In other words, sometimes I feel there isn’t enough hand sanitiser in the world to keep a small child clean. All these questions go through my mind as I prepare to speak with microbiologists Marie-Claire Arrieta and Brett Finlay, whose book for parents, Let Them Eat Dirt, has turned my world on its head. “What you eat is not only feeding you, but feeding your microbes – a variety of fibres, vegetables and fruit and starch. Let your kid roll around in the dirt, get a pet – don’t swaddle them in a sterile cloth. Most microbes are our friends not our enemies.”Let Them Eat Dirt by B. Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta is published by Windmill Books, £12.99.

Source: The Guardian September 24, 2016 04:52 UTC