Viewing post #1550872 by Yardenman

RickCorey said:There was a nutritional study done on Chinese villagers some decades ago, whose diet did not seem to include enough vitamins for human health.

Sure enough, when they subjected undergraduates back in Connecticut to an imitation of that same rural diet, they got nutritional deficiencies.

It turned out that, in China, they were not washing off the veggies as thoroughly as the Yale researchers did. The small amount of soil bacteria in the small amount of soil that clung to leaves and stems provided enough vitamins for health.

"Eat dirt, be healthy!"

When I was a child in the 50s, we got down and dirty every day. In the schoolyard, at home, in the woods. To this day, I am convinced my exposure to all sorts of dirt is the reason I'm healthy.

I caught the flu once when I was 10. From my brother who wasn't so much an outdoors kid as I was. He was sick in bed for a week. I was up and about after 2 days.

I have never been sick from anything since. OK, I had my appendix removed at 18. But aside from that, nothing touches me. And I'm 67 now.

I think I could float through The Plague. And I credit dirt...