What Are Frightening Facts About Food Poisoning?

What Are the Symptoms?

Most of us have experienced at least a mild case of food poisoning at some point in our lives. Here are some of the telltale signs that let you know you ate something that was contaminated:

• Abdominal pain
• Fever
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting

Even more severe symptoms can develop depending on what bug you were infected with. Click through to learn more frightening facts about food poisoning.

When to Go to the Doctor

Most of the time, food poisoning will improve on it’s own, but if you have any of these symptoms, you should see a doctor as soon as possible:

• Severe abdominal pain
• No improvement after 2 days
• Fever of 101 or greater in addition to other symptoms
• Diarrhea or vomiting more than 5 times a day

Who is in Danger

You should also see the doctor even if you don’t have accelerated symptoms if you fall into one of the following categories:

• Young children and babies
• Elderly
• HIV Positive or otherwise compromised immune system
• Undergoing cancer treatment
• Pregnant
• Diabetic
• Recently had surgery

Home Treatment

The best thing you can do to treat food poisoning is to stay hydrated. Try to avoid sodas or anything else that contains a lot of sugar because that can only make diarrhea worse. The best thing is plain old water or something likePedialyte. Eat small meals that are low in fat so that you don’t irritate your stomach further. You can take anti-diarrheal medications but beware that they may prolong your illness if you are suffering from salmonella poisoning.

Incubation Period

When you suddenly get food poisoning, it is easy to blame the last thing you ate, but that is rarely the case. Except when the culprit is shellfish or another marine toxin poisoning, which can set in as quickly as 15 minutes after ingesting the tainted food, most cases of food poisoning surprisingly take about 12 to 48 hours and sometimes longer between when you are infected and when you show symptoms. This is why it is often so hard to pinpoint the source of infection in widespread cases.

How Long it Lasts

Most cases of food poisoning will only last about 2 or 3 days, but it really depends on what you were infected with. If you are lucky you could recover in as little as a day, but if you are unlucky and get infected with something like the parasite Giardia, you could be sick for a couple of months!

Food Poisoning is Contagious

You might be surprised to know that many cases of food poisoning are actually contagious, meaning you can infect those around you if you aren’t careful. Often you won’t know exactly what you are infected with, so always behave as if you are contagious. It isn’t airborne, but can be spread by contaminated contact, so be sure to stay home from work or school and wash your hands frequently and clean up after yourself thoroughly if you are vomiting or have diarrhea.

Clean Isn’t Always Clean

Just because a kitchen looks clean doesn’t mean that it is free of the microbes that can cause food poisoning. Your favorite restaurant may look pristine but if they aren’t using proper sanitation methods on their dishes, counter tops, hands and other surfaces, you can still get infected! This goes for your own home as well!

Shelled isn’t Safe

Just because a food comes in a shell or peel doesn’t mean that it is safe from the microbes that cause food poisoning. Eggs are often contaminated with salmonella so be sure you always cook them thoroughly until the yolk is firm and never eat uncooked batter that contains raw eggs, no matter how fun it is! As for bananas and similar fruit, always wash them before peeling so the inside doesn’t become contaminated with anything that could be on the outside.

Smell Isn’t Everything

If you think you have a foolproof system for figuring out what is safe to eat by judging if it smells bad or not, think again. While that may work to weed out the worst offenders, not all contaminated food will necessarily smell bad. Sometimes food can look and smell perfectly okay and still make you sick!

Number of Cases

Food poisoning affects an alarming amount of people each year. Here are the terrifying statistics concerning how many cases of this disease occur just in the US each year:

• 1 in 6 people get food poisoning each year
• About 48 million Americans get sick with food poisoning
• 128,000 people are hospitalized
• 3,000 people die from food poisoning yearly

Not Just Meat

Though they seem to be the most popular offenders, meats aren’t the only foods that can infect you with food poisoning. Many cases of food poisoning come from eggs, fruits, vegetables and even processed foods. Bacteria can be in the fertilizers that are used to grow our fruits or vegetables or they can get contaminated by any workers who handled them before they got to you. So being a vegetarian doesn’t protect you from food poisoning!

Number of Bugs

There are 31 known infectious bugs that cause food poisoning and there are a lot more that are as yet unknown, too! Here are some of the most common culprits that cause food poisoning:

• Norovirus
• Salmonella
• E. Coli
• Campylobacter
• Clostridium
• Cyclospora cayetanensis

Tips to Avoid Food Poisoning

By now you are probably wondering how you can possibly avoid being just another scary food poisoning statistic. Well, here are some tips to minimize your risk:

• Always wash raw fruits and veggies before eating
• Use perishable foods before their expiration dates
• Keep your fridge at 40 or below and your freezer at 0 or below.
• Use separate cutting boards and knives for raw meat and other food like veggies
• Always sanitize surfaces, utensils and hands after handling raw meat
• Use a meat thermometer and cook meat to recommended temperatures
• Don’t leave cooked foods out for more than 2 hours
  
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