The Wake

We’re all busy people. When juggling school, work and a social life, most of our attention is diverted away from trivial matters such as safe food preparation and storage. Although cooking raw meat, poultry and fish at temperatures well above 135 degrees Fahrenheit should be standard practice, few want to think about whether or not their “reasonably” aged leftovers could make them sick. But by forgetting the fact that a slice of day-old pizza left out at room temperature is also a tasty morsel for millions of hungry microbes, most college students continuously put themselves at risk of food poisoning.

Nourished by food at an everyday indoor temperature, a single bacterium can multiply to four million in only eight hours. Anywhere from an hour to several days after eating contaminated cuisine, a person will suddenly become stricken with nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and fatigue. Most victims experience these flu-like symptoms for 24-48 hours before a swift recovery. But they’ll be sick as a dog during this period of acute illness while the body expels all harmful toxins, usually a byproduct of the bacteria multiplying. How do people expel toxins from their bodies you ask? Why, through vomiting and diarrhea, of course!

This writer experienced a rude awakening to the terror of food-borne illnesses during his recent family vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands. During an afternoon snorkeling trip, the salty sailboat captain fed lunch to the eight members of my family, his crew and the other vacationers. I climbed back aboard the vessel after a considerable amount of swimming, and a plate of fruit, bread, ham and turkey was placed before me. Five of the eight of us ate the turkey.

I recall a sense of uncertainty as I witnessed my aunt hurling over the boat’s port side a few hours later. My sister complained of fatigue and stomach pain almost immediately. Later that night, when my dad fell ill, our group knew we were amidst the unlucky few trapped in a potential outbreak of food poisoning. By the following morning, both my cousin and I were also sick. With my energy sapped, the tropical paradise that is Mayo Bay Resort became a living hell of musty tents and long trudges to and from the bathhouse. Luckily my aunt happened to be a physician with an ample knowledge of how to treat such ailments. The most important thing to remember while sick is to stay hydrated. My only regret besides ignorantly stuffing my face with lukewarm poultry was jumping at the possibility of taking anti-diarrhea medicine to stop my constant “purging” of toxic impurities. I would later learn that if the illness hasn’t yet run its course, these kinds of unpleasantries are central to the recovery process. My relief turned out to be temporary before certain symptoms returned with a vengeance later on.

If you’re still reading, I won’t gross you out with the specifics. The real point of this story is to illustrate the serious threat of food-borne illness at home and abroad. After all, with about 76 million cases in the United States. each year, one in three people are likely to fall victim. That means these bugs are even more common than the common cold. What’s more, stuffy noses and sore throats hardly compare to a type of illness that leads to 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,200 deaths annually in the U.S. A bacterial infection usually starts with the little bastards latching themselves onto a person’s intestinal wall, where they will multiply exponentially and sometimes shit toxins into the bloodstream or dig deeper into bodily tissues. Fewer than twenty culprits cause 90 percent of identifiable bacterial infections. Some of which can produce a toxin within foods that can’t be destroyed by cooking. Those among the most prevalent of these incomprehensible creatures have crazy names like Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Campylobacter. Considering what we do know, collective knowledge concerning food-born illnesses is still full of gaps. About 60 percent of reported outbreaks are attributed to unknown pathogens. Besides cases stemming from bacteria, sickness can also result from viral infections or natural toxins already present in certain foods.

It is estimated that 98 percent of outbreaks in the United States go undetected by health jurisdictions. The reasoning is simple: the majority of them originate from commercial food vendors whose patrons won’t know one another and therefore can’t organize and document the incident. Despite this, epidemics make news all the time. Already this year, there’s been a scare of Salmonella-infested peanut butter being distributed through Peter Pan and Great Value. In 2006, 18 people were hospitalized for food poisoning after eating at a Taco John’s in Albert Lea, Minnesota. The source was determined to be either the produce or vegetables being served at the restaurant. Also in 2006, Escherichia coli was spreading through Taco Bell’s green onions and a good portion of our nation’s bagged spinach. Since 2000, we’ve experienced plenty of other outbreaks, including Listeria, Salmonella and Hepatitis type A from goods such as green onions, ground beef, processed chicken, unpasteurized orange juice and bean sprouts.

Companies will commonly sanitize their foods by bombarding them with gamma rays, electron beams and X-rays before they hit shelves or restaurants. This doesn’t provide a lasting solution. When cooking at home, keeping provisions separated and at controlled temperatures are key methods of preventing contamination. Don’t leave meals sitting out for more than two hours and don’t refrigerate leftovers for more than seven days. Cold eats must be stored below 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Check expiration dates, wash hands, keep surfaces clean and dry. When in doubt, throw it out. I’m sure I sound like high school health class all over again, but this stuff is actually important.

Returning to my own unfortunate encounter, we never paid the skipper who got us sick. Very few of the other tourists on the boat touched the turkey — a wise decision indeed. Two or three days later, our resort was hit by a plague of viral stomach flu, virtually shutting down the entire place. The skipper tried to capitalize on this coincidence by shifting the blame from his poison poultry to this apparent outbreak. My aunt shot back, saying we didn’t exhibit the fever, chills and aches that accompany viral gastroenteritis. Clearly, we all could all stand to learn a little from the physicians in our lives.