I'm wondering if all this information we have about how to stay healthy is making us sicker than generations who didn't have all this knowledge. For example, we're told:

- Leftovers must be refrigerated promptly after 2 hours after it's cooked.

- Fridge and freezer must be kept at certain temperatures.

- We have to stick a thermometer in our food to ensure it's reached a certain internal temperature.

- We must wash our hands obsessively, and just washing isn't enough, now we have to also use hand sanitizer.

- Everything has to be sterilized especially if, God forbid, someone has a cold, so basic cleaning isn't good enough anymore, now everything we use has to be antibacterial/antiviral.

- Can't eat anything without checking the best before date.

The list goes on and on.

My grandparentsare both in their mid-90s and except for some hearing lost and a little arthritis, they're healthy - always have been. When they were young, like most everyone of their generation) they didn't have a fridge, or running water, and knew nothing about cross-contamination, etc. Yet they survived, and thrived, and nobody ever got sick - not from food poisoning, anyway.

My grandmother (and my mother too) still defrosts her chicken overnight on the kitchen counter, and then leaves that cooked chicken on the counter the whole day in case so they can pick at it throughout the day until it's gone. I have never seen my grandmother, or mother, sanitize the counter after handling raw meat on it. They just wipe it down with a soapy (not the antibacterial kind) sponge they use to wash the dishes, then rinse it with that same sponge, and that's it.

Both women don't even use soap to wash their hands after handling raw meat. They just wring their hands well under warm running tap water, dry their hands, and proceed to make a salad.

None of us have ever gotten sick. I don't remember anyone in my family ever having food poisoning.

Even when I was in highschool - nobody had a thermal lunch box and nobody had a frozen drink in their lunch to keep it cold. We just threw our tuna or egg salad sandwich in a paper bag, and kept it in our warm locker until lunch time, which would some days be as late as 2:00 pm. We didn't get sick.

I could give a million other examples of how people of previous generations do everything "wrong" and yet have somehow survived!

So I'm wondering if a little knowledge really is a dangerous thing because nowadays, everyone's so paranoid about germs, viruses, cross-contamination, best before dates, getting sick, etc.

But seriously.... what has changed NOW that, for example, makes food left out longer than 2 hours dangerous, when in my grandmother's generation, they used to keep leftovers in a drawer, eat it the next day, and be fine.

Is all this hypervigilence surrounding food and cleanliness really necessary? Or is it propaganda from the makers of everything antibacterial?

What do you think?