I was making myself a spinach salad the other day when I noticed that accompanying the comforting USDA organic stamp and "Package made of recycled bottles" motif on the organic spinach container was an unsettling two part adjective. "Triple-Washed." I had never noticed this description before and yet I eat spinach almost as often as Popeye!
It made me think, why is my spinach being washed thrice, or even twice? What is on my spinach that requires it to be scrubbed more than once? What are these people that are processing it in the USA washing my spinach with? Does the USDA approve that?
Along with all these befuddling questions, my spinach resurfaced a story I remember hearing from my aunt several years ago, who is from Namibia, now living in DC. She told this story at the dinner table at a family event, but while this story struck me as funny back then, now it seems utterly appropriate.
During her pregnancy with my fabulous cousin, Lisa, my Aunt Connie recalled craving and eating termite dirt because of its nutritional qualities (high in protein!). At first this seemed disgusting to me, who would eat termite dirt (poop)?! Such an approach seems a polar opposite to the teachings of western medicine. But I did some research and the practice of eating dirt while pregnant is actually very common!
According to Magnetic Clay.com, "One of the most common human populations to engage in the deliberate consuming of earth-based substances is that of pregnant women. In sub-Saharan Africa, the rates of pregnant women eating soil or clay range from 28% in Tanzania to 65% in Kenya. Clay is prepared and sold in markets, or taken from termite mounds known to be rich in minerals, and eaten at an average of 30g daily."
Hmmm... would termite dirt stick in my teeth? Or taste good with a cricket muffin? Would it have good umami? Although I haven't tasted any soil yet, my spinach is making me think: does the US have a problem with over sanitizing?
Allergy specialists have observed that in Africa, almost no one is allergic to anything. And why is this? From a very young age, kids run around shoeless in the dirt, are exposed to all kinds or germs playing outside, and drinking unfiltered water. Although this might seem like a dangerous lifestyle for a three-year old, lets spin the looking glass to our side. From the minute a baby is born, it is washed and tested with chemically-sterilized instruments. Parents avoid exposing their young children to potentially germy environments for fear that they will become sick.
And think about this, a study funded by Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) showed that the number of children in the U.S. with peanut allergies has more than tripled between 1997 and 2008.
It is true that the improvements to our sanitary habits over the last hundred years or so have shown a positive effect on public health (The habit of hand-washing has decreased the occurrence of bacterial diseases such as typhoid), but I think it can be argued that we have gone a little too far in the hand-washing, Purell-toting (they make these cutesy carrying cases for crying out loud!!), Clorox-disinfecting game and started to veer off into the stainless steel land of suds and bubbles.
Am I proposing a war between the clean and the dirty? Maybe. But as Spongebob famously declared at the end of that ingenious episode:
"It matters not whether one is dirty or clean, for can cleanliness exist without filthiness? And would we know filthiness without cleanliness? We must not reenact the history that divides us, rather we must embrace what draws us together. All must be free to choose their own path."
More,
Gourmanda
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