Publishing a book in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic on the topic of cleanliness and how we’re overdoing the clearing off of our skin microbiome, and too often, is… bold. The author, James Hamblin, addresses this in the introduction, as you’ll find no mention of COVID-19 in the pages of Clean (also available on Overdrive as an e-book and an e-audiobook), since this was written before the pandemic hit. Its message, however, makes for even queasier reflection once we start thinking about how much 2020 has seen an uptick in the use of hand sanitizer and soap – and a necessary one, of course! I’m not even suggesting for a moment that we should reconsider how much we’re washing our hands in the midst of a pandemic where washing our hands properly might literally save lives. But similar messages have been raised about how we’re destroying our skin microbiome on a much more frequent basis than might be healthy: Beyond Soap by Sandy Skotnicki, was published back in 2018, for example, along with Missing Microbes by Martin J. Blaser (2014), which talks about antibiotic overuse and how that is changing our relationship with the microbes around us.
Tag Archives: health
Eating My Greens
This past winter, I started seeing a naturopathic doctor at the suggestion of my physiotherapist. I had been suffering from pain in my neck and shoulder for some time, and no amount of acupuncture or stretching seemed to work. The naturopath believed my pain was from inflammation that was being made worse by my diet. It turns out I ate too many processed foods, and my weakness for baked goods wasn’t doing me any favours either. The doctor suggested that I try cutting back on sugar and salt, eating more whole foods, avoiding gluten and dairy, and eating less meat. At first this was very difficult for me given that I grew up eating meat and potatoes for dinner every night and had never really considered myself much of a cook. Enter The Oh She Glows Cookbook. Continue reading