ANTI-ANTIbacterial Soapbox...

Starting weight on this round: 172.8 - 11-24-7
LIW 160.4 12-18-07
Last weight 162.8 (Saturday)
Today's weight 164.4
Gain of 1.6 lb
4.0 over LIW

So I finally know the extent of my P3 food choices. I have been eating healthy food, but have not been avoiding the starches and the sugars completely and it shows. I am not proud of this but I'm also not going to beat myself up over it. I plan to start another round of P2 in a few weeks and although I would like to be closer to my LIW, I know that I'll be able to take care of this excess weight fairly easily once I start on the HCG again. But I do plan on using the next few weeks to eat sensibly and to try to get it down closer to my LIW. Some news of note, my husband told me this evening that if we could figure out how to manage it for him when he's travelling, since he always does a lot of travel the first part of the year, that he would be willing to go on the diet with me. I had to keep myself from jumping up and down with delight. I don't want to scare him off again! So I'm going to try to think of ways to help him keep as close to the protocol as possible. And we will try to schedule it around his travel whenever possible. Hurray! I'm so happy since I know it will work so well for him and it will be so great to have him on the protocol with me this time because although my daughter was doing the protocol with me last time, she doesn't live in the same house with me so I was still eating my protocol food alone. It will be great eating on protocol with him in the evenings...

So here's where I'll warn my readers of the Soapbox subject for today. It's aptly named since I'm going to get up on my soapbox about soaps, antibacterial soaps that is, so I apologize in advance for going a little crazy about the subject, but here goes:

I was compelled to write on a totally unrelated subject today due to a change in the wash room hand soaps supplied by the facilities department at my office. For quite some time, they have put a gentle, pleasant smelling liquid soap in the dispensers at work and in addition have placed huge industrial sized bottles of hand sanitizers right next to the paper towels. So although I have a scientific based aversion to the household use of sanitizer products, I was willing to overlook the presence of such a product as long as there was an acceptable alternative for those of us who are ANTI-antibacterial. So imagine my concern when I noticed the addition of a brand spanking new dispenser in the washroom today that is labeled and filled with “Dial Antibacterial Hand Soap”. Now, before I go getting all riled up (as you can see, that may be too late,) I should tell you that this is in addition to the mild nice smelling stuff in the generic dispensers. But of course I immediately suspected the worst, that this was just a precursor to the removal of my nice, mild, pretty smelling stuff! Oh horrors! I can scarcely stand the thought! But I can just tell that all of you readers are thinking, “what the heck is she going on about? What’s the big deal about antibacterial soap? It’s supposed to be GOOD stuff isn’t it?” Well, you know, I’m glad you asked that question, because that’s exactly what I’m planning to talk about today.
It all started years ago when I was taking a college English class that requires the student to choose a subject and research it, then write a paper using all your research sources, etc. You all know what I’m talking about, right? Well the teacher had supplied a few subjects for us as examples and one of them kind of struck my fancy. It was the abuse of antibiotics and anti-bacterial products and the negative impact it could have. So in writing this paper, I became a big convert to the theory that antibiotics are rampantly over-prescribed and over-used and mis-used and they are causing big problems in the way of resistant strains of bacteria. Just think “super-bug” and you’ll get the idea. And the other component which is along the same lines, but actually a completely different problem, is the use of antibacterial agents in settings other than those which need to be kept completely free of bacteria for clinical reasons such as hospitals and nursing homes, etc. The main point that was made in this regard is that in normal circumstances, it is completely effective to thoroughly wash hands with regular soap and water. This will remove the bacteria from the hands in a safe manner. The use of antibacterial products to wash hands and to clean counters and sinks, etc. is not only major overkill, but is actually detrimental since it not only kills the “bad” bacteria, but beneficial bacteria as well. This bacteria is necessary for human health and it serves in some instances to combat bad bacteria as well. So when you wipe out all of the bacteria, it can actually give a toe-hold to the bad kind with nothing to stop it from becoming the only bacteria on the block so to speak. Additionally these antibacterial agents which are washed down the drains can actually be harmful to the environment since sunlight can convert them to dioxins which are toxic to plants and animals.
So this really is a very simplified explanation for why I’m so against the anti-bacterial craze. And it’s been getting worse and worse. When I first began avoiding these products, I could go to the grocery store isles and find one or two antibacterial versions and 10 or 20 regular versions. But in the last 10 years or so, the ratio has completely reversed. I now have trouble finding a product on the shelf that is NOT antibacterial. And all along I kept thinking that the scientists would start getting the word out and the trend would begin to fade, but NO, it just keeps getting worse. And you know what? It really is all about the $$$. Because all of these products are more expensive and because “they” pay big money to advertise to guilt ridden housewives that they are subjecting their family to deadly GERMS if they don’t use these products.
OMG, I have to stop here for a moment and tell you that I just realized that I sound a lot like KT when I start talking about this subject. I actually scare myself. LOL! So I’m going to end this diatribe at this point, but I will leave my readers with a few links that can be used to provide further information about the subject. There are both pro’s and con’s and I would encourage anyone who is concerned to find their own sources for further research. So here are a few choice links:
http://www.tufts.edu/med/apua/Q&A/Q&A_antibacterials.html
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/sci_update.cfm?DocID=178
http://home.howstuffworks.com/question692.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no3_supp/levy.htm
http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=819

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Biz, I think I will start on the 20th as long as it fits into our schedule. It will be fun to start with a group again! I better stop gaining weight though, or I won't be able to get to my goal with this one last round! Especially since I've changed my final goal from 145 to 136. 136 is the high end of the range for my height and frame size, so that's what I'll aim for. But really I plan on listening to my body once I get close and go with what it's telling me.

Mary, I liked your list too. Painting toenails! Yes, now we can reach 'em better!