Our Immune System Needs Exposure 

In almost all commercial pork farrowing or finishing operations today, there is a shower room that employees must use. This is not because they might smell when they go to the store after work. They are required to undress, shower, then change into sterilised clothing on the way into the barn. This is because to control mortality rates in commercial pig barns, producers began many years ago to ensure that their pigs were not exposed to any disease causing pathogens. The result is that the pig's immune system became weaker and weaker due to lack of exposure to any pathogens, such as bacteria or viruses. If you take two piglets from the same farrowing (birth), and bring one home to a pen in your backyard, to be fed table scraps, and place the other in a commercial pig barn, which one will develop a better immune system? The truth is, the piglet that goes to the commercial pig barn would probably die if re-united with his brother. Lack of exposure to any diseases left the poor commercial pig with inadequate defences to survive in the outside world.

The scary thing about this is that pigs have a similar digestive system, and auto-immune system, to humans. It is scary because humans in the last few decades have isolated themselves more and more from natural pathogens, to avoid getting sick even a couple days a year. Best before dates on food, food preservatives, hand steriliser etc. For thousands of years mankind had the ability to smell their food to see if it had spoiled. Now we throw the baloney out on the "best before" date, and effectively isolate our immune system from any sort of bacteria or other pathogen it might subsequently learn to fight. The due date on food says "best before" not "poison after", but why take any chances, right. Why take chances? Because in the long run it is good for your immune system. The next time you take a trip to an exotic location and get diarrhea, think about backyard pig that can live very well on spoiled table scraps, and commercial pig who would die outside of his controlled environment. Then go home and eat baloney that's one day overdue. Do your immune system a favour and get dirty.