| Author | Content |
twiggybuds
Moss Point, MS
(Zone 8b)
July 15, 2009
01:21 PM Post #6822964
| http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31766160/ns/health-food_safety//
I've often wondered why I haven't seen this headline before. It's because nobody has been looking out for us. This problem and others will only get worse until the current system of industrial meat production returns to more natural and sustainable methods. This is yet another reason to eat local and get to know the sources.
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DiggerDee
Ffld County, CT
(Zone 6b)
July 15, 2009
02:06 PM Post #6823133
| Scary. On a personal basis, it makes me happy that I get my meat from a local farm. But it's sad that we have to worry about the safety of our food supply. It's getting so not only do I not eat out at restaurants anymore, I don't even want to eat at anyone's house! Everyone I know still shops at the super-supermarkets. |
lizards_keep
Colmesneil, TX
(Zone 8b)
August 26, 2009
01:10 AM Post #6989230
| I agree with both of you on this subject. But for what its worth, I spoke to the head of Infectious Control at one of the larger hospitals in Houston and asked about the MRSA in our meat. He said that he hadn’t heard anything about it and hadn’t gotten any thing from the CDC about it. Told him about the news report and he said that if it doesn’t come from the CDC its just gossip. Said that anything confirmed by the CDC is sent to them immediately. Especially anything concerning MRSA.
Who is one to believe?
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Hastur
Houston, TX
August 26, 2009
01:38 PM Post #6990837
| Who to believe?
I think I will believe my gut.
Since switching to a diet with more grass fed/local/small farmer stuff, I've lost a bit of weight, feel better, and don't get random food poisonings. I also am firmly of the belief that even if the CDC has not published anything about MRSA in food, it's going to happen - namely because I know how antibiotics usually work.
Antibiotics usually kill about 99.5% of the things that can be killed. That's pretty impressive, right? But that means that around .5% of the bugs can still live, grow, and multiply. Those are the buggies that will pass on the genetic traits for survival. Basic science is actually pretty cool.
So, do I believe the article - yes but with qualifiers. I have a tendency to read articles like that with an entire salt shaker - namely because they all seem to want to promote some sort of fear, no matter what (after all, fear sells). However, I do not trust the governmental regulators - which includes the CDC - as far as I can throw them either. Heck, if I paid attention to the regulators, I would not drink my milk raw, would dip my leafy greens in a bleach bath before eating them, and would panic if the slightest bit of dirt got on me.
So, instead, I will do what I have learned to do. Read everything, and try to be as zen about it as I can.
And meanwhile, I will trust my gut before I will ever trust either news sources OR government agencies. |
lizards_keep
Colmesneil, TX
(Zone 8b)
August 26, 2009
04:11 PM Post #6991364
| I’m in full agreement with you. I don’t trust anyone but me. Even then I still harbor some suspicions. Do it yourself the best you can and hope for the best. |
twiggybuds
Moss Point, MS
(Zone 8b)
August 26, 2009
09:13 PM Post #6992360
| I had 2 incidents with MRSA in 2006 from an unknown source. I had a huge swelling come up on my cheek and it made my whole head hurt. I lived with it a couple days because running to the doc is not my normal first reaction. I finally went and he gave me some antibiotic pills and instructions to apply heat to try to get it to come to a head and drain. He told me that if it didn't within 3 days, he would admit me for IV treatment. That was a powerful motivation and I worked on it with a wet washcloth in a ziplock. I'd heat it in the microwave every hour or so. It worked but I have a big pock mark. Two or three months later it was the same routine only this one was between my eyebrows. I haven't had anymore but I do have a revved up immune system because of an autoimmune disease.
My son was living at home and he had 5 or 6 different bouts that started soon after my last one. He had surgery on one in his armpit. He gave it to his girlfriend. Horrible stuff. My daughter is a RN and she sees plenty of it.
Everything done in our ag system is defended by claims that we have to maximize production to keep costs down and ever greater production to feed the growing population here and abroad. I think that's a very short sighted view. Nobody in leadership has the guts to tell us that we need to cut population growth and surely they won't rock the boat with anything that would spook the citizens into boycotting industrial farm production. It's become very apparent that nobody wants to level with us about anything and most of us don't really want to know anyway.
No more med. done steaks for me, nor anything else that isn't well done. Not just because of MRSA but because it's becoming more and more repugnant. To support all these practices I object to with my wallet makes me a hypocrite and I am trying to reform. I'm making progress but have a way to go.
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greenhouse_gal
Port Elizabeth, NJ
(Zone 7a)
August 26, 2009
09:44 PM Post #6992495
| Time Magazine had a cover article this week about how dangerous our methods of food production are and how much better organic food, grass-fed beef and non-feedlot pork were for the environment and everyone's health. I was amazed to see this hit a mainstream publication like Time (which my son gets; I don't subscribe) and I am wondering how soon we'll see the effect in what's on offer at the markets. |
twiggybuds
Moss Point, MS
(Zone 8b)
August 26, 2009
10:23 PM Post #6992684
| Wow! That's great news Leslie. Like you, I'm surprised that Time would do a big article, let alone put it on the cover. If I can't read it online, I'll have to buy a copy. I hope it sets off a domino effect in the media. I seriously believe if people knew what went into their food and how the animals were treated that there would be a mass revolt against the status quo.
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twiggybuds
Moss Point, MS
(Zone 8b)
August 26, 2009
10:35 PM Post #6992752
| http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1917458,00.ht...
I don't know if this is the article or not but after reading just a few paragraphs, it seems to fit here.
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lizards_keep
Colmesneil, TX
(Zone 8b)
August 27, 2009
12:54 AM Post #6993072
| We changed our eating habits after successfully following the Atkins Diet. One of the changed habits is that we don’t eat much red meat or pork any longer. Every now and then we will use ground beef in something and have pork chops but mostly we have moved to chicken. Don’t know if it’s really that much healthier but it can be fixed in so many different ways and we don’t seem to get tired of it. The main thing I found is that I don’t have that bloated, rock behind the belly button, feeling I usually got after eating a big chunk of red meat. A nice thick steak was always a favorite of mine but now a nice grilled chicken breast sandwich with the works has taken top billing.
Remember that even organic can be dangerous. E collie and salmonella are spread mainly by contaminated water and misuse of manure fertilizers. If the person responsible for the organic produce isn’t safe in the way its grown it can still be nasty.
Unfortunately our health and well-being isn’t the bottom line for our food producers. It’s the money they make or don’t make.
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Hastur
Houston, TX
August 27, 2009
09:05 AM Post #6993651
| Anything can be dangerous if you don't pay attention. The key is to pay attention and know what you are putting in your system. Heck, organic stuff is only marginally better than 'conventional' any more.
It's been said before, over and over: knowing your source is probably the best way to stay healthy and avoid the majority of the nasty things.
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greenhouse_gal
Port Elizabeth, NJ
(Zone 7a)
August 27, 2009
02:10 PM Post #6994837
| Twiggy, that's the article! Glad you found it. I was both impressed and amazed to read it.
Don't talk to me about salmonella! My DH has been in the hospital since Monday and the cultures finally came back positive for that. Maybe it was the clams we had on Saturday night... |
twiggybuds
Moss Point, MS
(Zone 8b)
August 27, 2009
04:02 PM Post #6995180
| That's just rotten luck. I hope he'll have a fast recovery. When you have time, I want to hear about it. Did you have these clams at a restaurant or at home? Were they undercooked? Were they local and have there been reports of others getting sick? We've been discussing local food for a long time on this forum and I'm curious to find out how the authorities handle it. If it's an isolated incident, I guess we'll never know.
I do know it will never be possible to eliminate food borne illness and I hope we can all continue to enjoy wild caught fish and shellfish. There's just so many things contributing to the toxic soup our coastal waters have become. We have the technology to clean it up and it can't happen soon enough to suite me.
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greenhouse_gal
Port Elizabeth, NJ
(Zone 7a)
August 27, 2009
06:48 PM Post #6995674
| Twiggy, he's home now; just got sprung. I really don't know what caused it; the infectious disease specialist said it was rarely clams but the crab dip was a possibility. He said eggs and milk are more typical vectors. The clams came from a clam house near the hostess's daughter's house but I have no idea where the crab dip came from. Point is, none of the rest of us got sick, and I've been eating everything else he ate recently, too. However, his immune system is compromised because he's undergoing chemo, and his white blood count was very low when he went into the hospital, so maybe he succumbed where we didn't. Hard to tell.
The doctor said he could also have contracted it a little while ago and it just became virulent when his blood count dropped. So no one is trying to track the source down. I guess if there were a pattern of others having it they'd start to look harder. |
lizards_keep
Colmesneil, TX
(Zone 8b)
August 27, 2009
11:34 PM Post #6996562
| Strange how things change over time. Way back when, they put a raw egg in a malt, a fried egg that didn’t have a runny yolk to sop with a biscuit was unheard of, most people ate steak with the blood running, and a kid that didn’t eat a little dirt now and then was thought to grow up puny. About the only thing, food wise, people feared and respected was the Sunday picnic potato salad that may have been out just a tat too long. Now day’s things like that will kill you.
Where have the simpler times gone?
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garden_mermaid
San Francisco Bay Ar, CA
(Zone 9b)
August 28, 2009
10:45 PM Post #7000046
| They've gone into the sunset with the smaller local farms that were put out of business by large factory farms. |
Molamola
Christiansted, VI
(Zone 11)
September 06, 2009
10:14 AM Post #7031746
| At the very end is a great part of the problem: "...and on the family dinner table"
I eat out so I won't have to eat alone.
Mm |
