Pathogens and You

 What do these all have in common?

 

They all are connected in different ways.

Each year, I hear of food recalls due to contamination of Salmonella bacteria or some other bacteria.

I'm not surprised about the bacteria on our foods! Why?

To me, it is common sense to thouroughly wash your fruits and vegetables.

Why???

Most our foods are grown outside. Dirt is made up of feces, bacteria, fungi, decomposed physical bodies (human, animal, bird, etc.) and vegetation, garbage, and sewage run-off.

Birds live outside, looking for food to live. Foods such as berries, nuts, and seeds. 

Animals live outside, looking for food, housing, etc. Reptiles also live outside in the wild, looking for food. Insects are outside using plants for food, housing, and their toilets.

People work outside in croplands, working very hard on hundreds if not thousands of acres picking by hand the crop.

 

Now with all these critters living outside, where do they find food? Where do they poop or urinate?

Do these critters look for a toilet? No. But a human will look for a toilet.

Are there any toilets out in the hundreds-thousands of acres? Yes, but they are spread out about every 1/4 mile.  Are there any handwashing facilities? There are supposed to be, probably alongside of the portable toilet. 

If a human happens to get a irritable bowel, and if he/she is 1/4 mile away from the nearest toilet, that human does not have time or the energy to try to quickly get to that toilet. And so, the human will use what is right next to them due to urgency-the cropland.

Critters/ animals, birds, reptiles will use whatever land they stand or fly over to urinate or defecate.

They will defecate or urinate on whatever land or leaf is nearby. Thus, crops are automatically contaminated with feces and urine. 

Animal/critter feces may contain: E. coli bacteria, Campylobacter spp., Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., and many others.  Feces may also contain virus, protozoa, intestinal parasites. Hookworm, Toxocara spp., Trichuris spp., Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia spp., Entamoeba spp., Rotavirus, Hepatitis E virus just to name a few. Many more bacteria, virus, intestinal worms, and protozoa.

Human feces and urine may contain many pathogens such as: E. coli, Bacteroides spp., Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, Campylobacter, Aeromonas, Candida, Klebsiella, Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba histolytica, viruses including Norovirus and Hepatitis A, and intestinal parasites.  

Ahhhhh! you think in fear.   

 

Eggs. Where are eggs from? The store? The local farmer? Yes, but where are eggs actually from?

A laying hen sits on a nest and basically poops out the egg. Their reproductive area meets up with the anus, thus when she lays eggs, the eggs come out through the same area as when she poops.

Eggs will automatically have feces on them.

But you say, they eggs are clean due to being washed at the factory! Yes, they are pretty clean. But if we took samples of the outer egg, we'd still see some Salmonella bacteria, E. coli bacteria, Cryptosporidium, and other pathogens.

 I feel the factories are basically cleaning the poop off the egg to make the egg look appetizing. This does not mean the egg is sterile on the outside of it. If the egg is cracked, bacteria, virus, or other stuff that was on the outside of the egg is now most likely in the inside of the egg. Thus, if you use the egg, you will be eating bacteria/pathogens. 

If the pathogens have been in the egg growing, there is a chance of you becoming very, very ill from the toxins the bacteria produce while growing and multiplying inside the egg. The bacteria have toxins inside of them called endotoxins. And the bacteria create toxins while growing in food called exotoxins.

Both will cause you to be violently ill. 

What can we do to protect ourselves from pathogens on our food?

• Wash (rub a bit and soak) your veggies and fruits in a vinegar wash for 10 minutes. Rinse, rubbing the food item.
• I will use diluted dish soap to wash items that I cannot soak in vinegar. Such as potatoes. I will scrub the potato with some diluted dish soap and rinse off well. (Dish soap is made to be edible. Thus, this is a good soap to use in this case.)
• Other people talk of using baking soda and vinegar together. I do not understand why some think this works. I can see the baking soda (basic in pH) neutralizing the vinegar (acidic pH). Thus, you are washing your food in a neutral pH, like water.

1. Plain water washing is not recommended. It will not remove most of the pathogens. It will not remove any pesticides. 

• Many people and restaurants buy factory washed lettuce and spinach. And because the package says it is washed already, they do not wash it. Error!!! Again, I feel the washing in the factories are more for looks. Lettuce and Spinach are hard to clean veggies. They are great for spreading contaminations to the person. Food poisoning is seen a lot from these veggies. Always rewash your produce, in this case, lettuce or spinach before eating. Do NOT replace your veggies or fruit back into the store packaging!!! I can't say that enough. If you wash your produce, and place it back into the store packaging, you just have re-contaminated your food! Throw the store packaging away and place clean produce in one of your own clean containers.
• Try not to allow the inside of the egg to touch the outside of the egg. This will contaminate the egg part you eat with pathogens.
•  Do not use cracked eggs, even if you thouroughly bake them in other foods. Bacteria that were on the outside of the egg have made their way into the egg. Here many great nutrients for the bacteria to grow and multiply. Thus, you have a highly contaminated egg with toxins. The bacteria can be killed off when you bake or fry the egg, but the toxins will not be removed. Eating an egg like this will cause some aggressive food poisoning in you.
•  Always wash your hands, thouroughly after handling eggs. If you touch the egg carton, wash your hands with good soap and water, rubbing a lot. If you touch an egg, crack it open, throw away the egg shell in the garbage and before anything else, wash your hands thouroughly!!! If you do not, you will cross contaminate into your other foods. How? Let see how. Making breakfast.

1. You touch an egg shell and you do not wash your hands right away. The egg shell goes into the garbage can.
2. Next, you grab a spatula or another utensil from your drawer. 
3. Next, you go to grab some fresh fruit from the refrigerator. You might be one who does not wash their fruit or you do a little bit under water. You place your fruit down. 
4. Oops, time to flip the egg. You grab the spatula and flip the egg. Breakfast is looking good!
5. You go to the bread bag and grab a slice of bread out.
6. Now you take the toaster out and place your bread slice in it. You pull down the lever so it browns.
7. Oops, that's right, I better wash my hands good due to touching an egg.
8. Now you grab a plate and place your egg on it. The toast is done, so you place the toast on the plate. You also grab that piece of fresh fruit you washed earlier.
9. Time to eat.

Let's look back at everything you touched before washing your hands after handling an egg.

                       

The red asterisk marks areas you touched with contaminated hands. Hands that may have had Salmonella, E coli, etc. on them. Each asterisk can be hundreds to billions of bacteria.

With contaminated hands, if you had touched for example a creamed soup, you will have contaminated the cream soup with bacteria. The bacteria find this cream soup very nourishing and so they grow, multiply and flourish in it. In a several days, you may want to eat some of this soup. And so you ladle some up for yourself. You heat it and eat it. Within an hour, you start getting sharp cramps in your abdomen. You need to use the toilet quickly. But now as you sit there, you feel the need to jump off the toilet due to feeling nausea. You "bow to the porcelain throne" for a while, heaving and vomiting.

What happened? You ate toxins, endotoxins that form inside of the bacteria and maybe even exotoxins which are toxins the bacteria create in the food while growing.

The contaminated areas in your kitchen, may create within hours, days, or even months more food poisoning problems for you and family and friends. The bacteria (depending on the species) can survive on a hard surface for up to five months!

So, what is the lesson here?

Be clean in the kitchen.

Always wash your hands thouroughly, with soap rubbing and washing for around 20 seconds, immediately after handling raw eggs, raw meat, and raw fish.

Wash your hands immediately after handling produce as well. (Due to pathogens and pesticides.)

Be mindful of what you do while cooking/baking. 

Be mindful of what you touch while preparing foods.

Petting pets while cooking/baking is a "NO, NO." 

     -Any animal will have pathogens on their coats. (They lick themselves-fur, feet, butts, crotches.) (They roll in rotten stuff outside, including other animal feces.)

Allowing pets on top of countertops is also a big "NO, NO." 

     -Cats use litter boxes, stepping on top of urine and feces. Cats, like any animal can carry pathogens that would be left on your counters.

 

I hope this can help you stay healthier while cooking/baking in your kitchen. As far as eating out in restaurants, stores, and other peoples' houses, that is for another article, maybe.

Writing from my own education, experiences, and references.

 

By Cynthia Bergsbaken, Reiki Master of Reiki in the Prairie LLC

Written October 9, 2024.

 

References:

Feces and Urine-Human Biological Agent Reference Sheets (BARS)

https://ehs.cornell.edu/research-safety/biosafety-biosecurity/biological-safety-manuals-and-other-documents/bars-other/feces-and-urine-human#:~:text=Pathogens%20potentially%20present%20in%20human,Hepatitis%20A%2C%20and%20intestinal%20parasites.

OSHA Field Sanitation for Agricultural Employers

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/agriculture/field-sanitation/osha-field-sanitation-for-ag-workers

 

 

Exposure to Animal Feces and Human Health: A Systematic Review and Proposed Research Priorities

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b02811

 

Egg Production: How Do Chickens Lay Eggs

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/cms/life-out-here/the-coop/chick-care/how-a-chicken-lays-eggs#:~:text=The%20cloaca%20is%20where%20the,out%20through%20the%20hen's%20vent.

 

Using Chicken Manure Safely in Home Gardens and Landscapes

https://extension.unr.edu/publication.aspx?PubID=3028#:~:text=Like%20other%20animal%20wastes%2C%20chicken,livestock%20do%20not%20have%20access.

 

Food Poisoning: What are Bacterial Toxins

https://blog.foodsafety.ca/what-are-bacterial-toxins

 

Germs

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24495-germs

 

Human Diseases Transmitted by Dog Poop

https://www.cpha.ca/human-diseases-transmitted-dog-poop#:~:text=From%20bacteria&text=E.,vomiting%2C%20diarrhea%2C%20and%20fever.

 

 

Disclaimer by Reiki in the Prairie LLC and Cynthia Bergsbaken copyright 2015

I am not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or medical doctor.  These articles I have written, are from reading and experiencing them.  Many of these articles are my own experiences with my own inventions to heal as well.

If you have a medical condition-physically/mentally/emotionally, please see a qualified medical doctor.  Do not substitute my articles for proper medical care.  You are too important to the world.

I have used all procedures I have written about and have found them to be helpful as tools to help myself become a better person.   I am sharing them with you because used as a tool, they are helpful in Shadow working on ourselves.  (Shadow working is healing our inner shadows that are unconscious or subconscious.  Inner shadows are our belief systems, our thoughts, our behaviors, our life experiences.)

I created this blog for my Reiki clients originally.  Combining these tools with Reiki creates a happy, healthy person.  These tools, when used alone are also beneficial!

 

 

***All original content is copyrighted by Cynthia Bergsbaken, Perceptive Blogger & Reiki in the Prairie LLC.

Reiki in the Prairie LLC is a legal Entity under law, 2015.

April 11, 2020

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