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How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US

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Re: How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US

#71

Post by gregable »

pkaye wrote: post #52
gregable wrote: post #49

Keep things in perspective though. That article mentions 3,000 people per year die from food poisoning, and leafy vegetables are the cause of 1/4 of that, or 750 deaths/year. However, heart disease alone causes 610,000 deaths per year ( https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm ). "Individuals who ate more than 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per had roughly a 20 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease" ( h…

Or just cook your leafy vegetables so both risks are reduced.

Honestly, whatever form of cooking gets you to eat them is probably the best preparation.

Some nutrients in some vegetables are diminished by cooking (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1750-3841... for example). Some are also enhanced. For example: lycopene from tomatoes. Overall, it seemed to me that cooking often harms nutrition more than it helps.

Re: How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US

#72

Post by gregable »

gregable wrote: post #49

Keep things in perspective though. That article mentions 3,000 people per year die from food poisoning, and leafy vegetables are the cause of 1/4 of that, or 750 deaths/year. However, heart disease alone causes 610,000 deaths per year ( https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm ). "Individuals who ate more than 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per had roughly a 20 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease" ( h…

This type of article also triggers confirmation bias. "I found an article that said eating salads is sometimes bad for me." + "I ignored the body of research that says that eating salads is almost always great for me.".

Re: How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US

#73

Post by rdtsc »

TheCapn wrote: post #35
rdtsc wrote: post #5

> Leafy vegetables were also the second most common cause of food poisoning-related hospitalizations. I never quite got to like lettuce. I don't know why people like it. It just doesn't have much taste, its leaves are too big, so have to shove them in awkwardly. I'd rather have a salad with chopped ripe tomatoes, onions / chives, cucumbers, cabbage, etc. Even with those, I often wonder if people don't eat more veggie…

Cabbage? But not lettuce? You can shred the lettuce all the same.

Yeah I find cabbage has a stronger flavor than romaine lettuce.

Re: How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US

#74

Post by logfromblammo »

makr17 wrote: post #27
gowld wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USDA rules aside, how would you define "organic". It's a rather ... synthetic concept to begin with.

Contains carbon?

If it's good enough for my chemistry professors, it's good enough for me.

Is there any way to regulate marketing terms so that hippy-dippy ad-men don't seize upon words that have meaning and then proceed to dilute that meaning with steaming loads of nonsense?

I'd be happy enough if a label said "this has never touched poop".

Re: How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US

#75

Post by rdtsc »

petre wrote: post #20
rdtsc wrote: post #5

> Leafy vegetables were also the second most common cause of food poisoning-related hospitalizations. I never quite got to like lettuce. I don't know why people like it. It just doesn't have much taste, its leaves are too big, so have to shove them in awkwardly. I'd rather have a salad with chopped ripe tomatoes, onions / chives, cucumbers, cabbage, etc. Even with those, I often wonder if people don't eat more veggie…

Have you tried fresh spinach instead of lettuce in your salad? I like it a lot, it tastes better. There are also other greens, rocket is quite popular in Europe. We also eat ramsoms in the spring - it tastes like garlic but has a fainter taste without the garlic stink.

I do like spinach more. I was thinking mostly of romaine lettuce.

Re: How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US

#76

Post by verbify »

gregable wrote: post #71
pkaye wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just cook your leafy vegetables so both risks are reduced.

Honestly, whatever form of cooking gets you to eat them is probably the best preparation. Some nutrients in some vegetables are diminished by cooking ( https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1750-3841... for example). Some are also enhanced. For example: lycopene from tomatoes. Overall, it seemed to me that cooking often harms nutrition more than it helps.

This isn't my area, but I've heard that cooking is part of digestion.

I know evolutionary biology isn't as intuitive as people always assume, but theoretically this fits within my model - digestion burns precious calories (at least in a world with too many calories), breaking down the food using fire somewhat allows for the body to spend less calories on breaking it down itself. So our ancestors who used fire to cook had an advantage because they could spend less calories on digestion.

Archaeological evidence suggests that humans can control fire between 700,000 years ago and 120,000 years ago.

There's also a hypothesis that the nutritional changes allowed through cooking increased our brain size - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_fire_by_early_human....

But fundamentally, I wonder if we cook too much. Some compounds are very fragile, and cooking would harm nutrition (as you said). As I said, not my field, but I try to stick to a lot of leafy greens as is recommended by health services, and the occasional cooked proteins.

Re: How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US

#78

Post by goldenkey »

verbify wrote: post #76
gregable wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, whatever form of cooking gets you to eat them is probably the best preparation. Some nutrients in some vegetables are diminished by cooking ( https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1750-3841... for example). Some are also enhanced. For example: lycopene from tomatoes. Overall, it seemed to me that cooking often harms nutrition more than it helps.

This isn't my area, but I've heard that cooking is part of digestion. I know evolutionary biology isn't as intuitive as people always assume, but theoretically this fits within my model - digestion burns precious calories (at least in a world with too many calories), breaking down the food using fire somewhat allows for the body to spend less calories on breaking it down itself. So our ancestors who used fire to cook…

The hydrochloric acid in the stomach is pretty strong, about 1.5 ph. Cooking is mild for most compounds compared to dissolution in strong acid. I don't think we cook too much. Like you said, it is mostly just predigestion.

Re: How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US

#79

Post by kaikai »

bluGill wrote: post #60
brians wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Produced using processes that we've tested for centuries. We're not sure they work, but we're sure they're not ridiculously dangerous. Contrast glyphosate.

glyphosate has been scientifically tested and found harmless. There are a number of organic chemicals that have been tested to equal (or lesser) standards and found harmful.

The WHO says glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic," which is not harmless at all.

http://www.who.int/foodsafety/faq/en/

Re: How salad became a major source of food poisoning in the US

#80

Post by op00to »

tzakrajs wrote: post #77

The reason vegetables are poisonous is because of the animal waste that is being used to grow plants. If there wasn't such a huge livestock industry, people wouldn't be using their excrement for fertilizer and our plants would be safer.

It’s not animal waste. It’s human waste.
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