My husband and I were recently wandering through a store when a display of socks made from bamboo fiber caught our attention. After eating steamed bamboo shoots in Chinese restaurants I expected the socks to be coarse and fibrous, but instead they were soft to the touch. Astonishingly soft, in fact. Blissfully soft.

We bought two packages of bamboo socks on the spot.

When we got home, I sat down to do a little research and discovered that bamboo socks are not only amazingly comfortable, they have many other benefits as well.

Bamboo Socks Protect Against Athlete's Foot

I'm not unusually prone to athlete's foot, but I do tend to have one or two minor cases a year, especially in winter when I spend less time running around barefoot.

Bamboo socks, it turns out, are anti-microbial and anti-fungal, thanks to a natural agent called bamboo kun which protects the bamboo plant against microbial and fungal attack. Bamboo kun is preserved in clothing and other textiles made from bamboo. A Japanese study of bamboo sheets found that new bamboo sheets killed more than 99% of germs over a 24 hour period. After 50 industrial washings, the sheets still killed more than 70% of bacteria.

Bamboo socks also protect against athletes foot because they are naturally breathable thanks to the porous nature of their fibers, and they wick away moisture well, helping prevent the moist, warm conditions that encourage athlete's foot and other fungal foot diseases to develop.

Although I haven't had the chance to test the athlete's foot prevention abilities of my new socks yet, I can attest that they wick away moisture very well during fairly strenuous workouts.

Bamboo has been receiving a lot of attention lately for its eco-friendly qualities, but just in case you missed the buzz, here are some of the main points:

• Bamboo is an exceedingly renewable resource. Bamboo is a grass,which means that when you cut it down, it comes back up from the same root system and isready to harvest again within 3-4 years. In fact, Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis), the type most commonly used in bamboo socks and other clothing, is the fastest growing plant on Earth, growing up to one meter per day.
• Because it is so fast growing, bamboo sucks up a LOT of carbon dioxide. Some studies have found that a stand of bamboo takes in five times more carbon dioxide and produces 33% more oxygen than a comparable stand of hardwood trees. That makes bamboo an important all in the fight against global warming.
• Bamboo's dense root system and large canopy help prevent soil erosion and conserve water.
  
• Thanks in part to bamboo kun, bamboo is nearly always grown organically, without use of chemical pesticides, fertilizers, or herbicides.

Oh, and by the way, bamboo socks are also panda safe - Moso bamboo is not eaten by pandas. (There are over 1000 different species of bamboo, more than 400 in China alone. Only about 25 are eaten by pandas.)