Members are invited to contribute spiritual wisdom, teachings, channeled messages, uplifting content, healing sessions, and attunements to this network to bridge Heaven and Earth and unite Humanity as One.
As of last week, the recent listeria outbreak in cantaloupes has caused 18 deaths and left more than 100 people sick. With an incubation period of up to two months, there's still more than a month left before some people could start showing symptoms of the disease. Is there a way this could have been avoided, other than the fruit not being contaminated in the first place?
The grooves and ridges on a cantaloupe's surface make a perfect hiding place for bacteria. Once there, the bacteria are transferred to anything the cantaloupe touches, including your vegetable bin in your fridge, other fruits and vegetables, your counter, and your hands. A good rule not only for cantaloupe, but also for all fruits and veggies is to wash the food before putting it away, and to wash any surfaces that the unwashed food touched with something capable of killing bacteria. If you're worried about your cantaloupe, scrub the outer rind under running water, then rinse it in vinegar, bleach, or a vegetable wash and let it dry completely before eating.
You would think that anyone who hears about the cantaloupe deaths would avoid putting fruit on the menu no matter what, but the director of the Centers for Disease Control, Thomas Frieden, advises, "If it's not from Jensen Farms (where the tainted cantaloupes came from,) it's OK to eat. But if you're in doubt, throw it out." This seems like fairly general advice, given the severity of the outbreak. Better advice may be to avoid all cantaloupes and any food that has been in proximity to cantaloupe for the next couple of months unless you've grown the melon yourself.
The best choice to avoid these kinds of scares is to buy local, organic food whenever possible. Since it never has to go through the giant processing and distribution centers that can facilitate the spread of disease, local farm-grown produce has a much lower risk of carrying deadly bacteria. Of course, you should always thoroughly wash any and all produce, as well as regularly wiping down the inside of your fridge and counters with bacteria-killing cleaners.
You need to be a member of The City of Shamballa Social Network to add comments!
Replies