The 10 Dirtiest Foods You're Eating
Are Your Groceries Safe?
On October 6, 2003, Jeff Cook took his family out to dinner at the Chi-Chi's Restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall, north of Pittsburgh. When his chicken-and-steak fajitas arrived at the table, they were accompanied by the obvious--sautéed peppers, onions, sour cream--and the invisible--a helping of hepatitis A. Cook, 38, healthy and energetic on that autumn evening, died of acute liver failure a month later.
The Dirt on Dirty Food
Hepatitis A may have been the disease that ended up sickening 575 Chi-Chi's patrons and employees--and killing three--but a batch of green onions was the carrier. Dirty food. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that every day, 200,000 Americans contract food poisoning. But Philip Tierno, Ph.D., a microbiologist at New York University medical center and author of The Secret Life of Germs, pegs the true eat-'em-and-weep rate at around 800,000 a day. "Everyone in this country will have at least one incident of sickness this year attributable to a foodborne virus, bacteria, or toxin," Tierno says. Except that most of us won't know what hit us; we'll chalk up the usually mild symptoms--nausea, diarrhea, cramping--to "that stomach flu that's going around."
Scientists currently know of only one 100 percent foolproof way to prevent food poisoning: Stop eating. Or, almost as effective, obsess over every morsel you bring to your mouth and whether it might be staring back at you. But assuming you'd rather not die of slow starvation or, worse, live like Nick Nolte, we present you with a third, saner solution: Identify and sanitize the 10 dirtiest foods.
After considering incidence of outbreaks, relative danger of the dirt, and how often the carrier is found on our forks, we came up with a list of the edibles most likely to send your day spiraling down the crapper. We then assembled simple strategies for decontaminating the prime suspects--from the supermarket to the supper table--without worrying yourself sick. And what if, as with Jeff Cook, someone else does the cooking? We also tell you how to spot a dirty restaurant. Add it all up and what we're giving you is a recipe--for clean living. Click through the photo gallery above to learn more.
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Recent Comments
NicStepro 10:38:57 PM Jan 18 2009
"What a bunch of dummies. You don't need to wash it before cooking because COOKING DESTROYS THE GERMS."include yourself in the bunch- there are toxins bacteria produce not destroyed by cooking. btw, you cook your salad?
Jaguignon 09:33:47 PM Jan 18 2009
cgc158- "If you think someone is a dummy for washing their food to prevent germ poisoning and hence a disease...what about the pesticides on food and all that poop that our poor neighbors can't hold in til they get to the bathroom?
msbungle1972 07:51:35 AM Dec 17 2008
Wow! This article was a real eye-opener. I mean, I never once thought I might have to actually wash produce when I bring it home! I never realized that chickens, whether it be a breast or an egg, had to be t cooked before you eat it. And I really never realized that there are actually people in the world who need to be told this crap. Where were your parents??? Or your teachers??
chimneygeorge 08:50:46 PM Dec 16 2008
cont. from below... Turn off the tv and the video games. Go for walks, start excersing and become involved in your community to help raise yours and others awareness of what is really going on. Watch public tv and listen to public radio for a fresh perspective. Our nation has been sold out and we have sat by and perhaps even helped!. If we do not raise our awareness, it will soon be too late. We used to own this planet, now we are weak and pathetic excuses for humans! WAKE UP AMERICA, we are flushing ourselves down the crapper!
chimneygeorge 08:39:19 PM Dec 16 2008
WOW! Its amazing how opionated people can be that so obviously know very little about the subject. First off, if you read where the produce and meats u eat come from, you'll discover much of our food comes from is grown in other countries, primarily south america, where we do not excersise enuf control over how it is grown, processed and shipped. The stuff grown for mass consumption here is bad enuf since the primary motivation for selling u this crap is economic not to nutrionally sustain your body. Pesticides are poisons! If they kill bugs, they will sicken you as well over time, it just takes longer, but the effects are cumulitive. This country has the fattest, sickest, least aware people on the planet! Its time we woke up and realize our government is not doing their job nor is anyone else cuz the task to ensure our health is an individual resposibility. Mickey D will sell garbage as long as people buy into the lies of their adverts. Turn off the tv, put down the video ga
amanda861001 08:34:13 PM Dec 16 2008
wow, organic is great and all, but im getting really tired of people talking about how they eat 85%-100% organic and they feel 'oh so much better!' and that children should only eat organic, etc... but i think myself and pretty much everyone in my age group never ate organic as a child, we devoured those pesticides and were all fine. im not fat, im not sick, and im definitely not dying. I guess im just tired of people preaching about the wonders of organic. and the dirty food thing, really, use some common sense. its articles like this that really make me wonder where all the intelligent people went to.
sarilou317 08:22:38 PM Dec 16 2008
1: Organic is good... but, it definitely does not mean free of germs. The germs that cause food poisoning are 100% natural themselves. Even fresh Amish eggs that come right out of the chicken coop can have Salmonella. 2: Cooking is a good way to destroy germs, but what about the chicken juices that drip into your un-cooked salad, and what about the eggs in raw cookie dough, or sunny-side-up eggs (which aren't cooked enough to actually kill the germs)? It used to be that you couldn't buy pasteurized eggs, but the grocery stores around here (Jewel) sell Davidson's Eggs, which really are safe to eat raw. See <a href="http://www.safeeggs.com">safeeggs.com</a>
sarilou317 08:21:45 PM Dec 16 2008
#1: Organic is good... but, it definitely does not mean free of germs. The germs that cause food poisoning are 100% natural themselves. Even fresh Amish eggs that come right out of the chicken coop can have Salmonella. #2: Cooking is a good way to destroy germs, but what about the chicken juices that drip into your un-cooked salad, and what about the eggs in raw cookie dough, or sunny-side-up eggs (which aren't cooked enough to actually kill the germs)? It used to be that you couldn't buy pasteurized eggs, but the grocery stores around here (Jewel) sell Davidson's Eggs, which really are safe to eat raw. See <a href="http://www.safeeggs.com">safeeggs.com</a>
cgcl58 06:08:59 PM Dec 16 2008
What a bunch of dummies. You don't need to wash it before cooking because COOKING DESTROYS THE GERMS. The only disease not destroyed by cooking is vCJD, or the human form of mad cow. Bon vivant!
