so what CAN we eat?

Today on the way to work I was listening to Ryan Seacrest (who's show really sucks, but I took all my CDs out of the car last weekend). On the news portion they mentioned water bottles being contaminated with a bleach like substance at a school in California. Of course I googled and here is the only thing I found:


Source: http://www.kmph.com/Global/story.asp?S=10241714
Article reads:
FBI probing contaminated water bottles at school if (document.layers) {document.write(''); document.close();} coreAdsCreate('wnsz_20', 'loc', '100', 'wnsz_20', 'News'); Associated Press - April 24, 2009 7:33 AM ET SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) - The FBI is investigating the contamination of bottled water at a school in Southern California. Twelve students at Mesa Junior High School in Santa Clarita complained of headaches, nausea and dizziness after drinking water from a vending machine. It appeared to contain a "bleach-like substance." The students were taken to a hospital and released. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller says a hazardous materials team was sent to the school. A spokesman for The Pepsi Bottling Group says there is no evidence that the contamination was caused by the company. Pepsi is conducting its own tests. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

I am quite disturbed by this news. Do I need to filter my own water? Grow my own garden? Raise my own livestock? I am an avid water bottle drinker. I am a water snob. I don't even drink Brita water. It tastes funny. They did not mention which brand of water it is, but they said it was PEPSI. I am guessing this is Aquafina. FYI: Aquafina is tap water. Does it seem like a new food epidemic arises every other month these days? Let's review some big epidemics.


1. The first epidemic I remember was halloween candy. I wasn't allowed to eat my halloween candy anymore because bad neighbors were poisoning little children and also putting razor blades in chocolate. Was this even true? It may have been a gimmik to get parents to buy separate candy for their kids as well as buy candy to give out for trick o treaters. Even if it were not true, I sure would not let my own children eat candy from strangers.




2. Then I wasn't allowed to eat 'gehlan bap' (egg rice) with raw egg because of Salmonella. If you are korean, your mom surely would have made you rice with raw egg and soy sauce. Sometimes I got to enjoy this with kraft singles on top. This was my favorite meal. I was saddened the first time, when my mom proceeded to fully fry the egg before putting it in my rice.




3. Then the awful Mad Cow disease. I don't have much to say about this, but I did not eat steak for a while.



4. And who can forget the Tylenol Killer? How awful! I am allergic to ibuprofin. So that means I can barely take any over the counter pain meds like advil, asprin, etc. I am not highly allergic, but I get a few hives on the face for an hour or two. But I stay away because who knows to what extreme my body will react. So I take only Tylenol. Makes me anxious.


5. Then there were those nasty green onions that caused Hepatitis A. I love green onions. How would you make a great pot of 'yookehjang' (spicy korean soup with a lot of green onions) without green onions? And what would you sprinkle on top of 'sullungtang' or 'gom tang' or any other murky korean soup? What a shame.


6. AND THE BIRD FLU! Ah the bird flu. This was huge in 2006. I remember this because the girls and I went backpacking around Europe the summer of '06. I wouldn't let anyone eat any chicken or touch the pigeons. They still did. But I definitely did not.


7. And the awesome spinach I eat in my scrambled egg whites. How can spinach cause E-coli?


8. and the one epidemic that DID get me sick - PCA's peanut butter recall. I had a peanut butter cupcake from gtown cupcakes and I immediately threw up. This was not just a one time vomit and sleep kind of thing. It was a sleep using the toilet as your pillow kind of thing. It was a horrible experience. This caused me to miss out on a snowboarding trip the next day. Peanut butter used to be one of my favorite jars. I used to eat spoonfuls on its own when I was little. Creamy Jiff. But now, I have given up peanutbutter. Even planters peanuts have been recalled. If you walk into CVS, there are signs everywhere saying to return planters peanuts.


This is not at all an exhaustive list. There was also that huge pet food recall from Canada and tons more. It would take me too long to think of all the ones I remember in my life. I think we should go back to farming and bartering. No more mass production.

I wish I was one of those people that didn't freak out from this kind of news. But I do. I have a rule not to microwave food twice. I only keep leftovers for 2 days at the max. When I lived with Rebecca she ate ALL my leftovers. When I would head for the trash, she would scream at me and eat the food. She definitely has a strong stomach.

I on the other hand, I have a weak stomach. I believe that my mother has given me a weak stomach. She has shielded me since a young age from all these crazy food epidemics. That is where I get my food fear from. This is why my stomach has not had a chance to build up it's fight against bacteria.

I have tried and tried throughout the years to stay away from the 'scary foods'. Then I stepped foot on Italian soil and 2 weeks later what happens? I get Salmonella poisoning. GREATTT. I ended up in the hospital for a week and then stayed in the house for a week. It was a very horrible experience. Not the Salmonella, but the hospital! I was in a foreign country where the nurses and maybe 90% of the doctors do not speak English. I thought doctors had to speak English. There are no phones in the room. My mom had no idea where I was. I didn't even know where I was! I cried every night. I had 2 weird Italian grammies next to me in the room that kept trying speaking to me in weird Italian dialect. The TV was in Italian. People smoked inside the hospital. The toilets were not normal. All I could do was sleep or stare out the window. Everything was just bad. Finally the horrible corporate people (another story I may explain at a later time) let my classmates visit me 2 days later. Thank GOODNESS! My roommate brought me my PHONE, LAPTOP, and the THIRD SEASON OF LOST! Then I had visitors every night. They all took turns coming to visit me. The highlights of my day.

The day I got to leave, a few classmates came to get me. I know I STUNK. But they were so kind and said I didn't smell and squeezed into the cab with me. But I knew I smelled really bad because I could smell myself. One of my friends had to translate what the doctor said when I left. All the doctor said was..and I quote..."don't eat your shit." Do I need to comment further?

After I returned to the horrible corporate people, I received my own bathroom in the building. It had a sign on it that it was mine and I had a key. I could not share a bathroom for a few weeks. I was thouroughly embarrassed.

Conclusion: Guess it doesn't matter what we do to keep ourselves safe from these horrible deathly food epidemics. You just gotta be darn lucky.