Friday, June 15, 2012

Rub a Little Dirt on It

Did you know that dirt can be healthy?


I remember when I was growing up that throughout most of the summer my feet would barely know what a shoe was ~ even hiking through our woods to pick raspberries & mulberries was done sans shoes. I'm not saying that I didn't get my share of stickers, scrapes, scratches & even bee stings . . . but summer meant freedom to live . . . 


Freedom to get dirty.

I was the Mud Pie Queen. They looked good enough to eat. But the best part of making mud pies was the unspoken understanding that I could get dirty. It was a given.


Little did we all realize was that getting dirty is actually GOOD for you. Yes, dirt does a body good. :-) Maybe that's why God created us in a garden.


There is even current research that shows that being overly clean can actually cause harm to one's immune system. Now, admittedly, I use hand sanitizers with the best of 'em ~ especially working in a health food store where we handle all that germy money handed to us by sick people ~ but there is a difference, I believe, between a little hand sanitizer & being a little fanatic about staying away from ALL germs. Even the use of Homeopathic remedies lets us know that a little "hair of the dog" can be a good thing. 


Scientists are saying that some exposure ~ as life happens ~ to germs even develops immunities to certain illnesses & allergies. Some natural exposure can actually TRAIN our bodies to fight. 

Dirt can actually train our immune system. Getting our children outside at an early age will not only teach them to enjoy God's wonderful creation, but it also trains their bodies to grow up around those pollens, etc. & help build their immunities against them. That way allergies are less likely to effect them. Just like eating local honey if you are an allergy sufferer, this is getting ahead of having to do that. 

Supplement companies are even catching on. Garden of Life ~ headed by Jordan Ruben (author of The Maker's Diet) who cured himself naturally of an almost certain death ~ includes Homeostatic Soil Organisms (HSO's) in his Primal Defense Pro-biotics. What are HSO's? Basically, it's a fancy name for "clean dirt." Yes, there is DIRT in their most popular, most effective Pro-biotics! 


Our children ~ & WE ~ need to get dirty from time-to-time. Go barefoot, walk along the beach, walk along a dusty, dirt trail in some neighboring woods, or just walk outside in your own grassy back yard . . . or . . . make a mud pie with your kids or grandkids.
 And if they get hurt . . . rub a little dirt on it!

Blessings from Ohio . . . Kim<><

3 comments:

  1. Great post Kim -- we are obsessed with being *clean* as a society. I too was the barefoot kid all summer long -- our lawn was clover and boy did we get bee stung a lot, lol. Wouldn't trade that childhood though :)

    Have a great weekend :)

    Blessings!
    Gail

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  2. When my oldest daughter was a baby I kept her to clean..she was always sick...around the age of 1 1/2 the Doctor nicely told me I "had to let her play in the dirt"..and within 6 months her health dramatically improved...from girlie dresses to bib overall wearing my lil girl was stronger from the minerals we absorb through dirt...
    however here she is 35 yrs later .. healing from 3 years of Lyme Disease (caused by being in nature getting bit by a tick) but I thank Naturopath Medicines for her cure..
    ~~Blessings~~

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  3. I really love this one. I too loved to make mud pies when I was little. I also loved to put my toes in the mud and let it squish between my toes. Oh my this was a memory. I also believe in the adage; "To beat a germ you must meet a germ". Being too clean is not good for the immune system.I had a sister in law that cleaned her house so good that you couldn't find a germ inside, I am sure. Her children were always sick.
    Thanks for the memory on this one.

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