On Healthy Living

Pictured left to right: salmonella, listeria, E. Coli

Consumers are wary of anything containing spinach and everyone has stopped buying and selling it. However as more news comes out, it has become apparent that this is not a surprise to people in the food, drug and health business. These problems have been going on for some time and we the consumers are only just finding out about it. As it stands now, going to the grocery story can actually turn into a game of Russian Roulette because we never know what food might be tainted with bacteria or foreign objects, lets say metal fragments (what in the world?!). Here is a list of recently recalled items that you may or may not know about.

Carrot Juice - Botulism

Botuslism is a rare food poisoning that happens in over 200 people a year but is considered very rare. It is mostly found in foods that were canned and preserved mostly at home, such as fruits and vegetables. Some symptoms include: difficulty swallowing, speaking and breathing as well as blurred or double vision. 

Raw Oysters - Vibrio

Vibrio is typically found in saltwater, which is why it was found in those raw oysters. If ingested it causes gastrointestinal illness. If it gets into an open wound it can cause infections. The illness is usually gone in 3 days but those will be an unpleasant 3 days. Symptoms include: watery diarrhea often with abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting fever and chills.

Ground Beef - E. Coli 

We are specifically talking about E. coli O157:H7 that is usually found in feces (yuck) and can make its way into our food if people are not carefully washing their hands and taking other precautions. It can also be caused by under cooking certain foods such as meat. You can also recieve it by drinking raw milk or swimming and/or drinking water that was contaminated with sewage (another yuck). If infected you can have bloody stool, kidney failure and even death.

Potato Salad - Listeria 

Listeria is a very tricky bacteria. While most bacteria do not grow in cold temperatures, Listeria does. It can be found in and grow in foods at below zero temperatures and can also be found and grown in regular human body temperatures. It can also be found in a variety of foods. From raw and cooked meats, vegetables and dairy products. This bacteria is usually found in soil and vegetation.

Crab Dip - Listeria 

Alfalfa Sprouts - Salmonella 

Some symptoms of salmonella includes: nausea, abdominal cramping, and bloody diarrhea with mucous and also Reiter’s syndrome, a rare but very debilitating form of arthritis. Salmonella is another bacteria that can be found in under cooked food such as poultry and beef. Doctors also urge people to not consume raw eggs as that is another cause of salmonella poisoning.

Beef Products - E. Coli 

Mushrooms - Listeria

Nacho Tortilla chips - Soy 

Soy is an allergen that can be fatal to individuals who are very allergic to it.

Raw Revolution Organic Live Food Bars are being recalled because they may contain metal fragments. Nice to know you get a little surprise with your food isn’t it?

Monterey Mushrooms of Watsonville, CA is recalling 10,000 cases of fresh sliced white mushrooms and fresh sliced baby bella mushrooms because they might contain Listeria monocytogenes. It has list of consequences that is bad for the young, old, pregnant and anyone in between.

Most people worry about how much the food is going to cost or what food is best for their health and diet. I don’t think that many of us choose food on the basis of will it kill us or not.

Marsha James wrote this on September 23rd, 2006 and filed it under Healthy Living, Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Women's Health, Health Foods, Vegetarian Cooking, Raw Foods, Men's Health |