food poisoning... another study

[bluegreysky]

I don't currently have it.
HOWEVER I think I got a case of it in November OR I got a stomach bug that had gone viral around town... and I got it from germs that were at a local vietnamese restaurant.
But my husband didn't.

Ever since then, I've had a pretty bad case of the heebie-jeebies about what I eat, where I eat it, how old it is and how clean my surroundings/hands are.

Naturally, like with everything else, I have started doing a lot of poking and prying around google looking for answers. I have googled food poisoning reports via trip advisor, some website where people can make reports on chain restaurants and also some small-time forum just for my town.
I also started looking for people talking on other forums and yahoo answers and whatnot about their various experiences at home vs. when they went out.

Guess what? Hardly anyone seemed to have a report about poisoning themselves at home with their own cooking. but many, many people have gotten sick from restaurants ... it didn't matter how grungy or fancy. They got sick on mcDonald's and they got sick on oysters-on-the-half-shell from 5 star restaurants. And everything in between.... olive garden. ruby tuesday's. outback steakhouse. Mostly the ones in little podunk towns up north (just not in my town).
But people confessed that they ate undercooked chicken at their own bbq, didn't really clean the surfaces in their kitchen before getting to work on the meal, or ate something spoiled from the back of the fridge because they uhm... smoked something and got the munchies... and they NEVER got sick.
My guess is that is because you get acclimated and immune to the germs and impurities in your own surroundings. (until someone brings home a new bug).
Maybe what comes from restaurant kitchens is more of a "foreign contaminate"

How many of you got poisoned at a restaurant vs trying to cook something weird/questionable at home?

This thread is relative to marriage because the feedback helps me create a healthier tomorrow for me and my hubby.

 

[ValleyGal]

Don't just wash all your veggies. Scrub them.

...oh, and use a meat thermometer to make sure meat is thoroughly cooked.

... ... oh, and don't use the same chopping board for meat and veggies.

Oh heck, just take Food Safe.

But whatever you do, DON'T get food poisoning! It's agony!

 

[bluegreysky]

Haha I hardly did any of that stuff until recently! except the meat cutting board. i knew that. i threw away the plastic one with all the dirt in the scratches. But I am nutorious for cooking veggies I didn't wash first.
sheesh.
Also, the dishwasher is cheap and it sucks and so sometimes the dishes come out with little particles of dried-on food crap and I've drank out of many glasses and used many dishes before realizing there was little flecks of that on them.
I do cook for big church groups and when I do, I use gloves, I change out the utensils alot, I serve the food in brand-new foil pans and I buy all the ingredients new so no questionable old ingredients.
I am more careful with them than I am with myself.

 

[HerCrazierHalf]

Idk if it was food poisoning or not, but I once under cooked chicken (baked frozen chicken using thawed timing). I was sick for days and could barely leave the bathroom even though I had nothing left in me. But I was in my early 20s and its never happened again, ... to that extent.

Otoh, I don't think I've caught "food poisoning" per se. I've caught something's that made me sick for a day or so, but nothing long enough to rise to that level. My main issue is that I occasional like my meat medium well, but it almost always makes me sick, so I doubt every restaurant is that dirty.

 

[seekingsolace]

I think a lot of the time when people get ill from restaurants and takeaways is contamination with fecal matter...

 

[bluegreysky]

EW who poops in the food?

 

[seekingsolace]

People not washing their hands properly, or at all, usually the latter. I find it really rare to find anyone washing their hands after they use the toilet these days, pretty disgusting.

 

[LinkH]

I think there is something to this idea that you get used to your own germs. I hear in Mexico, foreigners get Montezuma's revenge, when it wouldn't bother a lot of adult Mexicans who have an immunity to it.

When I first moved to Indonesia, I got more stomach bugs than I did after I'd been there for several years. Maybe I got wisers. But I was brushing my teeth with bottle or boiled water from the start. I think I just got used to the germs from street vendors, the typical germs going around.

I was more careful than a lot of locals. At a restaurant or food stall, I might get a few raw vegetables to eat with the food. But it would have several table spoons of tap water still on it that it had been washed in, and people don't drink the water unboiled there. So I wouldn't eat vegetables unless I'd washed them in drinking water. Usually, I just didn't eat raw vegetables outside of my house. Korean restaurants were pretty good about washing their vegetables, probably because Koreans had problems with the local tap water like other foreigners, so I did eat kimchi. But I don't think Koreans were as clean about not using tap water to wash kimchi when I lived in Korea, either that, or there was something else my stomach was getting used to.

I've heard the idea that if you let the kids play outside in the dirt instead of keeping them sanitized and squeaky clean, it may be better for their health in the long run for the same reason.

 

[Odetta]

We've gotten sick in our house from left overs that have been left too long.

 

[seekingsolace]

I've known my grandparent to eat chicken with green on it. Can't think of anytime hes had food poisoning come to think of it, his food hygiene is disgusting. Some people just have a great tolerance, others it would kill outright. I would suggest somewhere in the middle ground, I struggle myself with certain things. No harm in proper food hygiene, but be cautious that it doesn't develop into anything more, you need low levels of germs for your immunity, so don't let it worry you too much.

 

[Thunder Peel]

I don't trust anyone and even when I do eat out it's always with trepidation. I won't even partake in office snack day or free meals because I don't trust the hygiene of those around me. I prefer to make it myself.

 

[Odetta]

Thunder Peel, that's not psychologically healthy. I'm sure you have reasons for feeling the way you do, though.

 

[bluegreysky]

Ironic that you would have Fry as your avatar then, considering he ate a toilet sandwich at a truck stop and got intelligent fortress- building worms in his colon

 

[Thunder Peel]

Thunder Peel, that's not psychologically healthy. I'm sure you have reasons for feeling the way you do, though.

I've seen enough people who don't wash their hands or keep clean homes to know that many people have little to no regard for cleanliness or hygiene. Heck, our safety committee at work is using hand-washing as their monthly incentive. When you have to remind grown adults to wash their hands it doesn't bode well for the people who work around you.

Ironic that you would have Fry as your avatar then, considering he ate a toilet sandwich at a truck stop and got intelligent fortress- building worms in his colon

It worked out well for him. If that were a possibility I'd give it a shot.