"illness" news and stories

When you go out to eat, it's often the case that the water, iced tea or soda you order comes with a wedge of lemon perched on the rim of the glass. However, according to the research done by scientists at New Jersey's Passaic County Community College, you could be endangering your health by dropping that lemon slice into your glass.

They sampled 76 lemon wedges from 21 different restaurants and found that nearly 70% produced some form of microbial growth in the lab. In total, they were able to find 25 different forms of bacteria and yeasts on the sampled lemon wedges. It is not known what effect this is having on the consumers who come into contact with these contaminated lemon wedges, however, it could be causing problems for people who have weakened immune systems.

(Oops, we seem to have posted about this just a few weeks ago. Please excuse the duplication)!

[via Dr. Mercola]

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In a recent study, Consumer Reports concluded that 83% of all the chickens sold in the US are likely to contain foodborne illness-causing bacteria, such as campylobacter and salmonella. Known for its reliable research techniques and consumer-minded approach to issues, Consumer reports has come under criticism from the USDA, which "called the report 'junk science.'"

The CR study involved running tests on 525 supermarket chickens (from leading brands) before drawing their conclusions. Despite the fact that different brands were tested, the USDA says that the sample size was too small to conclude anything about all the chickens in the country - especially considering that there are something like 9 billion chickens killed for food in the US every year. A spokesperson for the U.S. Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said that the methodology was not there, or at least was not sufficiently explained, to justify the conclusions. For example, the study found that 15% of chickens carried salmonella (a number actually in line with USDA data), but failed to identify the strain(s) present, not even mentioning that not every strain makes people sick.

The USDA will conduct its own study of the matter beginning in January.

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It's no secret that certain prescription drugs definitely result in unwanted weight gain -- I put on 60 pounds in six weeks once. It came off easily once I demanded that my physician address the issue and take it seriously. Why treat a serious disease in such a way that one doesn't care about nutrition or longevity?

While we at Slashfood aren't here to give medical advice, we can speak from our own experiences. Based on the link above, the best ways to combat weight gain that is a side effect of a prescription medication are to: 1) drink lots of water, 2) try, try, try to avoid bad fats, and 3) go easy on carbohydrates that provide little nutritional value. As always, you are in charge of your body and what goes into it.

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The results of a four year study of over 15,000 Americans shows that fewer people are eating "risky" foods associated with E. Coli, salmonella and other foodborne diseases. The number of people eating foods such as undercooked meat, raw oysters and seafood and runny eggs dropped by about 10 percent between 1998 and 2002, according to the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, or FoodNet. Men ages 18 to 64 were almost 10 percent more likely to eat risky foods than women of the same age. For some reason, people 18 years and younger with compromised immune systems were more likely to eat risky foods. The most commonly eaten food on the list was runny eggs, reported FoodConsumer.org.