[veggienurse]

I am the only vegetarian here in the Emergency Room where I work as a RN. Has anyone gotten slack over the spinach issues that are going on. All I hear is about how they (my coworkers) are glad that they are not going to die from E.boli. Any advice?

Veggienurse

 

[IamJen]

Um, because veg*ns are the only ones who eat spinach? It would hardly be a major, nation-wide news story were that true.

 

[veggienurse]

my coworkers act like they are happy that there is a problem with the spinach. I am like......duh.......mad cow!!!

 

[IamJen]

No kidding, lol. What about Salmonella or Campylobacter? You'd think medical staff would know this stuff!

Not to mention heart disease...etc.

 

[veggienurse]

Regardless, (I tell them).....eat your veggies!! So maybe this is a rare moment when someone died from eating spinach. But......how many die from obesity related illnesses? Heart disease and diabetes.....and all of the toxins in food has got to be the reason for so much cancer. I am sure the government doesn't want to release that information.

 

[Tesseract]

Wow, that's really moronic. It's fully as stupid as the woman I once knew who said she was a vegetarian for health reasons-- she believed that eating only vegetables would protect her from foodborne pathogens. I'm sure if she explains politely to those E.coli that she's a veggie and doesn't deserve to be infected, they'll be more than happy to leave!

 

[dopedanny]

don't you get e.coli in meat anyway? i'm sure i've heard of outbreaks of it from fast food restaurants

 

[catswym]

yes, improperly cooked meat can contain the same dangerous strains of e. coli.

and i'll just echo what jen said: do they not eat any vegetables?

 

[MRSSHF]

E. Coli ends up in vegetables due to contamination from human or animal waste. E. Coli doesn't just magically appear on vegetables in a vacuum.

What pisses me off is that the media makes so much about e.coli outbreaks in spinach and green onions like it some huge health risk (and they rarely talk about where the contamination came from), but meat is routinely infected with pathogens, and people are merely instructed to cook it more.

Also, overall, there are only around 70,000 cases of e. coli a year (most of which are associated with meat consumption, BTW). Why isn't the media freaking out about the 1.4 MILLION cases of Salmonella reported every year? How about the 2 MILLION cases of foodborne Campylobacter reported every year? The number one source by far for both those infections is eating poultry and eggs or by drinking water that has been infected with poultry waste.

So everyone is freaking out because of 131 cases of people getting sick from eating commercially grown spinach that was contaminated by animal waste, but no one wants to talk about how the poultry industry is directly responsible for millions of people getting sick every year.

Don't get me wrong, I sympathize with people who were injured or who lost loved ones in the outbreak. But the outbreak was caused by contamination by animal waste, and e. coli has become such a serious health threat because of modern animal farming methods.

 

[Faerie Green]

Thank you for all of these valuable statistics, MRSSHF, I have already been arguing this case in my head against some ignorant people I know. Hopefully they won't, but I can just hear them already using this as an excuse not to eat spinach for ten years, and me being "the vegan who eats wierd" will somehow be approached and "warned."

We are the keepers of all vegetables, apparently.

Veggienurse, maybe you could print some of these statistics and hand it to your co-workers. People believe what they read. 70,000 compared to 131... on paper we're better off with our greens.

 

[bstutzma]

Yes, I've gotten this too. And also, that organic vegetables are bad because they are more likely to have bacteria like this.

 

[Applescruff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bstutzma

Yes, I've gotten this too. And also, that organic vegetables are bad because they are more likely to have bacteria like this.

How do they figure that?

 

[Tesseract]

Some people are convinced organic vegetables are fertilized with raw sewage. This latest outbreak doesn't do a lot to dispel that idea, though I'm guessing it more likely came from contaminated irrigation water.

 

[Ravenfire]

My husband and I were just discussing last night why a handful of people get sick from spinach and suddenly it's all pulled from the shelves, restaurants have pulled all of their spinach dishes, etc. Why don't they pull all of the meat like that when the same thing happens?

 

[Music Girl]

I've never seen a meat recall get this kind of press, even when several people died from e-coli contamination. What is it about the meat industry that allows everything to be so covered up? Politics, I guess. And money.

The media won't do a meat industry expose' to save their soul.....but they'll vilify spinach so badly that people I know are suddenly swearing off spinach for-ev-er. It's foolish. E-coli happens. And the biggest risk is meat, although produce can carry it, too.

I feel sorry for the family of the person who died.

And the others with kidney damage and such.

I eat bagged spinach all the time - how awful for something like this to happen to anyone.

 

[GhostUser]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ravenfire

My husband and I were just discussing last night why a handful of people get sick from spinach and suddenly it's all pulled from the shelves, restaurants have pulled all of their spinach dishes, etc. Why don't they pull all of the meat like that when the same thing happens?

thats a really good point.

 

[Brandon]

I'm afraid I have another tale of stupidity to add to this tale. So, at the restaurant I work at, people (all predominantly omnis) have taken to ordering every single sandwich on the menu either "no vegetables, and NO spinach" or "Don't put none'a them salad things on there, I don't wanna die."

I was afaid that the Atkins worshippers were going to latch onto this as their moment of glory, and it appears that it's true. Nevermind that lettuce and greens are still fine. Nope, in their eyes you gotta not eat any vegetables or you will 100% with certainty DIE.

It doesn't help that Carl's Jr. is running their whole "no vegetables" campaign on their *stupid* ads either.

 

[~Wonder]

This whole spinach fiasco reminds me of the Ribwich episode of the Simpson's where Homer orders a Ribwich and the box says "Now without lettuce!" How prophetic...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faerie Green

"the vegan who eats wierd"

You should put that on a t-shirt. I'd buy one. Plus your whacky coworkers would be able to locate you very easily.

~Wonder

 

[Vegan Joe]

The funny part is no one can figure what contaminted the field. How about a migrant farm worker having to take a dump?

Lets see I could loose $20.00 dollars if I have to walk all the way to the potapotty and back, or I can just take a dump in this ditch and save $20.00 of lost picking time. OK this is a multiple choice question.

 

[gypsygeek]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bstutzma

Yes, I've gotten this too. And also, that organic vegetables are bad because they are more likely to have bacteria like this.

They probably got the idea from an expose that was done by Dateline (or one of those nighttime news-magazine shows) a few years ago. They took several bags of conventionally grown greens and organically grown greens and their lab findings showed that the organic ones had significantly higher amounts of bacteria (including e. coli). I think they may have tested some other types of veggies, but it was a long time ago, so I don't remember.

The things I DO remember from the show were: 1) the reason the organic greens had more bacteria was because they didn't spray their crops with the chemicals that will kill the bacteria; and 2) ALWAYS rinse all veggies and fruits for at least 15 seconds - even those that come in pre-packaged bags or with a skin that you peel. This gets rid of >85% of any contaminents that are on them (at least according to that show) and significantly reduces your risk of infection/illness.