The benefits of boogers
Posted April 25, 2013 5:34 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SASKATCHEWAN (NEWS1130) – Your mom probably told you not to do it, it may even go against everything you believe in, but a professor at the University of Saskatchewan is convinced picking your nose and eating what you find is good for you.
Scott Napper says nature pushes us to do different things because it is to our advantage to have certain behaviours and to consume different types of foods.
He says mucous traps germs and stops them from getting into our body, but if we consume that mucous, it could help train our immune system by exposing it to the germs.
He’s looking to do a study where some type of molecule is inserted up your nose and then half the participants pick and eat, the other half don’t. Not surprising though, he’s having trouble finding volunteers.
“As soon as I can get say 20 students lined up for this then ya I think we could definitely do that. I’m not sure what type of ethics approval we’d have to get for it but we could probably make that happen,” he says.
Napper says snot has a sugary taste and that may be a signal to the body that we are supposed to be eating it.
He has two young daughters and says the idea of letting them pick their noses, even in the name of science, didn’t go over well with his wife.
