Daily Devotion:

Title: When in Doubt

Date: August 06, 2012

A high school-er on a university internship answered the question, “Does the five second rule work?” You know – it’s when you drop a cookie onto the floor and you pick it up quickly, blow it off, and eat it.
 
The intern’s findings were surprising. This intern, Jillian Clarke, a doctoral candidate, took swab samples off floors at dozens of places around campus. Microorganisms, such as bacteria, grew in low numbers in the samples taken from the floors.
 
Clarke repeated the swab test in the laboratory on rough and smooth floor tiles inoculated with E. coli bacteria.  She dropped foods, measured time on the floor, and then examined them under a high-powered microscope. Items dropped on infected flooring were contaminated in less than five seconds. The good news: Chances are, the floor beneath your fumbled Oreo doesn't contain E. coli. The bad news: If it does, your cookie’s contaminated and shouldn't be eaten. Don’t think that shaking or blowing will help.  You may remove visible dirt, but microbes are microscopic.
 
Dietary rules are old. In the Bible there are food rules – what was clean and unclean; what was eaten – lamb, and not – bacon or lobster. Ancient dietary rules kept ancient people healthy.  We don’t follow most of those rules any more, but thousands of years later we need to be careful what we put into our mouths.  God made creatures large and small, but not all of them should be eaten.

"When in doubt, throw it out."

Let’s Pray:  God -- thanks for smart young researchers who dare to ask questions.  We pray: Please keep us, make us healthy this day.  Amen.
 
Here’s a Thought:  Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

Source: The ‘5-Second Rule’ – Fact or Fiction, CBS News, Amy S. Clark, July 4, 2006, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/04/health/webmd/main1774287.shtml