things: lots of people have touched the fruit before I get to buy it, and even if it's just a man shopping in the store who felt up my apples right after handling his -- erm -- banana in the bathroom and then didn't wash his hands.....I'd rather not eat it without a quick wash-down.

I don't wash vegetables I must confess but I do wash fruit because sometimes it seems kind of powdery (plums) or waxy (apples).

regarding lice: honestly, when I was growing up in the Houston suburbs (in the early-mid 90's) I never heard of anyone in school having lice and we certainly never got checked for it.  It just wasn't on the radar screen.  So I have to admit, seeing cases of head lice treated as just part of growing up here was really weird for me.  But obviously, my experience was just in one little corner of the US and after educating myself I see that it's common in both countries- but if you haven't been exposed to that before I can totally see why the lice thing would give someone pause.

At the sandwich shop that I go to on my lunch break at work, the staff don't wear gloves and handle money and food with the same hand.  I have to admit, it bothers me.  But I just choose to believe that they wash their hands often and try not to think about it too much.

We checke for lice at my school, but I never knew anyone who had it.  Perhaps the difference for some people is that many school districts in the US still make kids stay home when they have an active infestation, I have limited knowledge of the UK but none of the schools that I know of do.

One the one hand, it isn't life threatening, just gross.  On the other, it takes a lot of time and dedication to get rid of the beasts and if both parents are working I can see how this would be hard.

I wash fruits and vegetables from the store...before and after I peel them...and when I say 'wash', I mean scrub with a vegetable brush.  I guess it's because my grandma lived in North Carolina and we had to pass loads of vegetable fields...we used to watch the crop dusters come and dump tons of chemicals all over them once a week or so....yuck. 

I guess I'm kinda unique though because I grew up with my stepdad having Multiple Chemical Sensitivity...which came from over-exposure to chemicals.  Now his was more than likely chemicals from work...but who knows?

I don't think that makes me paranoid because I'm not worried about dirt at all...it's the chemical aspect of it that scares me...and I try to be conscious of not overloading myself or my daughter with too many chemicals in food, soap, laundry detergent, shampoo, etc.  Although I don't avoid them completely because I believe we need a little bit of exposure to chemicals in order to build up resistances to them.

But if they are straight out of my garden (and I know there were no chemicals used)...brush the dirt off and straight in the mouth.

That's the reason I do give my fruits and vegetable a wash/rub-down under the tap at the least, even though I don't advocate the paranoia approach to germs!  

I guess this is just one of my things: lots of people have touched the fruit before I get to buy it, and even if it's just a man shopping in the store who felt up my apples right after handling his -- erm -- banana in the bathroom and then didn't wash his hands.....I'd rather not eat it without a quick wash-down.

My husband was once in the loo in the supermarket and saw one of the workers leave without washing his hands. He reported it to management. You never know.

regarding lice: honestly, when I was growing up in the Houston suburbs (in the early-mid 90's) I never heard of anyone in school having lice and we certainly never got checked for it.  It just wasn't on the radar screen.  So I have to admit, seeing cases of head lice treated as just part of growing up here was really weird for me.  But obviously, my experience was just in one little corner of the US and after educating myself I see that it's common in both countries- but if you haven't been exposed to that before I can totally see why the lice thing would give someone pause.

Just along the highway from Houston, in Austin, lice was "part of growing" for more than one family I knew there, not just in the UK.

I too never had lice and never knew of a case of lice; I grew up in London. We did have a nurse come to the school and do regular lice checks. But I never heard of an outbreak However, that didn't mean that they were not a "normal" feature of childhood; everything else I've gathered from others I've encountered in both the US and the UK tells me that they are, even though I myself, like you, never had an experience of it.

Edit:
Having said this, I think it's important to point out that even people who understand that it's very common in school-age children of all classes and in both countries, still don't feel fine and dandy about having a case of them.  In both the UK and the US, a case of lice is still something that draws a reaction of horror in the family involved -- I say this lest anyone think that just because it's accepted as relatively "normal" doesn't mean its accepted as okay. People still don't want or feel good about finding their kid has lice!

I agree with this, too. I never understand why people go around spraying disinfectant on everything. We need a little dirt! 

I've never had kids in the US, but a friend of mine who is a British expat living in California with two school-aged sons shared out their school supply list with a few of us - they were asked to bring in LOADS of anti-bacterial/disinfectant wipes and hand gel.

Whatever happened to soap and water?

My mom sends me US mags, all of which are full of adverts for anti-depressants of one sort or another and allergy medications for kids.

It does make you wonder.