[kat]

There is also a whole host of mental illness that are triggered by physical immune responses. Eating disorders that stem from one bad diarrhea episode are a really common example of this. Both ends of this spectrum can result in bad mental health.

Both ends of this spectrum can also result in physicals health issues too. Get a stomach bug and end up with post-infections IBS. On the other hand, stress from fear of germs could also cause IBS. Sadly you end up with the same result. Both approaches, when taken to the extreme, can cause equal amounts of health issues.

[papito]

Sanitizing your hands every five minutes is obviously a disorder, but I don't understand why on HN the downvote army is triggered by suggesting that you should have clean hands before eating food.

[userbinator]

The question is, how clean is "clean"? Obviously in these pandemic times the answer is different, but clearly plenty of people were having no problems before.

In fact I would go as far as saying that breathing is a more common route of entry for pathogens than eating. The stomach contains concentrated hydrochloric acid.