Fact or Fiction: The Five-Second Rule

You have probably heard kids talk about it and may have even used it yourself as the excuse for still eating that M&M you dropped. The five-second rule states that if we drop food on the floor, as long as we pick it up within five seconds, it's safe to still eat.

Now I'm not sure where the five-second rule came from, but as a nurse, I was dying to know if there was any research on the subject. And to my surprise there are numerous studies.

So is the popular five-second rule fact or fiction? Well, it's a little bit of both. Studies show that food that drops on tile or hard wood DOES pick up large amounts of bacteria. Food that drops on carpet, however, DOESN'T pick up many germs but can pick up dirt and carpet fuzz (which in my opinion is just as gross).