Friday, April 15, 2011

Day 102 - "My Life In Food" Food Safety 101

Haylee has diabetes and had contracted E. coli from food she ate. She now has learning disabilities from the damage it caused to her brain. She is especially affected in her visual abilities. She has lost vision in some of her visual field. Her family invested in a Go-Cart for Haylee in order to train her for the possibility of driving in the future.

Safe Tables Our Priority (STOP) - an organization that wants to try to get food safety legislation passed to stop children from dying from foodborne diseases. We do not have food safety regulation in this country. Only a handful of foods are required to be tested, for other foods testing is voluntary. In July of 2009, House passed a food safety act for the FDA to require farm-to-table food safety testing. But after two years, the senate has not acted on this act.


According to culinary professor, Richard Vergili, the big three in food safety are Time and Temperature, Cross-Contamination, and Good Personal Hygiene. Washing hands is the most critical thing we can do in the kitchen to stop the spread of disease through our foods. Viruses can especially be transferred through food from not washing hands. With over 66 billion foodborne diseases, we can do a better job of washing our hands to eliminate some of these.


According to Haylee's mother, nothing that comes into the house is contaminated and needs to be cleaned. Even the outside of fruits like bananas, avocados, etc should be washed because whatever is on the surface will get into the fruit when you cut into it or peel the skin off. The family does not believe that they should have to do this - that the FDA should have a better handle on regulations on the foods we get at the supermarket.

When we put something into our bodies, it is incredibly important to know where it comes from and how it was raised. By being connected to your food, you have more control over your body and over the protection from diseases. According to Marion Nelson, the CDC has estimated that there are 76 million cases of foodborne illnesses and 5,000 deaths.

Raising chickens can be a good hobby and has become pretty trendy according to Vergili. Nelson tells us that one of the most dangerous foodborne illnesses is salmonella, which comes from some chicken eggs. The eggs used to be sterile, but when a hen becomes infected, the eggs can be infected as well. Then you must cook an egg completely in order to be completely protected.


Nelson also gives some advice on how to best protect yourself and practice food safety at home; such as by separating meat from vegetables, make sure that all your surfaces and your hands are completely washed.

Exercise: Starting up next week!! :) Today is my normal relaxation day anyway...

Eat: Today I want to talk about a final group of vegetables with benefits in order to conclude my food tips on produce! Fresh herbs can add big benefits when cooking with them. Herbs such as sage, cilantro, parsley, basil, dill, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, oregano, and chives give us the benefits of vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin K. Tomorrow I will begin food tips on another food group type: Breads!


Relax: Today I went and got to hang out with Chris, Katherine, Aaron, and Lailalyn! It was a lot of fun. We just watched cartoon shows all day and relaxed together.

No comments:

Post a Comment