Art of Diet

Do You Walk through Your House with Your Outside Shoes On?

The question above does not belong to your diet and exercises, but it is an important health related issue. We often decide to leave our shoes on indoors to avoid wasting time taking them off and then putting them on again. You are putting yourself and your family at risk, particularly if you have small children who play on the floor and put their hands in their mouth. As we walk upon a variety of surfaces we come into contact with far more bacteria than we realise.

Dr Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, discovered that the average shoe contains 421,000 bacteria on the outside. The conclusion is that the shoes were dirtier than a toilet seat. Toilet seats generally have 1,000 bacteria or less, and there are 421,000 bacteria on an average shoe.

Some of the harmful strains found on shoes included

E coli, which can give you intestinal infections, diarrhea and in rare cases, meningitis

Klebsiella pneumoniae, which can cause urinary tract infections; and 

Serratia ficaria, which can cause respiratory infections.

As you can see they can be pretty harmful for your health.

Things you walk on like leaves, debris and faecal matter can serve as food for the bacteria and help them grow so they can survive on your shoes for days or even weeks.

The rainwater can dissolve chemicals and toxins in the street and those get on your shoes and can be brought into your house as well. Example toxin from treating your lawn can easily be tracked on your shoes.

Studies show that cleaning shoes with detergent apparently eliminated the existing faecal bacteria and reduced the amount of overall bacteria on the shoes by at least 90%.