Posted by Adam

Tuesday September 11, 2012

GWYNETH Paltrow wants her kids to play in the dirt — because it’ll build up their immune systems.

The actress — who raises daughter Apple, eight, and son Moses, six, with husband Chris Martin — says she can’t shelter her children from germs and actually thinks it is beneficial for kids to be exposed to muck.

“When they get home from school, I ask them to wash their hands but I think it’s good for them to be in dirt and germs because that’s how you build an immune system — by getting sick.

“I mean, if someone has the flu, I don’t put my kid in their face, but it’s an inevitable fact of life.”

After starring in 2011′s Contagion as a woman who contracts a deadly disease, Gwyneth realized she was borderline OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), describing herself as a constant “hand washer”, but she has now seemingly had a change of heart.

Gwyneth, 39, also used to follow a macrobiotic diet but now eats a more varied menu which includes poultry, fish and alcohol.

“I’m not vegetarian, I don’t eat red meat, I haven’t eaten red meat in a long time, but I eat fish and birds. I drink, I smoke once in a while — when in Rome, you know what I mean?” she said.

“I don’t count calories, but that’s because I exercise like a fiend. You can’t have one without the other.”

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