> no, and have no interest to find out . for me there is no such thing as > good bug or bad bug. There is a food web of microorganisms that are > interdependant and All are important to create an healthy ecosystem .. > to give you an analogy with the idea of pests in farming . > one bug is eating your crop so it is a "bad " bug , if you find a second > bug that eat the "bad" bug ,this second become a "good" bug . and if this > second is eaten by a third the 3rd is a "bad" bug , and on and on along the > food chain ,now if frog come by and eat the good bugs as well as the bad ,it > is good or bad ? what about the bird who eat the good bugs but also > fertilise the plant you are trying to protect by defecating on its root? > etc....... > > do you get the picture? > I've practiced organic gardening for many years, so I agree with you wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, my garden (my body) was heavily sprayed with the most lethal pesticides (broad-spectrum antibiotics). It killed the birds, bugs, frogs, etc., but did not affect the decomposer fungus, which polluted the soil (my body) and broke down the entire ecosystem (my immune system. My white cell count numbers looked like the roadside after the herbicide sprayers came along). (Ain't this analogy stuff fun?!) My immune system has recovered somewhat, but at the expense of my adrenals. And as you know, too low cortisol levels for a long time screw up you immune system as much as too high levels (although in different ways). So all the different bugs are having their heyday whilst I do my best to do the things (like eating rarer and rarer organic meats and very little carbos) to get them to come back into balance, thus strengthening my immune system (I hope). > the food chain at the microscopic level is even more complex ( because more > species) than at the macroscopic level .It is more truthfull to call it a > food web and may be a 3 dimensional structure will be even more > representative . > > health is certainly at the opposite of this tendancy to discriminate , to > sort out > things .in fact health have the same root than whole (hal). > > by wanting to eradicate the germs i am afraid that we are going to have to > eradicate ourselves in the process. All forms of life and non life are > INTERDEPENDANT. > Hear, hear! I remember hiding in a closet as a child because I knew the doctor was coming to give me shot of penicillin. Boy, was I a smart kid. From then on, antibiotics were the norm for this sinus infection or that respiratory infection, thanks to a sugar and starch laden my first twenty years. Then grain-centered vegetarianism helped further throw that ecosystem out of balance until I was like roadkill being decomposed from the inside out (peritonitis) and the germ eradicaters you mention almost succeeded in eradicating me in a rather slow and wasteful way. Although I would have died immediately of peritonitis without antibiotics, it would be nice if the medical folks would accept the fact of what they're doing by using them and work at getting the ecosystems of their patients rebalanced. (Dream on!) My body has been clean of antibiotics for 9 years and sugar four years now. > good luck in healing your inner ecosystem. > jean-claude > Thanks, and thanks for the tips on fridge-aging meats. I'll give it try as soon as I get a second little fridge. The person here with which I share the fridge (who disinfects the countertops with alcohol after I make jerky, will not cooperate in switching the cats over to raw food, will not permit fowl or lambs on our little property, unless they're kept as pets, and eats out of cans and printed bags) would never agree to this form of dietary "madness"! Lois