Floor Candy And Carpet Cookies

In 2003, Jillian Clarke made her mark in the field of food sciences.

The Chicago-area high school student, who was participating in a summer apprenticeship program at the University of Illinois, conducted a research study on the validity of the Five-Second Rule: "If food falls to the floor but is picked up before five seconds have passed, it's safe to eat it."

Although Clarke's scientific findings were noteworthy, her research tells us nearly as much about the quirkiness of human behavior.

Of those surveyed, Clarke found that more than half of the men and two-thirds of the women were familiar with the rule, and most of them referred to it when deciding whether to eat dropped food.

Women, it seems, are more likely than men to eat food from the floor - and sweets such as candy and cookies are much more likely to be retrieved and eaten than cauliflower or broccoli.

(My own anecdotal studies indicate that 99.99% of floor candies and carpet cookies are dropped accidentally, while precisely the same percentage of vegetables hit the deck intentionally.)