I am not suggesting that we get served Bacteria for lunch but it looks like we just cannot get enough of it

I ran into this article on Digg about certain friendly Bacteria that I cannot find now. So I searched for “helpful Bacteria” online and found some very interesting things:

Most people have been conditioned to think of bacteria as harmful, but the reality is that we live in symbiosis with beneficial intestinal bacteria. The average person has about four pounds of bacteria in his body. The majority of this bacteria reside in the digestive tract […]

Western Australian scientists are set to put to work a toxin munching bacterium they discovered earlier this year. Their first task is to attempt the clean up of pesticide-contaminated groundwater beneath a Perth suburb […]

Today’s consumers prefer preservative-free produce, but also demand the convenience of foods like salad-in-a-bag. A researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture says certain types of non-pathogenic bacteria could help give the public what they want plus an extra margin of safety[…]

But what really caught my eye about the Digg article was that a school of Scientists have begun to wonder if we are killing too much bacteria in the name of santization and cleanliness, so much so to a point that we cannot benefit from the natural ecological balance that this bacteria provide.

Even more so, these researchers suggest that the recent acclivity of modern diseases such as pollen allergies, acne and other dry diseases such as eczema may be a direct result of such ruthless killing [:)] of these probiotics (another fancy name for friendly bacteria), not to mention other stomach related disorders. So, I guess the next lifestyle thing would be people running around for ‘natural’ sources of bacteria

..hmmm..what has the world come to?! First we kill all the trees thinking we donot need them, then comes global pollution… then fish..mercury, then we kill all the animals, in comes cholesterol,and now, we kill bacteria …and in comes diseases ?! I guess we cannot kill anything for good at all :). After all, human evolution is a process that took millions of years , these scientists argue, and understanding the various elements that provide the delicate balance to help survive may take decades of more research, if not millions, they argue. I guess they are right. There is still a lot more for science to explore (and I seriously thought someone was right when they said in the 1900s, even before the internet or super computers, “everything worth inventing has been invented already“! ) .

After doodling on the internet for a while, I finally found a complete probiotics data bank on upward quest. Enjoy …