5-second rule doesn't apply at WDW

[Mymatisse]

For people who are okay with this idea, haven't you seen what goes on at WDW? People spit on the ground, people puke on the ground, thousands of nasty shoes have been on that ground and you don't even want to think about where those strangers' shoes have been before they have walked on the very same area that a child is now eating off of.

Sounds pretty icky to me.

 

[crcormier]

I think we worry a little too much about disinfecting everything and that in itself is unhealthy.

I remember reading an article about people in Japan and how they're immune systems are weaker now than they were before because they use disinfecting products on EVERYTHING. They even build it into their furniture nowadays.

There are two problems with this. The first is that our bodies are designed to fight off the germs around us. If we lessen the amount of germs, our bodies get weaker at it and are no longer as good at fighting these things off when we do encounter them. The second problem is the more that we try to kill off germs, the more they tend to strenghten themselves. This has been seen with bacteria that are getting stronger and stronger as people take antibiotics more often than necessary.

People survived for thousands of years with much worse than the five second rule and no Fantastik around, so a cookie falling on the floor is not going to worry me.

 

[nhpooh]

In our house the 5 seconds rule is only for home. Anywhere else and you don't eat it.

Places like WDW we wouldn't even think of eating it.

 

[zurgswife]

Those HOT DOGS are pretty darn expensive LOL....I might go for the 5 second rule if I didn't have enough money to replace it....

 

[KimR]

This is very gross, but when we were kids my little sister used to pick old gum up off the concrete that someone had discarded and had been stepped on, etc. and put it in her mouth and chew it! My mother would notice that all of sudden she was chewing gum and when she asked her where she got it, my sister would tell her 'off of the gound'! BLECH!!!! Didn't seem to hurt her, she is alive and doing well. But YUK, YUK, YUK! It turns my stomach to even think of it!

 

[oogieboogie]

If the 5-second rule is so unhealthy and unsanitary, my kids would've died a long time ago.

My kids loved to hide food when they were toddlers.They'd show up one day with food from who knows where. We could never figure out where they're hiding the food. This would be food they'd hidden hours or even days ago!

So far... they're healthy, thriving and haven't had any major illness other than a few colds.

 

[melindaandrob]

When my son was 18 months he picked up a bird poop and stuck it in his mouth. I can still see it, in slow motion, me trying to reach him "Noooooooo"
He spit it out.
Hotdog landing on the floor? hmmm If I had to 'pick things off' probably not but personally I'm more concerned with the employee who used the bathroom then fixed the hotdog.

 

[FatCow]

No, the 5-second rule it's not THAT bad. Just use your logic, that's all.

If a cookie fall into a pile of feces, you're not going to pick it up and it eat it even if it's less than 5 seconds, right?

OTOH, should a cookie fall onto a dry and very clean-looking floor, then it may still be okay to eat it even if it's been on the floor for more than 5 MINUTES.

and actually, that's what making the 5-second rule bogus, because it differs from one situation to another.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

As far as the hot dog dropping on the floor, if the people were still at the restaurant and brought the hot dog back up to the counter they would gladly give them another hot dog.

Tougher of you are at a ballgame, etc. and have to trudge all the way back to the counter, but at WDW it would certainly work.

My son has put more things in his mouth--touches garbage cans, hand railings, etc. Yucky, yes, but obviously it hasn't done lasting harm since he's never had a sick dr visit. Yes, colds and stomach bugs are par for the course with him, but I get them, too, and I don't ingest all the germs and dirt that he does.

T&B

 

[canda]

A little song that I have heard kids sing to each other when they eat off the floor, "God made dirt, so dirt won't hurt, put it in your mouth and let it work."

 

[thor205]

I probably would've wiped it off and eaten it and given my son my "clean" one. Who cares really! We go camping a lot and believe me it ain't the ritz! You stuff a hotdog over a stick! Plus do you know what those restaurant ratings mean? A 90% seems pretty good til you realize what the other 10% was!! 5 second rule rules!

Unless you drop it in a bathroom and then really...you shoudn't be eating in there.

By the way I'm a fulltime microbiologist so I know what's there...

 

[erikthewise]

One of the 2004 winners of the Ig Nobel Prize was a high school student who investigated the validity of the 5-second rule.

Here is the page containing a link to the sordid details: http://www.improb.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2004

 

[Pea-n-Me]

As far as the hot dog dropping on the floor, if the people were still at the restaurant and brought the hot dog back up to the counter they would gladly give them another hot dog.

Hey T&B, who do you think would get it next??

DH once knew someone who worked in a fish shop. He uses the rest room wearing his gloves, then goes and sells people their fish without washing his hands or changing his gloves!

I also had a friend who was a waitress in an upscale restaraunt (I'm sure we all have these stories). She regularly saw food fall on the floor put right in the dish and served. And it was her who told me to never send your food back (you can imagine why).

As a hospital nurse I'm fanatical about germs and handwashing. (Nowdays we keep Purell everywhere and use it before going into patient rooms and when coming out. So far our statistics are showing less hospital infections with this and other measures). I'm also very conscious of the fact that as a society we're creating supergerms with the overuse of antibiotics and antibacterial products. Nothing is sadder than when someone comes in really sick and we have a hard time curing the infection because the antibiotics won't work on those germs anymore. I did my own experiments with doorknobs and everyday items in micro lab in college and let's just say that bathrooms scare me, even sometimes in people's homes.

With all that said I think common sense and handwashing are still the best ways to keep germs in our everyday lives at bay. And short of growing and cooking all your own food there will be germs and unknowns in our food that hopefully won't kill us but may make us sick. How do you force people to do the right thing? You will always have people who don't follow the rules even though they're in place. That is scares me the most.

 

[seashoreCM]

I never heard of "the five second rule".

After hearing about "the five second rule" for the first time in my life by reading this thread I do not believe in it per se.

I will admit to picking something off the floor and eating it, but only after using a complicated thought process that would take too long to explain here (includes how clean the floor looks or whether it is a walkway in the sun a lot that tends to be cleaner). Sometimes I will rinse it off (possibly an hour later if not convenient now) before eating it. But there are times I will not eat something that fell off the plate onto the table.

I would not permit my child to eat something picked off the floor even under a situation where I would have eaten it myself. Saying "grownups can do it but children may not" might not be the best thing since a child may do it just to disobey.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

Were place mats invented to protect accidentally dropped morsels from a not so clean table top?

 

[Chicago526]

In my home the rule is that anything dropped on the floor is the dogs! Unless it's chocolate, then it goes in the trash.

Will eating off the floor make you sick? Most likely not. But is just gross!

 

[notyetretired]

"That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

This thread got me thinking about how wasteful we are as a society, and what starving people in places like Ethiopia and Bangladesh would think of us for even debating things like the "five-second rule".

 

[Mymatisse]

I guess my whole thing is that yes, I know kids are going to probably come in contact with, and eat a lot of germy things in their lifetimes, but WHY would an adult want to facilitate something like that?

If you see your child has dropped a hotdog on the nasty ground in WDW and they have not put it back in their mouths, don't encourage it.. just get the kid another dog.

 

[Ducky4Disney]

when something is brought up on these boards and you would think that everyone would agree with you and then you see all these other opinions.

Yes, it would depend on many factors. How retrievable is the food item? I'm not picking up pudding or ice cream. A cookie? Hot dog (do you know what they're made of)? Sure, as long as it didn't fall into an obviously contaminated surface (mud, puddle, trash can). What if you're sitting on a park bench and the hot dog rolls off the bun and you catch in when it hits the bench before the ground? Do you eat it then? Do you know what part of people touch that bench (I'd eat it).

What I find interesting about the article concerning the validity of the 5-second rule is that the experimenter had to contaminate the surfaces! How much E. Coli did she use to contaminate it? What would be a low, average, and high concentration of E. Coli for the project? How did she handle the food products before and after testing?

There is a lot you have to think about when doing experiments like this. You need the whole picture in order to decide if it's applicable information.

I also have to agree that things like allergies and asthma are running rampant because we are "too" clean and sheltered as kids. They don't get a chance to fight germs off. C'mon, there's a vaccine for chicken pox! Remember when Mom's used to send thier kids over to your house so they would catch it?! Not anymore...

Wow, that was long. Sorry about that!

D4D

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Originally posted by Pea-n-Me
Hey T&B, who do you think would get it next??

Ewwww, gross!!! Thanks for that visual!


T&B

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Originally posted by thor205

Unless you drop it in a bathroom and then really...you shoudn't be eating in there.

I suppose that anyone who eats in a restroom probably has bigger problems...

T&B