>
> :-) I have to say I am really enjoying this thread.  The truth is I
> was raised in an atmosphere of total dread of "germs" and disease and
> my family is still like that, so it is so deep in me to freak out
> about descriptions such as the above.

I was shocked at what I saw in the restaurant, and that place was
spotlessly clean.
>
> Yet I am learning that we live in a "sea" of bacteria, whether we like
> it or not, and the best defense is to live with it and make our immune
> system strong naturally.

Be careful and take your time. Introduce new bacteria laden foods one
by one. Our resistance is lower than it should be for these things.
When I lived in Central America, I saw the people living is filth and
squalor, and generally keeping pretty healthy, but I also saw several
of my neighbors babies die of intestinal distress. It has been several
generations since my family has been pruned this way. I survived
Guatemala, but several of my colleagues had to be medivacced. Not
enough resistence, or too careless.

I saw my farm dogs when I was a kid eating the pigs that had died in
my Dad's pig house. They really seemed to like the ones that had sat
in the summer sun a few weeks, bloated and stinking. Supposedly we
are very similar to dogs in digestive design....considering so many
cultures love for rotted foods like saurkraut, kimchi, cheese, maybe
this is our natural food. ;--)