patrick.net

Another good reason to cook meat to "well done".

If you're relying on cooking to save you, consider wearing a hazmat suit in the kitchen because bacteria can transfer easily and many kitchen surfaces can harbor them, especially wooden cutting boards. Also no amount of cooking can save you from BSE prions, or some of the chemicals injected into agribusiness meat. Better to keep that stuff out of your kitchen entirely unless you know exactly where it came from, as in you went personally to the organic farm where it was raised, like the example in Food Inc. Otherwise read Molly Ivins on the subject of the meat industry, especially when their preferred party is in power and allows them to sell meat smeared in its own crap (literally). “The Republicans win elections in the ‘red states’ in the center of the country, where cattle and chickens are produced and slaughtered. Democrats win their elections in the ‘blue states’ on the coasts. Republicans use the USDA to pay off their contributors in the red states. The result of that crude electoral calculus is laissez-faire food-safety policy whenever a Republican is in the White House. (If you must eat while the Republicans control the White House, both houses of Congress, and the judiciary, you might want to consider becoming a vegetarian....)” Agribusiness and Obamacare are a one-two punch: first they fatten you up like CAFO cattle in the agribusiness feedlot, pumped full of as many pills as possible, then slaughter you as profitably as possible (see also the funeral industry, which has consolidated and increased its profits dramatically in recent decades).

Cooking's worked great so far. So has soft scrub on the countertops. Dishwash your plastic cutting boards, sterilize the wood cutting boards with dilute bleach, etc.

Organic is overrated and overpriced.

New Renter says

Cooking's worked great so far. So has soft scrub on the countertops. Dishwash your plastic cutting boards....

The symptoms of BSE can take years to manifest, and the consequences of bacterial food poisoning hit hardest the elderly and children, so your personal experience so far doesn't mean it's "worked great." Soft Scrub works because it contains chlorine bleach, cheaper generics would probably work as well, but beware of cleaning products that contain antibiotics. (Most doctors opposed those, but the AMA cut a deal with manufacturers in exchange for I forget what now, $ one way or another.) I also agree about plastic cutting boards and the dishwasher, which are indeed much better than washing wood by hand.

curious2 says

The symptoms of BSE can take years to manifest, and the consequences of bacterial food poisoning hit hardest the elderly and children, so your personal experience so far doesn't mean it's "worked great."

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/cjd/index.htm

The risk of CJD increases with age, and in persons aged over 50 years of age, the annual rate is approximately 3.4 cases per million.

With he odds at nearly one in 300k-300M I am less worried about illness from prions than I am about "The Big One" here in the SFBA.

New Renter says

With he odds at nearly one in 300k-300M I am less worried about illness from prions than I am about "The Big One" here in the SFBA

Please don't confuse poor curious george with things like that. He lives for giant conspiracies even if the relevance is close to zero. He managed to get Obamacare, agriculture, and the funeral business conspiracy all into one sentence. That's talent.

Notice when you pointed out that cooking and hygiene makes his original point moot he switched to the almost non existent threat of getting BSE from beef to salvage his argument. Nice head fake.

donjumpsuit says

What's your point?

So does a handshake, a doorknob, and tap water.

The point is best summed up in the article, and it doesn't belong exclusively to me:

"Public health officials in the United States and in Europe, however, are warning that the consumption of meat containing antibiotics contributes to resistance in humans. A growing public awareness of the problem has led to increased sales of antibiotic-free meat.

The Agriculture Department has confirmed that almost 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the United States are used in animal agriculture, and public health authorities around the world increasingly are warning that antibiotic resistance is reaching alarming levels."

You are correct that a handshake etc. can also spread bacteria, which is why Donald Trump and others try to avoid shaking hands (The Donald calls it barbaric and unsanitary), but those bacteria aren't usually harmful or drug resistant. The bacteria that European and American public health authorities are trying to warn you about have effectively been selected for drug resistance, and they might harm you in a variety of ways including making antibiotics ineffective or less effective in you.

bob2356 says

curious george...lives for giant conspiracies....

Oh Bob, you are the one with paranoia and delusions of grandeur, possibly induced by your history of Rx narcotics which you can only partially remember. I hadn't even mentioned you, but here you are with your habitual personal attacks and nonsense. I guess you really miss that Mustang, where you could drive recklessly and blame the tire companies and other drivers for conspiring to endanger you and everyone around you by somehow forcing you to drive 1.5x the legal limit while failing to anticipate what would happen. BTW, how did you shatter that hand? Did you get tested yet for T. Gondii/Toxoplasmosis, which was actually a serious suggestion that might someday save your life and the lives of others who have to share the road with you (e.g. your 9yo)?

donjumpsuit says

So does a handshake, a doorknob, and tap water.

unsafe sex, hotel hot tubs, cat shit, hospital stays, etc.

JodyChunder says

unsafe sex, hotel hot tubs, hospital stays, etc.

Indeed, those are known risks, of which the most lethal by far is hospital stays. As George Burns joked, hospitals are the most dangerous places: more people die there than anywhere else. The joke points to a disturbing fact though: nosocomial infections kill more Americans than all STDs and hot tubs combined.

P.S. re your edit to add cats, I have been trying honestly to encourage Toxo Bob to get tested for T. Gondii, but in his mind he's perfect so he responds only with hostility. T. Gondii is also a risk factor for schizophrenia, which might explain the paranoia and delusions of grandeur. Half of all car accidents may result from Toxoplasmosis, and half of all traffic fatalities is a very large number, though still less than 20% of nosocomial fatalities.

Update: "The Unhealthy Meat Market"

Thanks to Big Ag and the anti-vaxxers, you may face death from what should be curable infections, a decade or two before your time.

BTW, all restaurants should have a multi-camera video feed of all kitchen surfaces playing on 60-inch flatscreens throughout the serving area.

Being covered in open, draining boils for half your life was good enough for the Middle Ages and the Old West, so it's good enough for us. Builds character.

If you want a bacteria and virus free existence, they are selling vacation lots on the sunny side of Mercury.

New Renter says

Another good reason to cook meat to "well done".

Another good reason to switch to tofu.

Dan8267 says

New Renter says

Another good reason to cook meat to "well done".

Another good reason to switch to tofu.

Not so fast:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20904270/ns/health-infectious_diseases/t/tainted-tofu-recall-expanded/

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/tag/tofu/

"Slaughterhouse owners indicted on charges of selling tainted beef
***
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service suspended operations at Rancho Feeding in January, sparking a recall that would include nearly 10 million pounds of beef sold to thousands of stores, including Kroger, Food 4 Less and Wal-Mart. Nestle also issued a voluntary recall for its Philly Steak and Cheese Hot Pockets.

The indictment said the slaughterhouse knowingly purchased cheaper cattle that exhibited signs of eye cancer. Those cows would be decapitated and moved up the inspection line next to cattle heads without eye cancer to deceive regulators, the indictment said."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch so to speak, "red and processed meat intake [appears] associated with risk of cancer of the colon and rectum, esophagus, liver, lung, and pancreas."

Cow heads with cancer: it's what's for dinner.

New Renter says

Dan8267 says

New Renter says

Another good reason to cook meat to "well done".

Another good reason to switch to tofu.

Not so fast:

Damn it, I can't eat anything but yams. What's next? Is oxygen going to kill you?

Damn it, Google. Can Too Much O2 Kill?

That's it. I've had enough of this universe. I'm going to one that makes more sense. Maybe one where everybody is like Apocalypsefuck.

curious2 says

P.S. re your edit to add cats, I have been trying honestly to encourage Toxo Bob to get tested for T. Gondii, but in his mind he's perfect so he responds only with hostility. T. Gondii is also a risk factor for schizophrenia, which might explain the paranoia and delusions of grandeur

Why don't you encourage yourself to get a life.

PBS Frontline: The Trouble With Chicken

Should just drop meat entirely. The meat industry is unapologetically inhumane.

"Antibiotics in animal feed can harm children
***
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) technical report says the practice of adding antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs to the feed of healthy livestock, commonly done to promote growth and prevent disease among animals in crowded conditions, often leaves the drugs ineffective when they're needed to treat infections in people, especially the youngest among us."

Who said you can't have too much of a good thing? Once again CA lead the way: California enacts strictest law limiting antibiotics in livestock. Better living through regulation.

I wonder if animal husbandry should be part of the curriculum in schools or some form of extracurricular activity. I think most CAFO operations go out of their way to hide how disgusting and inhumane their practices are.

If students actually had to do this, I think it would turn a lot of people off to eating meat or at least force large scale reforms in they way livestock is raised and treated.