Eating with bare hands - risky or not?

hlee said:
...No water source in NA should be considered contamination free...
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I beg to differ. All my life I've drank water from many natural sources which were cleaner and safer than the average tap water. Just remember the old coyboy adage:

"Always drink upsteam of the herd".

In other words, be selective in you choice of sources. Natural springs abound. And as long as nimrods with chemical hand sanitizers stay away from them, they will remail good sources of potable water.

Codger
 
As was pointed out hand sanitizers contain ethyl alcohol. There have been several cases of toddlers licking the stuff off their hands and becoming drunk. Their blood alcohol levels have been over the legal limit for driving! :eek: I think it would be a good idea if you have young kids to ask the teacher if she uses hand sanitizer in the classroom. It is a good product when used properly but most people don't read labels.
 
2dogs said:
As was pointed out hand sanitizers contain ethyl alcohol. There have been several cases of toddlers licking the stuff off their hands and becoming drunk. Their blood alcohol levels have been over the legal limit for driving! :eek: I think it would be a good idea if you have young kids to ask the teacher if she uses hand sanitizer in the classroom. It is a good product when used properly but most people don't read labels.
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hahahaha!
if only they had that when i was a kid!
 
If you don't wash after crapping in the woods then stay away from my camp.

If you don't keep clean in general then stay away from me period.

The most important saying in any hospital or wound repair area is...

"The Solution To Polution Is Irrigation"

Simply put...wash, scrub and rinse with lots of clean water and sanitizers.

MTMM
 
If you have a good PSK there might be some alcohol in it for your can stove.;)
 
Mike The Money Maker said:
If you don't wash after crapping in the woods then stay away from my camp.

If you don't keep clean in general then stay away from me period.

...
Simply put...wash, scrub and rinse with lots of clean water and sanitizers.

MTMM
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Hear hear! I've been on camp outs with both the "Let's get grubby" crowd and the "Stay clean crowd." It does not take much to wash hands, shave, and take measures stay clean. My last foray with the grubby crowd showed clearly that keeping clean is the way to go. After two days they were worn out with the cooties and starting to get the 'trots thereby making them irritiable with themselves. I was fine and ready to do more hiking and could go to work after the weekend.
 
Unfortunately, I had too much experience of not having a soap to wash hands - there was no soap in shops at the end of 80-s in the USSR!
What did we do? Clean hands using water, stones (you just rub your hand with it), sand (but not soil), grass, piece of clothing if you find any, trees. It takes a lot of time, especially if you touched animals. There is also a grass that makes soapy juice when you brake it up, we used it a lot. I cannot say it 100% solves the problem, but it does to some extend. At the end of the day, avoid touching the food with your hands, unless you are eating meat from bones, but in this case hold the food by the bone.
Guys already suggested to cut yourself chopsticks - I never carry a spoon or a fork because I always cut myself chopsticks (excuse to show-off my knife). Also, use a bowl to drink and eat from it - have you ever wondered how chinese can eat rice or even soups using chopsticks? They bring the bowl to their lips and then push th food from the bowl and drink liquid.
 
Well it all started with washing your hands and food. Now this thread got down and dirty and taken over about staying clean in the woods.. I had been known to wash my hair in the woods. Wont take much to heat some water a few drops of soap in the hair and wash it. Find a nice creek with standing water (its above freezing then) and sit in it for a 30 min or so. Its amazing how much cleaner you feel when you get out. Never pass a good chance to wash up. Same time no reason to be afraid of some dirt on the hands.

Sasha
 
Never eat with your bare hands.

None of our ancestors who did so survived.

They all died.
 
I don't eat with my bare hands in the woods. I put what ever I am eating between 2 pieces of bread and then eat it, so technically I am eating with the bread. Chris
 
Don't forget when washing to practice Leave No Trace. Don't wash with soap in a water source and wash dishes 200' from water. Use Camp Suds or some other soap made for back country use. Like Sasha said don't pass up a chance to clean yourself up.
 
"I prefer to use my hands. I believe people have lost their relationship with food. They do not think 'this is something that died for me so that I would not go hungry.' I like that connection with something you die for. I appreciate it more."
 
nephildevil said:
or if it was a real survival situation, u can try to make ur own soap from lye and animal fat
http://waltonfeed.com/old/soaphome.html
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Who is going to have time to make soap in most survival situations? Shelter, food, and water are pretty much 24-hour endeavors. That's not saying you shouldn't know how to make soap, but realistically, most people just aren't going to have time when they're worried about their a$$.

This question of hand washing, while interesting, is a sign of the hyper-awareness that soap companies have created about "germ free" environments. As many have pointed out, we need some germs to stoke the old immune system, and our ancestors got along pretty well without antibacterial soap (which is now causing all kinds of havoc with the wildlife in our streams).

It's also worth noting that a hospital and the outdoors are two very different places. Certainly, both contain infectious bacteria and germs, but in a hospital, they are concentrated. In the wild, this is usually not the case.

Are sanitizers effective? Certainly. But unless you carry them with you all the time, chances are you're going to have to ingest a germ or two.
 
I think if you take a couple minimal measures to keep your hands acceptably clean you'll be OK. Running water should do. Also, there are various flowers which give sort of a foam when you rub them in your hands.
I'd rather worry about the food you're gonna eat, as it may be contaminated with various germs (like Trichinella Spiralis or such) without obvious signs to show it.
BTW, excessive hygiene is also dangerous. It destroys the "truce" with bacteriae our bodies created in milions of years of evolution. We have microorganisms in our stomach, blood, and intestins. They actually help the body, and destroying them is not adviceable.
 
dialex said:
I think if you take a couple minimal measures to keep your hands acceptably clean you'll be OK. Running water should do. Also, there are various flowers which give sort of a foam when you rub them in your hands.
I'd rather worry about the food you're gonna eat, as it may be contaminated with various germs (like Trichinella Spiralis or such) without obvious signs to show it.
BTW, excessive hygiene is also dangerous. It destroys the "truce" with bacteriae our bodies created in milions of years of evolution. We have microorganisms in our stomach, blood, and intestins. They actually help the body, and destroying them is not adviceable.
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There is a lot of research on the idea of pre biotics. Archeologist Jeff Leach heads a paleobiotics Lab and studies the diets of our ancestors and how our modern day diet is lacking in fibers that feed the good bactieria.
www. paleobioticslab.com Check it out it is interesting. and... eat lots of onions!

I have no medical backing for my opinion here, but I agree strongly with what Dialex says. Why don't you drink the water in mexico? It'll make you sick. Why don't Mexicans get sick? Their bodies can accept / fight off the bactieria because they've had it all their life.

My thinking regarding survival is not to aviod bacteria, but have exposure to it to allow my body to learn to defend it. (within reason of course) Living a lifestyle of bactieral isolation (super sanitization and no exposure), then thrown into a survival situation (longer term rather than 1 -2 weeks) you'd be up a creek without a defense system.

I do wash regularly:D , but at work, (farming) I often have lunch out in the field. I am not afraid of eating with dirty hands and rarely get sick.

When out camping, there is no better feeling than jumping in a lake / stream to get cleaned up especially in chilly water. WOW feeling ALIVE! and your camp mates will sit next to you again :D
 
I believe one of the reasons for high sickness rates in public elementary schools is the super sanitation practiced in many homes during the children's early years. Moms use disinfectant soaps, shampoos, detergents, sprays, mouthwash, etc. Thus the kids live in in a too sanitary environment---until they start school. Same with many allergies---the AMA recently advised parents to bring a kitten home with their newborn so the baby would be exposed to cat dander and bacteria from the start and thus develop immunities to many allergies and some minor illnesses. Hmmm, why not?

As for hand and body washing, I've spent a great many of my 73 years in the deserts of the world hence little water available and rarely running water. The solution? Dry sand. I've used it for camp kitchen cleanup, hand washing, and even general body sanitation when one gets too smelly. As for anal cleansing, try sticks and rocks when there's nothing else.

One more point, lacking water, the urine of a healthy human can be used in a pinch to wash out minor cuts and wounds. A great all around first aid treatment to carry outback is a large spray bottle of Windex with ammonia. Good disinfectant plus bug killer.
 
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