Your Food is Bugged

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February 26, 2004

NUTRITION NEWS FOCUS

" Nutrition news is important. We help you understand it! "

 

Today's Topic: Your Food is Bugged

 

You may not want to read this before lunch ... or dinner. Although

our food supply is the cleanest and safest in history, most people are

unaware that the majority of food is not sterile. Many packaged foods

are indeed sterilized, but fresh foods are teeming with microscopic

life. Large numbers of bacteria are on almost everything we eat.

They are on your hands and in your mouth, as well.

 

Almost invisible insect eggs can be found on fruits, vegetables, and

in grain products. Keep wheat flour around long enough in the pantry

and you will see weevils hatch. Corn flour is particularly

susceptible to growth of fungi.

 

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The usual methods of

preservation (cooking, freezing, salting, drying, etc.) reduce the

number of bugs but do not sterilize foods. Most bacteria on foods do

not cause disease, but any increase of harmless organisms could go

along with more disease-causing germs. There is little evidence that

the new germicidal soaps being advertised are any better than

conventional cleansers.

 

 

(This story originally appeared in Nutrition News Focus on

November 9, 1999.)

 

 

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