Foods That Can Make Us Sick

Author: Victoria Aly Time for reading: ~2 minutes Last Updated: August 08, 2022

CHAPTERS (Table Of Contents)

Pregnant women, children, adults and people with chronic diseases should be especially careful about food.

Nature has endowed us with the sense of smell to protect ourselves from dangers and inappropriate food. However, not every product that looks good, is tasty and smells good is safe for our health. It turns out that quite a few people end up hospitalized for consuming food. The health of one in six people in the United States, for example, is deteriorating for this reason, according to their Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Food can affect our health in several ways:

To cause food poisoning, the symptoms of which are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration and even death.
Exacerbation to cause an allergic reaction or
To show intolerance to one or another product.

Particularly risky for health and life is food poisoning for people with weaker immunity. This group includes children, the elderly, on immunosuppressive therapy, with chronic diseases and pregnant women.

Which foods can cause gastrointestinal complaints?

1. Green leafy vegetables are rich in nutrients, but also the risk of being infected with bacteria is high, such as listeria. It is very important that lettuce, lettuce, cabbage are grown away from contaminated water and soil with feces. Buy vegetables from reliable sources. Wash them thoroughly with water and remove the outer and damaged layer of leaves. Avoid packaged green leafy vegetables - they are among the most common causes of mass infections with listeria and salmonella. There are species that are really better to cook than to eat raw in a salad like spinach, which gives extra security.

2. When the eggs are at risk of being infected with salmonella. Boiling them to a solid kills these bacteria. Consumption of raw and even soft-boiled eggs should be avoided especially by children, pregnant women and people with compromised immunity.

3. Tuna, mackerel and other species may contain high concentrations of histamine, which causes headaches, cramps and enzymes (redness). This occurs when the fish is not fresh and has begun to spoil. In general, histamine breaks down when processed at high temperatures, but sometimes restaurants cannot predict how long it has been cooked. It is preferable to eat the fish as freshly caught as possible.

4. Oysters may be grown in water contaminated with norovirus. Consumed raw, the infected cause gastroenteritis. Vibrio is another life-threatening bacterium. This is the cause of cholera. It enters the bloodstream and leads to fever, chills, low blood pressure and blisters on the skin. Consume oysters after good heat treatment!

5. Potatoes can be carriers of various pathogenic bacteria, including Clostridium botulinum, Escherichia coli, Salmonella. Risks can be avoided by carefully washing and peeling before cooking. When baked, they should not be covered with aluminum foil, as it prevents them from reaching a higher temperature and Clostridium botulinum can survive. Salads that contain potatoes should not be refrigerated for more than two hours. It is wrong to think that stomach upsets from the consumption of such are due only to mayonnaise. It is preferable to prepare these salads yourself.

6. Soft cheeses - some of these types can be prepared not just with pasteurized milk, but with raw, which carries a risk of infection with listeria. It is especially dangerous for pregnant women, as it can cause fetal loss, and is risky for other more sensitive groups.

Foods That Can Make Us Sick

CHAPTERS (Table Of Contents)

Food can affect our health in several ways:

Which foods can cause gastrointestinal complaints?

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