A week ago Sunday I indulged in a “healthy” snack of freshly
cut strawberries and blueberries. The quotation marks in the last sentence
would not be necessary had I been a little less lackadaisical about thoroughly washing
them first. Some hours later began that special agony, which most (all?) of us
experience more than once in life. (I don’t know for a fact it was the berries
– I didn’t take them to a lab for testing – but the only other possibilities
are unlikely, each for its own reason.) I’m normally known for an iron stomach.
I have omnivorous habits, no known food allergies, and a taste for the spiciest
spices. But I met my match in berries.
In the past I’ve shrugged off the occasional food poisoning
episode quickly. Not this time. Either this was a sterner bug, or I’m less
resilient these days on account of age, or both. In the past, digestive system
turmoil (the details and consequences of which I’ll politely decline to
describe) was the whole of it, and it was over in 24 hours or so. This time it
was almost the least of it. Instead, Chills and Fever opened the show. Intestinal
Distress (accompanied by backup singers Torpor and Sleepiness) soon joined the
act and occupied Center Stage for the next five days. Even now, though I feel
OK finally, I still feel the need to be uncharacteristically gentle and cautious with
my food choices lest I risk an encore.
Prior to the 19th century, food poisoning was
understood only in the chemical sense, e.g. a dash of arsenic mixed in the
mashed potatoes from an impatient heir. An understanding of the biological type
had to await the confirmation of the germ theory of disease. The first microbe
to be identified as a specific culprit behind a specific illness of this type was
Salmonella. In 1885 some very good early medical investigative work not only
identified the bug responsible for an outbreak of food poisoning in Britain but
traced it to a specific slaughtered sick cow. The list of known harmful
food-borne biological contaminants (bacterial and viral) since then has grown very
long indeed: Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Hepatitis
A, etc. They all wreaked havoc long before people knew they existed, of course.
According to two medical historians at the University of Maryland, Alexander
the Great died in 323 BCE most probably from typhoid fever, which is caused by
Salmonella typhi: it was something he ate.
No matter how proactive a country’s health system may be,
individual cases and wider outbreaks will happen. Germ contamination, picked up
from the soil, are just a feature of fresh produce, whether home grown or from
the market. Any fresh raw poultry probably does carry Salmonella or Campylobacter, though proper
cooking kills it. Hence the advice always to clean and cook food well. The CDC
publishes a list of Foods That Can Cause Food Poisoning. Not many foods are absent from it.
Some 48 million Americans get food poisoning every year. This
is an estimate, of course, since most of those afflicted don’t seek medical
help. 128,000 are hospitalized, however, and 3000 die. So, if last week was an
average one, 923,000 Americans were sharing my unpleasant experience. 2519 had
a far worse time of it. I’ll be taking precautions to avoid rejoining those
statistics again any time soon. I know it’s entirely the wrong lesson, but the
canned fruit and vegetable aisle at the market is looking more attractive to me
at the moment than the fresh produce aisle… at least until the next time one of
those canned labels gets recalled. Maybe the wine aisle is best of all.
Salmonella |
Samantha Fish – Chills and Fever
Curious Cousin, where in NJ did you cut fresh fruit Late April?
ReplyDeleteIt was from a local market, which I won't name just in case it wasn't actually the source of my troubles. So, I suppose the fresh fruit really could have come from anywhere: Georgia, Chile, anywhere.
DeleteBummer. I got a touch of food poisoning from eating some spinach (the best that I can surmise) recently. I had a good run of not being sick for around 10 plus years so that's not bad for a bachelor. I tend to eat frozen fruit, except for bananas, oranges, and grapes. Hope you're feeling better.
ReplyDelete10 years is a pretty good run at any stage of life. I'm OK now, and will try to stay that way.
Delete