How to Stay Healthy: Exercise Regularly, Avoid Junk Food, and Eat Your Boogers

How convenient...

Picking your nose is pretty gross, right? Right. You don’t have to be overly squeamish to agree… digging for gold in public is about as socially unacceptable as laughing at a funeral. How could it get more repulsive? How about this -- picking your nose and then eating it. Just the thought of it makes me cringe… and it brings up a sour old memory of this girl I used to go to elementary school with. Megan (she’ll never read this) was a normal, happy-go-lucky girl, who just so happened to have this sincerely unfortunate habit of picking her nose and then eating the… well, you know. Her notoriety was well-known throughout the school, and her status as a routine sinus-harvester was a day-to-day hot topic on the playground. Once we moved on to middle-school, she must have had some sort of social epiphany, because her nasal fixation and booger consumption thankfully stopped being a thing. Though her habit had dismantled, her reputation remained -- and all throughout highschool I could never bring myself to forget the infamy she brought upon herself.

This isn't Megan...

But maybe Megan wasn’t all that crazy… tons of toddlers and young children exhibit this behavior. It even has its own word -- mucophagy. Could it possibly be evolutionarily-inspired? University of Saskatchewan biochemist Scott Napper thinks so. Napper has theorized that eating boogers poses a survival benefit by introducing to the immune system pathogens and germs that have been trapped and entangled in nasal mucus. Austrian medical doctor Friedrich Bischinger agrees -- he notes that snot contains a powerful biochemical arrangement of antiseptic enzymes that cripple and kill harmful bacteria. Orally introducing these weakened microorganisms could potentially allow the immune system to assess these antigens for antibody production -- all while providing little to no harm to the human body. Napper even suggested that since boogers have a sugary taste (although I cannot vouch for that), mucus may provide a tasty incentive for young children to chow down.

Antibodies in the bloodstream

While no real studies have been done to confirm this hypothesis, it’s very interesting to think of how this socially frowned-upon habit expressed commonly in children could have evolved to protect the human body from germs. As a side note… I sincerely apologize if you chose to enjoy your lunch while reading this post, but just consider it “food for thought.” The next time you’re feeling like a hypochondriac, enjoy yourself a snack from the goldmine and rest assured -- it’s biology! Also, let me know if you notice any difference in immunity, because I won’t be trying this one out for myself!

Posted by Michael Salhany (6C)