You know the drill. You eat something that seems fine and then hours later your stomach is rumbling, you are overcome with nausea and cramps and you have a fever.
Food poisoning is terrible to go through and can even be life-threatening. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) get sick from food poisoning each year, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases.
The stats are scary but there are ways to safeguard yourself, or at least reduce your risk of food poisoning. This is according to attorney Bill Marler, who has worked on some important food safety cases and has accumulated a great deal of knowledge about food poisoning. And if there is one thing Marler has learned during all these years, it is to avoid certain foods.
Here we look at six of those foods that he listed in his personal blog:
1. Raw sprouts. While touted for numerous health benefits, raw sprouts have been linked to outbreaks of illnesses caused by poisoning from Salmonella and E. coli bacteria, Healthway noted.
2. Unpasteurized milk and packaged juices. While some people prefer to consume unpasteurized milk, sometimes called "raw" milk, Marler pointed out that it can be contaminated with bacteria, viruses and parasites and has been associated with at least 148 outbreaks. Furthermore, unpasteurized packaged juices have been linked to E. coli outbreaks.
3. Medium to rare meat. Marler said he makes a point of ordering his burgers and steak well-done and he has good reason to do so. "The reason ground products are more problematic and need to be cooked more thoroughly is that any bacteria that’s on the surface of the meat can be ground inside of it," he noted. "If it’s not cooked thoroughly to 160°F throughout, it can cause poisoning by E. coli and salmonella and other bacterial illnesses."
4. Prewashed or precut fruits and vegetables. It may sound strange but Marler insists they can be problematic. He reasons that food is more likely to be tainted if it is more frequently handled and processed.
5. Raw or undercooked eggs. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, raw and undercooked eggs were directly linked to a massive salmonella epidemic. In 2010, another salmonella outbreak caused roughly 2,000 reported cases of illness, Marler pointed out. "I think the risk of egg contamination is much lower today than it was 20 years ago for salmonella, but I still eat my eggs well-cooked," he said.
6. Raw oysters and other raw shellfish. Regarded as a luxury, Marler noted that raw shellfish, and especially oysters, have been causing more foodborne illness lately. This may be due to warming waters that cause more microbial growth. "Oysters are filter feeders, so they pick up everything that’s in the water," Marler said. "If there’s bacteria in the water it’ll get into their system, and if you eat it you could have trouble."
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