We here in the United States never consider the consequences of what we are eating or drinking. We assume it is all safe. We are notorious for stuffing our plates and our stomachs, because we have an abundance of food available. Food comes from our own farms and ranches, but it also comes from foreign sources as well. We get fruit from South and Central America, Canada and some things are shipped in from as far away as the Orient and Australia. The global economy has affected not only our Toy market, but our foods as well, but salmonella is not the only danger we have to face.
When I lived in the Orient they had something called “honey buckets”. These were usually two buckets of human waste carried on a stick between the shoulders of workers going into the produce fields into the fields. Here they were poured on the vegetables and used as fertilizer to help the crops grow. Other countries do not always worry as much about HOW they fertilize their products as we do in the US.
When we were on the other side of the world we knew there was a risk and took extra caution with what we bought. It was thoroughly washed/cleaned before we consumed it. In Mexico there used to be signed that people laughed at because they said, “Don’t drink the water, drink the Cerveza.” because the water is considered dangerous and full of bacteria that people who are not from their country might catch. I’ve heard this referred to as “Montezuma’s revenge” and if you fail to heed the warnings, you soon would know what that term meant.
I had not been in Mexico or any other foreign country for some time when I made the serious mistake of eating a grape in the grocery check out line. The grape looked luscious and indeed it was. However I will NEVER do that again. This seems like an innocent thing, but I learned the hard way as it almost cost me my life. We all need to be more careful with our food and what we put in our mouths, including our hands.
I thought at first it was some kind of virus, but as it got worse and worse. Soon I was going to the bathroom 35 times a day and all my body fluids depleted quickly. As I got weaker and weaker, I could not even hold down a glass of water. A friend of mine who was a nurse came to see me and immediately recognized the symptoms. She rushed me to the hospital where after several test, it was confirmed.
I had Guardia Lamblia.
My first question was,”What in the dickens is it?”
The doctor explained, “It is a protozoan parasite that gets inside your small intestines and if not treated with antibiotic can very quickly kill you.
I knew what a protozoa and a parasite were because I had studied them in college; so my next question was, “Where in the world did I get it?”
They started to track it down by asking me questions. Had I been on a camping trip, drank any well water; been in the mountains anywhere;. had I been in a swimming pool, a hot tub? None of these things rang a bell. I hadn’t been anywhere or done any of theses things. Did we have a dog or a cat? At that time we didn’t, so we could eliminate that too. Then they asked me if I had eaten any uncooked food, fresh fruit, or vegetable without washing them? The checkout line at the grocery store immediately popped into my head, as I never done anything like that before. Suddenly it dawned on me … The grape! We had tracked down the cause. Apparently that grape was contaminated.
It is easier to get this terrible disease than one might imagine. It can be picked up on a bathroom fixtures, your hot tub, in a lake, on a diaper pail, through your pets or from something you ate that was not properly cleaned.. You can get it through contact with infected blood or by accidentally swallowing it in the water you drink at the swimming pool. It is in our soil, our food and sometime in our water. It is the most common cause of waterborne diseases in humans in the US in the last twenty years according to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. How many of you reading this, are aware that this little one cell terror lurks in your own back yard?
It can be found in every part of the US.
Your mother probably told you to wash you hand as a kid. Well, it is time we listened, but it is not enough!
We need to make people aware of the terrible tiny one cell protozoa that can certainly kill you, if you are not aware of it. It is as dangerous as the contaminated lettuce and spinach episode we had recently, the only difference is it works more slowly and no one is talking about it.
Spread the word. The life you save could be your or that of someone you love.
