And I'm about to give up on fresh produce. I walk into Whole Foods, and the first experience is, of course, the very grand array of fruits and vegetables, but the news media has demanded that I see invisible filth permeating everything. If you knew there was cyclosporiasis — we can't just say "cyclosporiasis," because it's too hard a word, none of us idiots can be trusted to learn it, so we always need to hear the atrocious word "diarrhea" — if you knew there was cyclosporiasis on a vegetable or fruit you wouldn't even touch it. The issue of bringing it home and washing it to death wouldn't arise. But we are expected to view the entire array of fruits and vegetables as innocent enough to buy in the hope of eating but suspicious enough to plan to subject to some elaborate treatment.
From the article: "Before you touch any produce, wash your hands well with soap and water. And then be sure to wash the produce under cold running water for at least one minute. In a 2021 study on washing methods to remove parasite oocysts (a thick-walled stage in its life cycle) from berries, rinsing in cold water was shown to remove over 90 percent of cyclospora on blueberries — using a salad spinner or washing with a vinegar solution provided no additional benefit...."
But that's blueberries. Raspberries are another story. And that's 90%. What about the other 10%?
ADDED: In case your approach has been just to eschew Taco Bell, Reuters has this news flash: "FDA Tests That Found Cyclospora In Taco Bell Supplier’s Lettuce Were A 'False Positive.'"
Mga Post
94 (na) komento:
The Clean Boss lady on TV has a product that washes fruits and vegetables.
Not just ‘diarrhea,’ but ‘explosive diarrhea.’
The germ of a theme develops. Progressives and the DNC-Media are systematically labeling any healthy activity or eating behavior as right wing. Therefore fresh meat and vegetables, the cheap and easy way to eat healthy, must be portrayed as scary and dangerous to keep “their side” from doing those things that are (1) good for you, (2) cheaper than prepared foods and (3) newly right-coded by the constantly propagandizing Left.
Put the blueberries out for Robins. They love them. You can even tame a Robin with them.
The trust I used to have in the global food chain, and particularly for fresh produce, is nearly gone. While I still get delicious safe fruits and vegetables labeled from many parts of the world, the incidents with those causing bad reactions are increasing.
My general reaction isn't to stop eating fruits and vegetables but to start restricting the sources and types of produce I eat. Specifically, this means getting locally produced items at farmers markets, and limiting globally produced ones to items that have peelable skins (cucumbers, bananas, oranges, etc.).
It's unfortunate that we've come to this point.
Just as exercise and tradwife have been labeled badthink.
"Not just ‘diarrhea,’ but ‘explosive diarrhea.’"
The phrase I keep seeing is "watery diarrhea." That's uncalled for.
"..i.but the news media has demanded that I see invisible filth permeating everything."
Is it weird that my mind immediately went to thinking about our media and journalists today when I thought about seeing the invisible filth permeating everything?
here is a Simple Trick, for preventing foodborne illnesses..
COOK YOUR F*CKING FOOD!!!
it is LITERALLY WHY we invented fire
(ok, ONE of the reasons why, but one of the MOST IMPORTANT)
The truth is we are just not made to eat fruits and vegetables.
Fruits and vegetables cause diarrhea and constipation because we can't digest them and we have to ask bacteria to do it for us.
These plants just happened to have some bacteria on them that are a little more insistent on the diarrhea part.
Temujin said...
"..i.but the news media has demanded that I see invisible filth permeating everything."
Is it weird that my mind immediately went to thinking about our media and journalists today when I thought about seeing the invisible filth permeating everything?
The media wants us to know what it is like when they look in a mirror.
The cruise ship standard, norovirus, is notorius for never resulting in full immunity. It's also carried to and from cruise ports to and from local restaurants (e.g., salad bars). It's most accurately called "fire hose in your pants diarrhea" rather than explosive.
Way back in the hippie 1970s, tiny and fragile greens like alfalfa sprouts carried a bunch of infectious garbage. A few years back California's fresh spinach got contaminated by wild pig poop. Lettuce and all fragile greens -- same issues.
my mom, a Registered Dietitian, who learned "ALL ABOUT FOOD",
back in 1952 is CONVINCED; that "raw milk" is a "horrible scourge", eats salad.. WITH EVERY MEAL..
When Ever, and WHERE EVER she goes. (Including when she went to central and south america)
I've asked here (many Many times) about the dangers of raw veggies, and she says: "Oh! they're fine! Nothing to worry about!"
On the Other Hand, she is CONVINCED that ONE DROP of raw milk will INSTANTLY give you fatal TB.
This is what's fun about reality.
It's whatever we want to pretend to believe.
ps. i'm sure that someone will angerly post, that my mom's knowledge is flawed.. Which was kinda my point.
The strawberries at whole foods have been wonderful this year.
I wash them they way I always do. I get a large bowl and soak all of them for a few minutes (not too long)
Then I rinse them one at a time. Then I dry them by laying them out on paper towel. Tedious but worth it.
I am carrying on as normal, except skipping the new lazy convenience of salad kits. I am washing everything well, not obsessing, and figuring that the media just needs something to talk about as long as it’s not election integrity.
the murder hornets might fly out of the produce and get you, too
Anyone who was in Scouts knows that this is the same virus found in dirty creek water, which is why it has to be filtered before drinking when wilderness-camping. . Odds are if you buy locally grown veggies and not factory-produced, you'll be fine.
seriously.. WHY are you eating raw veggies?
WHY ON EARTH are you eating them from a common trough at a salad bar?
The robot revolution in agriculture will fix this problem. The problem with people is defecation. Field workers pick lettuce and other vegetables by hand and many do not wash their hands after using the porta-potty and that’s the most common way these things happen.
The worst outbreaks happen when lettuce is then processed into pre-packaged salad, washed cut and combined with other ingredients, without washing away the contaminants. Then hundreds of packages can be affected. The prepackaged shredded lettuce for Taco Bell is also vulnerable to contamination.
Unfortunate about that false-positive test that the FDA announced regarding Taylor Farms. I think the actual source is still unknown.
…I see ‘explosive’ everywhere but I don't see the media Ann does…
I’ve been traveling all summer dodging this stuff. So far so good…
…aren’t we about due for a good old fashioned pesticide scare? Did you know McDonalds warehouses there potatoes for six weeks to let them outgas the pesticide?
Me: I'm going to eat healthy
Lettuce: I'm going to give you explosive diarrhea
Oreos in the pantry: I would never do that to you
I wonder if this will at least cool the enthusiasm of the great thinkers who wanted to give everyone alpha gal syndrome so we would stop eating meat.
Ann:
Buy the Clean Boss lady's product here: https://www.facebook.com/ShopCleanBoss/videos/1439009557379955/
I also see "explosive" as the adjective all the time. Maybe I read the same media as rehajm.
The truth is, humans have been eating fruits and vegetables since 3-million years ago. The paranoid paranormal fear of plants defense chemistry from mostly conservative bro influence dolts is just as stupid as the libtard fears expressed about meat and cyclosporalasis mentioned in the article.
**Orthorexia Nervosa: When this fear of chemical additives, preservatives, or non-pure ingredients escalates into a pathological obsession with "clean" or "pure" eating, it is referred to as orthorexia. Individuals with orthorexia obsessively restrict food groups based on quality and perceived purity rather than calorie count.**
Some of my patients have the impression that it is impossible to wash your produce enough to remove the contamination. The media always exaggerates. Here's how I wash my lettuce:
I put it in a pasta pot and fill the pot up with water. Remove the inner pot with the holes to let it drain, pour out the water from the bottom pot, rinse the pot, then repeat 3 times. Then I dry the lettuce in a spinner. If I'm cleaning lettuce I grew in the garden, it takes more than 3 washes. In that case, I wash until the water is clear and there are no gritty particles in the pot when I go to rinse it. Works well for me. The key to avoiding the infection isn't complete eradication - it's diluting it to a point that it isn't a threat.
Wow! Impacts hundreds to thousands of Americans seasonally out of a total population of 350 million. Oh my God. The sky is falling
**Case Numbers: The U.S. regularly sees hundreds to thousands of cases annually, with a widespread multi-state outbreak recently spreading across more than half of the states.**
Projectile Vomiting + Explosive Diarrhea === new form of Rotary Power.
The first outbreak of cyclosporiasis in the United States was in the late 1990's. It was caused by raspberries grown in Guatemala. If I recall, it was the late 1990's when we started importing fruits and vegetables from other countries. Wasn't there some sort of trade agreement that made this possible? Probably improvement in refrigerated transport as well. I think the cause is related to two things in the other countries: 1) The type of fertilizer. (Some cultures use human waste.) and 2) Contaminated irrigation water. Some countries aren't so good at waste management.
Everything about life turns out to be so, so dangerous; maybe Canada has the right idea. I wonder if you have to be a citizen to qualify for MAID?
I assumed "cyclosporiasis" preferred to people whose spandex outfits caused itchy, scaling skin.
Jim said...
Not just ‘diarrhea,’ but ‘explosive diarrhea.’
That's the richest kind!
Ann Althouse said...
"Not just ‘diarrhea,’ but ‘explosive diarrhea.’"
The phrase I keep seeing is "watery diarrhea." That's uncalled for.
Think of it as a free colonoscopy prep.
1/3 of Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes. 40% of Americans are obese and 74% are overweight.
In the age of social media, people strain out gnats while letting camels pass.
Don't let the influencer algorithm make you a brain dead retard
I have never washed a vegetable before eating in my 80-year-old life, and I have eaten tons of them unwashed. Maybe it's because the dirt in our 1950 redneck truck patch was healthy and I built up an immunity to dirt over the decades.
On vacation in the north woods of WI. Haven’t read the news much. Wow! I have some catching up to do! Good thing we picked our own blueberries yesterday. That fruit I can trust!
“I walk into Whole Foods, and the first experience is, of course, the very grand array of fruits and vegetables”
…this has made me realize it has been a long time since I walked into a store with a grand produce section. Eff you Publix and Kroger..
The reason that cherries and grapes, etc. come in bags with holes in them is so you can run the whole bag under the faucet.
**Scientific estimates suggest that disinfection byproducts (DBPs) like trihalomethanes (THMs) account for a portion of cancer diagnoses, though pinning down an exact number of annual deaths is complex. Researchers associate chlorination byproducts with roughly 5,000 bladder cancer cases and 8,000 rectal cancer cases per year in the United States.Because they are volatile, THMs easily vaporize in a hot shower and can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin, making showering and bathing significant exposure routes on par with drinking.**
The combination of GLP-1 drugs and cyclosporiasis is unbeatable for achieving quick weight loss.
"The phrase I keep seeing is "watery diarrhea." That's uncalled for."
Yeah, I don't like that either. Makes it sound like I got gypped.
It's an important diagnostic distinction.
The beer shits is diarrhea with a viscosity of drilling mud
Very different from watery diarrhea from parasites.
**Yes, watery diarrhea is generally more life-threatening than more viscous (thick or fatty) diarrhea.The primary danger of diarrhea is dehydration caused by rapid fluid loss. Watery stools contain significantly more liquid and essential electrolytes, leading to much faster dehydration than solid or semi-solid stool. By contrast, viscous diarrhea (such as fatty, malabsorptive stool) indicates nutrient absorption issues, which are serious long-term but pose a lower immediate risk of life-threatening dehydration.**
Tell me you’re susceptible to fear-mongering without telling me. Make sure to double-mask and spray your groceries; and be careful not to pass within six feet of people on walking trails.
I did skip a couple of salads last week when dining out. Now that it seems the source has been found, I’m moving on.
"The strawberries at whole foods have been wonderful this year.
I wash them they way I always do. "
I recently saw a kitchen tips video that suggested a technique to keep berries longer. It is from a Michelin star restaurant I believe. You briefly soak berries in a solution of 1 part vinegar 4 parts water. The Vinegar solution kills any mold spores on the berries, and supposedly doesn't impart any flavor. Fresh Berries
ronetc said...
I have never washed a vegetable before eating in my 80-year-old life, and I have eaten tons of them unwashed. Maybe it's because the dirt in our 1950 redneck truck patch was healthy and I built up an immunity to dirt over the decades.
This +++
I made my berry salad for a few guests.
Washed clean everything.
They key is making sure the fruit is dry, too.
Strawberries sliced & fresh blueberries.
At the last minute, pour a little home-made ginger-mint simple syrup over it all and serve.
nummy.
I'm on a low sugar diet - but I did eat that. yum.
The WaPoo!
I had lettuce on some Taco Bell tacos yesterday. Talk about living dangerously!
We've been washing all our berries with a mix of water and a little vinegar. Sometimes we are surprised at what comes off.
Joe Bar - taco bell lettuce was in the news.
Please report back to us on your symptoms.
;-]
Is there diarrhea that isn't watery? It's not a helpful description.
I'm avoiding salads right now because I'm going to be on a plane in a couple of days and air travel is stressful enough without explosive diarrhea. I always pick a window seat, so I don't even want to think about the complications that would bring.
"Not just ‘diarrhea,’ but ‘explosive diarrhea.’"
That's a South Park reference.
Fruits with with a peel are safe. Nature's defense shield. Bananas, oranges, pineapples.
Watch out for the lettuce-eaters. Give them room.
"The phrase I keep seeing is "watery diarrhea." That's uncalled for."
What other kind of diarrhea is there? Any way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrj_IyUMX5o
I have ignored it like I ignore much if.not most from out media. And will continue to do so.
Some years ago, I attended a talk given by an FDA scientist about food safety at a biotech conference. On the one hand, I learned that illness, hospitalization, and even death from food-borne illness was far higher than almost anyone assumes. On the other hand, there are billions of us who seem to handle food-borne pathogens without too much trouble. Umm, food for thought, I guess.
"Fruits with with a peel are safe."
How do avoid contaminating the flesh in the process of peeling? Hands/knife picks up what's on the outside and conveys it to the inside.
FDA walking back some of the "Taylor Farms" test results.
Not completely - but some.
"How do avoid contaminating the flesh in the process of peeling? Hands/knife picks up what's on the outside and conveys it to the inside."
I don't know if it would work with this parasite, but I know a nutritionist who told me that you should wash the outside of peelable fruits and vegetables with soap and water.
And here is a link to how to make a grilled romaine lettuce salad.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AUWMdUOlW4c
Is bacon affected? If not, then 'nothing to see, here, move along'.
In 2022, 42 thousand Americans died in Auto accidents. 1.6 million were injured for the same reason. Yet people don't think twice about getting into their car and driving around.
But a chance of diarrhea from eating vegatables thows them into a tizzy.
Personally, unlike my wife, i don't see the point of eating lettuce. Any you need to rinse the produce to get the pesticide off no matter what. So, you still need to rinse even if you boil them.
Peel orange. Rinse fruit. Problem solved.
On my first port call to Korea the corpsman advised the crew to no eat any fruit or vegetable that couldn't be peeled unless it was thoroughly cooked. He went on to explain that the stores will have luscious and tempting strawberries, ripe, red, just begging to be eaten. And the reason they looked like that is they were well fertilized- using nightsoil. Which on my first visit to Koreas was collected door-to-door. 10 years later on my second visit it went down the sewers.
FYI- if you ever see the inside of the drying bed of a wastewater treatment plant you'll see hundreds of healthy looking tomato plants growing. The seeds survive the trip through our bodies and the sewage treatment process, and sprout in the fertile remains. The soil they're growing in is quite biologically safe from the parasites and diseases being discussed. However, no one eats them. An assay of the ripe and plump delicious looking tomatoes would likely show an unhealthy concentration of heavy metals...
When out in the boonies in Egypt we washed every bit of produce in a dilute bleach solution.
And I had just decided to trust Big Salad that its products had been triply washed and believe that there was no need to wash the lettuce a fourth time ...
Oh, black caps are ripening where I live. When I first got here I called them black raspberries, but was informed quite insistently they're not, they're black caps. Not cultivated, they grow wild. Just about anywhere. And they don't ripen all at once. Depends on the weather, rainfall, and how deep in shade they're growing. Ate about 2 dozen the other day walking along the bike trail. Picked from a half dozen bushes or more. Irrigation water? What falls from the sky. Fecal contamination? They're up in the air, not ground level. I pluck them off and eat them. I count as I eat them. Don't want to eat too many. That's a recipe for stomach upset. As is too many or too much of any fibrous fruit. Especially ones with small little seeds embedded in them. Not recommended for anyone with diverticulitis.
I rinse all my strawberries, locally grown or imported. They grow and ripen at ground level.
Grok says that the oocyst spores of Cyclospora cayetanensis does not easily wash off and is resistant to even chlorine based washes. Vegetables grown in your yard would not have this unless YOU transmitted it yourself. It comes from places where ground water is contaminated with human waste.
Just a note. I will say that you would never get cyclosporiasis from a bag of doritos...
And that's 90%. What about the other 10%?
In theory, a single germ can make you sick but in practice is takes a lot of germs. The worst that I know of, is Yersinia pestis which needs 20-100 CFU to achieve LD-50. By contrast, most enteric illnesses need millions of CFU.
Decreasing bacterial or viruses to one tenth, can decrease your risk of illness. If the level of germs was so low you wouldn't have gotten sick anyway, no harm. If the bacterial load is so high that even one tenth as much will still get you sick, you'll be less sick and if there were just enough to get you sick, washing will prevent you getting sick.
Shit just got real.
“ "Before you touch any produce, wash your hands well with soap and water. And then be sure to wash the produce under cold running water for at least one minute. In a 2021 study on washing methods to remove parasite oocysts (a thick-walled stage in its life cycle) from berries, rinsing in cold water was shown to remove over 90 percent of cyclospora on blueberries — using a salad spinner or washing with a vinegar solution provided no additional benefit....”
For me the most difficult part of preparing vegetables is deciding if it’s easier to open a can or thaw something. Ah, hell with it, I’ll just order a pizza with green peppers, onions and black olives. Done!
This is all fear mongering. Be smart, rinse off, if produce from another country perhaps be wary.
You might not ever get rich
But let me tell you it's better than digging a ditch
There ain't no telling who you might meet
A movie star or maybe even an Indian chief
Working at the fruit wash
Working at the veg wash, yeah
Sing it with the feeling now, fruit & veg wash, yeah
Come, some of the work gets kind of hard
This ain't no place to be if your veggies are subpar
Let me tell you it's always cool
And the boss don't mind sometimes if you act a fool
(Work and work) well, those citrus never seem to stop coming
(Work and work) keep those waxin' machines humming
(Work and work) my fingers to the bone
(Work and work) keep up, I can't wait 'til it's time to go home
Fruit wash
Talking about the veg wash
Come on, y'all and sing it with me
Sing it with feeling
Fruit & veg wash, yeah
"if you knew there was cyclosporiasis on a vegetable or fruit you wouldn't even touch it."
I always assume produce is covered with bacteria and fungi and wash it before eating or cooking. So no, cyclospora doesn't scare me any more than E.coli.
You put your veggie in. You pull your veggie out. And you shake it all about. That's how you clear the alien migration.
Diarrhea gets a bad rap.
Even when making the evening cocktail I thoroughly wash the (preferably Sunkist) lemons before cutting them. I do NOT wash all F&V upon return from the store but as they are used. I DO wash MY HANDS immediately after putting groceries away. These are simply easy habits to adopt even when it’s not a COVID year.
TFW you’re promised explosive diarrhea but only get watery discharge.
I would like to see the Venn diagram of people who fall victim to explosive watery brown smelly diarrhea and those who get flu every year. Good hygiene practices are a lifelong skill.
FWIW, most of our vegetables this time of year are coming from a CSA, and are washed at the farm, as they've been for the nigh on 30 years we've been members. Never a problem. But I wash my hands a lot.
Son sent me a meme - it's the one with snooty French noblemen in lavish 18th-century costume staring down haughtily from a balcony - entitled "Gas-station roller-grill hot dog enjoyers watching you shit your pants after eating a healthy salad"
** In a 2021 study on washing methods to remove parasite oocysts (a thick-walled stage in its life cycle) from berries, rinsing in cold water was shown to remove over 90 percent of cyclospora on blueberries **
Dilution is the solution to pollution.
An infectious-disease doctor of my acquaintance does not eat any fruits or vegetables in the Third World, ever. Bread and cooked meats only. He also starts each day with a stiff Bloody Mary and keeps a little alcohol in his stomach all day long.
Yah. If only life could be 100% safe everywhere and all the time.
A satisfying toilet life is important.
"MadisonMan said...
I would like to see the Venn diagram of people who fall victim to explosive watery brown smelly diarrhea and those who get flu every year. Good hygiene practices are a lifelong skill.
FWIW, most of our vegetables this time of year are coming from a CSA, and are washed at the farm, as they've been for the nigh on 30 years we've been members. Never a problem. But I wash my hands a lot."
Immune response is a more important factor. Being Felix Unger is not important for that. It's actually bad. Not sure of the washing hands/produce connection. If the produce isn't clean then washing your hands isn't the answer. "MadisonMan said...
I would like to see the Venn diagram of people who fall victim to explosive watery brown smelly diarrhea and those who get flu every year. Good hygiene practices are a lifelong skill.
FWIW, most of our vegetables this time of year are coming from a CSA, and are washed at the farm, as they've been for the nigh on 30 years we've been members. Never a problem. But I wash my hands a lot."
Immune response is a more important factor. Being Felix Unger is not important for that. It's actually bad. Not sure of the washing hands/produce connection. If the produce isn't clean then washing your hands isn't the answer.
"Kai Akker said...
A satisfying toilet life is important."
Very important. During my last hip replacement I contracted two infections from the surgery. I've been antibiotics for the last nine years. They certainly effect your stools. Even with a quality probiotic. I added unpasteurized sauerkraut to my daily diet...just a few table spoons...what a difference. Bibbies brand, high in probiotics. And fiber.
Leland said...
I did skip a couple of salads last week when dining out. Now that it seems the source has been found, I’m moving on.
I’m gonna eat just red meat, potatoes, and sweet desserts for the next few weeks just to be safe. And alcohol to kill any remaining germs.
Saint Croix said...
Watch out for the lettuce-eaters.
Homer warned us about them. Unfortunately, Nolan left them out of his new version of The Odessey.
bagoh20 said...
Diarrhea gets a bad rap.
Loose stools rule!
*and figuring that the media just needs something to talk about as long as it’s not election integrity.*
/finger on nose
RCOcean: You were well on your way to a haiku.
"I’m gonna eat just red meat" - Rocco
That's what I did eat. I just didn't have the side salad, because I wanted to stay healthy.
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