YES. Nice question.
I grew up in a household where we weren't obsessive about cleaning, but my father is a germophobe. The kind that, if there was one speck of mold on a huge block of cheese, he would insist on throwing the whole thing away, whereas I'm inclined to cut off the mold and eat the rest just fine. I mostly let things thaw on the countertop overnight these days and have never gotten sick.
I was never particularly squeamish growing up, but I am about as far from squeamish now as it gets. I would say both working on a farm and being in the military may have helped a little. I was only in the military for 4 years, but I went to survival school, which involved drinking some nice, cruddy standing pond water with iodine tablets dissolved in it to (hopefully) kill whatever might have been inhabiting said water. ;-) (Not to mention sleeping in the woods and crawling/hiking through some pretty gnarly terrain.)
As for the farm, I worked for about 7 weeks on a small organic farm in central PA. I singlehandedly cleaned a mobile chicken house that looked like it had seen much better days. Those chickens could practically see their reflections in surfaces that had previously been covered in...well...chicken poop. (Plus I helped package the chickens for sale, which involved reaching into a bin of cold water and raw, very recently slaughtered and gutted chickens, to pull one out for wrapping.) Quite a change from my childhood in NYC!
In terms of germs and insects, I was kind of insect-phobic when I was little, again, because of my dad's fear of anything that even whiffed of bugs or bacteria. A couple of years ago, I was living in a shared house with a guy from Paraguay and his wife, who met while she was there with the Peace Corps. They were very relaxed about leaving doors and windows open even though we had no screens. This was entirely new to me -- and a little wacky, what with my family preferring to hermetically seal our house. So insects would fly in, and I came to realize it was just no big deal. Like others have said, our sanitized, sterilized, and irradiated world is wiping out our ability to fight this stuff off. Have kids? Make 'em go play outside in the dirt! Let their immune systems build up. Like anything in our bodies -- use it or lose it!
Probably the biggest change for me is a move away from lotions, creams, and perfumes. I used to be a big Bath & Body Works type girl...lots of nice smelling stuff, looking all happy and pretty on my shelf. Now I can't stand the smell of most of that stuff. I've had to change seats on the bus more than once b/c someone reeked so much of an offensive perfume. (And I've only gotten sensitive in the last 2 years or so. Never had a problem before. I thought a healthier gut was supposed to help with this! I can't even walk into a candle store anymore. I get dizzy from all the smells! Oh well.) Now, the only things I use on my skin are coconut oil and sometimes Burt's Bees stuff that's just beeswax, olive oil, and essential oil fragrances. I've tried a couple of different natural deodorants, but they've all been awful. I have one from Tropical Traditions that's okay. I'm thinking about trying the crystal, or doing the homemade coconut oil/baking soda blend.
All I know is, I've really come to embrace the idea of the skin being an organ that eats and breathes. You know what they say: if you wouldn't eat it, don't put it on your skin. Parabens, phthalates, propylene glycol? No thanks. My body makes enough of its own estrogen without extra stuff disrupting my endocrine system. ;-) The natural stuff is expensive, but the truth is, when you're healthy, you need a lot less of it! (BO is lower, skin isn't as dry, you have a natural glow that doesn't require a lot of makeup and cover-up.) It's very hard to walk into the women's locker room after a workout. Generally other people are slathering themselves with all kinds of stuff and the smell is pretty overpowering. I try to get dressed and get OUT asap.
One more thing: For all the germophobic and squeamish non-Paleo people, if they only knew what went into the creation of some of their favorite "foods," I think they'd find bugs and dirt a lot safer!! =)
