You remember the “Seinfeld” episode which George Costanza is confronted at a funeral reception by Timmy, his girlfriend’s brother, after dipping the same chip twice.
“Did, did you just double dip that chip?” Timmy asks. “That’s like putting your whole mouth right in the dip!” Finally George retorts, “You dip the way you want to dip, I’ll dip the way I want to dip,” and aims another used chip at the bowl. Timmy tries to take it away, and the scene ends as they wrestle for it.
Welll food microbiologist Prof. Paul L. Dawson decided to test the Costanza theory and ran some double dip tests with his students. He has some advice for the next party you attend: “Before you have some dip at a party, look around and ask yourself, would I be willing to kiss everyone here? Because you don’t know who might be double dipping, and those who do are sharing their saliva with you.” The NY Times summarized the study:
On average, the students found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from the eater’s mouth to the remaining dip. Each cracker picked up between one and two grams of dip. That means that sporadic double dipping in a cup of dip would transfer at least 50 to 100 bacteria from one mouth to another with every bite.
Well there you have it. No double dipping please.
1 comment:
The study may have shown that double-dipping transfers bacteria. But that does not necessarily mean double-dipping is bad. Exposure to small amounts of bacteria can trigger a primary immune response, causing the body to develop antibodies. When exposed to the same bacteria under conditions which might be more conducive to becoming ill (stress, lack of sleep, etc...) your body will do a better job off fighting off the infection.
So double dip with pride! lol
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