Why your kids should eat dirt

MSN featured a Market Watch interview with Brett Finlay, a UBC professor of microbiology, and his wife, Marie-Claire Arrieta, a postdoctoral scientist, for a discussion on why too much cleanliness may have negative impacts on kids.

“We need to rethink our quest for cleanliness. We don’t directly advocate ‘eating dirt’ but we realize kids, especially early in life, depend on abundant microbial exposure that is needed to develop normally,” Finlay and Arrieta said.