HEALTH
THAT'S DISGUSTING
pickup basketball
You jockey for position and catch the ball just inside the free-throw line. You're positioned perfectly. You knife through the lane, but an opponent arrives to halt your progress. And this guy isn't just any defender. He's the other team's sweat-streaked secret weapon, glistening from his soaked hair to his saturated shorts. Needless to say, your well-lubricated layup flies wide right.
Shirtlessness, maximum effort and full contact are three hallmarks of pickup basketball. This combination ultimately leads to quite a bit of skin slapping and sweat swapping. In addition to the creepy feeling of sliding your hand across someone else's slimy skin, sweat is gross for a couple more reasons.
Sweat carries bacteria. Lathering yourself up in someone else's sweat is akin to coming in contact with their saliva, and it's an easy way to pick up whatever germs they're carrying.
"Bacteria thrive in a warm, moist environment," says Student Health Services nursing supervisor Patty Quinlan. "When we exercise, we're trying to create this environment and we're trying to sweat."
Also, sweat smells. Everybody's
Not all surfaces have the same number of bacteria, Maczulak says. Knowing your environment and using common sense will tell you whether it's okay to use the five-second—or any second—rule. If you live by yourself and clean regularly, it's probably okay to eat something off the kitchen floor. But if you drop a brownie on the bus, it doesn't take a genius to know you shouldn't put it in your mouth. Maczulak says exposed surfaces that are
sweat reeks in a different way and to a varying degree, but it all smells because of bacteria. According to the British Journal of Dermatology, arm and groin sweat is often the most pungent because it carries protein. When the bacteria associated with sweat go to work breaking down this protein, it creates fatty acids, which in turn create an acid odor.
Whether it's one of your favorite chips or that cookie you'd been eyeing all day, you've probably dropped food on the ground, picked it up and scarfed it down citing the five-second rule. For some it's the two- or three-second rule, but whether that cookie touches the floor for one second or for 15 minutes, the effect is still the same.
the five-second rule
Anne Maczulak, microbiologist and author of The Five-Second Rule and Other Myths About Germs, says the five-second rule is totally untrue. Once food has touched the floor, the damage is done. Bacteria attaches to it immediately. A piece of food that touches the ground for only half a second will pick up bacteria and other germs.
—Asher Fusco
touched repeatedly, such as any public floor, carry a higher number of germs and bacteria.
Even if you do eat that brownie off the bus floor, the chances of getting sick are still slim. Maczulak says that in order to get sick, you would have to be exposed to a high dose of pathogens—bacteria that cause illness—and dropping food on the floor for a few seconds won't deliver that. In fact, it could even be good for you. Exposing your immune system to small doses of germs can help make it stronger. Maczulak says.
So, if you're daring, go ahead and eat that bite that escaped. It's not so bad.
—Susan Melgren
16
November 13,2008
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