E. coli infection or a heart attack?

The dietician that my attending physicians asked me to see after my executive check up last year told me that I have to eat more green leafy vegetables and cut down on the high cholesterol and high carbohydrate stuff… in other words, cut the yummy stuff in my diet. I protested that I have been trained from childhood never to eat fresh vegetables, due to the danger of being infected with amoebas, those nasty one-celled microscopic organisms that can cause real nasty diarrheas or even worse, eat up your liver.

You see, my late father was the country’s foremost expert in Parasitology and tropical diseases in his time, and as far as he is concerned, eating fresh leafy vegetables that are mostly fertilized by "night soil" is an open invitation to those amoebas that can cause serious problems. He has done his research, taken samples of nice green lettuce leaves from the market and he has lifted those pesky amoebas from them in his laboratory. For dramatic effect, my father used to have this preserved specimen of some dead person’s liver, eaten up by amoebas, in his clinic in our house for his patients (and us) to see.

I remember that he once had to go to the high school of one of my sisters because her teacher was threatening to flunk her in her home economics class, due to her refusal to eat the green leafy vegetables served in their practice kitchen. My dad ended up giving the teacher a long lecture on the dangers of being infected with those amoebas and how such an infection can more than negate whatever vitamins and nutrients those green leafy vegetables are supposed to contribute to our health.

For the longest time, the only place I would dare eat leafy vegetables is in the restaurant of that same sister of mine. She uses lettuce grown by hydroponics, which means the roots never touch the soil at all. So I eat my Ceasar’s salad at her restaurant in the Timog area without having to worry about breaking my father’s rule and risking infection with amoebas.

Then I found out that Dole, among other food companies, are now selling pre-washed salad vegetables in vacuum sealed plastic bags. So, I became a little bolder and started eating salads outside of my sister’s restaurant. I figure those companies would take the cleaning of those salad leafs seriously on pain of being sued and damaging their brands. I took the same line of thinking when KFC and Jollibee started to offer salads too.

Just as I was getting pretty comfortable with green leafy vegetables, here comes the news that they have an epidemic of E.coli infection in the US, traced to bagged spinach by among other companies, Dole. E. coli is another nasty organism and it only takes a small quantity of it to contaminate produce.

The O157:H7 E. coli strain involved in this case, lives in the intestines of healthy cattle. The cows often shed the bacteria in their feces. The bacteria can then infect crops such as lettuce, spinach, onions, or even apples when contaminated manure is used as fertilizer (as in organic farming), or when contaminated water is used to irrigate fields. Once ingested by humans through contaminated vegetables and fruits, it can produce a powerful toxin, leading to bloody diarrhea, severe cramping, and in some cases, kidney failure.

The cause of the contamination by E. coli in this present case, remains a mystery, though theories include flooding, droppings from birds who have ingested the manure or workers with the bacteria on their hands or clothes. Although E. coli can be killed if produce is boiled, the problem is, they don’t know how much heat should be applied and for how long, to remove any danger of infection.

Although the illnesses appear to be linked to packaged fresh spinach, American health officials chose to err on the safe side by recommending avoiding all other leafy vegetables including lettuce. They are concerned that consumers might not know where the spinach or lettuce in their sandwiches and salads came from.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the number of people sickened in this nationwide E. coli outbreak pushed past 100. It has killed one person, a 77-year-old woman in Wisconsin, and has left at least 16 with a serious condition that can eventually lead to kidney failure.

Health investigators have zeroed in on Natural Selection Foods, also known as Earthbound Farm. The privately held firm, which describes itself as the largest producer of organic produce in North America, recalled all of its prepackaged fresh spinach, sold under 31 brand names including Dole Food Co., and Trader Joe’s. The company has said that its organic produce was available in nearly three-quarters of America’s supermarkets. California growers could lose $100 million. The recall is a business nightmare for California farmers.

Disease investigators suspected Natural Selection in the outbreak because many of those sickened apparently ate its packaged spinach. However, no E. coli has been found in bags of the company’s spinach, and health officials have said it is possible that other growers or processors could be implicated.

In fairness, the company, Natural Selection, is considered a pioneer in the business of organic farming, and is known to be very progressive and innovative in all aspects of their business, including food safety. Within two years of getting into the business, they became the first to successfully market pre-washed salad for retail customers.

A food safety expert says it likely came from processing the produce right in the fields, a practice that’s become common. They are said to process head lettuce by coring the lettuce in the field, remove the outside leaves, and put it in chlorinated water. The problem is, they are working out in the dirt. There are so many different ways that E. coli can get into the food this way. I am almost sure our process here in the Philippines could be even more risky.

This same food safety expert recalled that two to three years ago, he was asked to go out and view what was going on in the fields when there was an outbreak associated with a fast food restaurant chain from their cut-up lettuce. Wait a minute…. fast food chain? And here I am today, thinking I am safe when I order a salad from Jollibee, KFC or even in fancy five star hotels and restaurants.

I shouldn’t have forgotten the answer my father once made when the question was asked of him by a patient. My dad said some of his best patients are chefs in these restaurants. Now I worry if that delicious unagi salad I had last Sunday at Fish and Co was processed to eliminate any danger of contamination from those microorganisms… come to think of it, how do you clean the alfalfa sprouts that decorated the top of the salad? Well… so far so good. I guess I’ve been lucky, even if I shouldn’t have taken that risk.

For our peace of mind, restaurants must tell us how they process our salads. In fact, even those who sell bagged salads should explain and government health officials, DOH and FDA, should check and their certifications posted in restaurants and product packs. This E. coli epidemic in the US should get our health agencies working before something bad happens here too. One bad outbreak of amoebic dysentery from one of those five-star hotels or restaurants could adversely affect our tourism industry.

It is obvious that the risk of an epidemic is ever present here. Our cultivation methods of those greens as well as our processing and marketing practices, are nowhere near hygienic. If a problem happened in the States, one can only imagine the danger here. And to think… eating salads during my trips in the US was allowed, even by my father who respected the strict public health system there. Would he be disappointed with this news!

Actually, I am sure my father’s ghost must have been worried for some time now, as he watched me eating salads with gusto… and if he were only alive today, I would have gotten his stinging sermon: "I told you so. You should be listening to me."

But I will explain, "look Dad, it was a choice given to me to risk amoebic dysentery or e. coli infection or the certainty of a heart attack if I didn’t change my diet." Oh well… these are the choices we are given! And just when I was starting to enjoy eating salads and feeling less guilty about breaking my Daddy’s rule.

Getting grilled

Lal Chatlani sent this one.

A man and his wife are doing yard work. The husband says to the wife, "Your rear end is as wide as the grill."

She ignores the remark.

A little later, the husband takes his measuring tape and measures the grill, then goes over to his wife while she is bending over working in a flower bed, he measures her rear end and gasps, "Geez, it really IS as wide as the grill."

Later that night while in bed, her husband starts to feel frisky.

She calmly responds, "If you think I’m gonna fire up the grill for one little wiener, you are sadly mistaken."

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]