Veggies Don't Poop: The EU Search for E. Coli Culprit
Forgive me for mentioning this, but there is shit in your food. There is feces in my food too, if it makes you feel any better.
By now you know about the new strain of E. Coli that’s plaguing the European Union. E. Coli 0104:H4 has killed at least 17 people. The CBS Evening News says it has sickened over 1,600 Swedes, Danes, Germans, Swiss, Norwegians and more.
The New York Times this morning called this new strain of E. Coli “unusually lethal”. The serious complication caused by E. Coli is a disease called H.U.S. or Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, where damaged red blood cells clog the kidneys and may cause kidney failure, stroke, coma and in up to 5% of cases, death.
H.U.S. had been expected to occur in less than 10% of diagnosed E. Coli patients. The incidence of H.U.S. in this outbreak, as in recent E. Coli O157:H7 incidents in the US, is over 30%. (New York Times, June 2, 2011/Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, CIDRAP News).
E. Coli poisoning is notoriously painful, difficult and slow to heal. Complications and residual effects from either E. Coli poisoning or H.U.S., according to Eric Schlosser, author of the bestselling book Fast Food Nation, can last a lifetime.
As a vegetarian, I have had people point at fresh fruits and vegetables as the culprit for recent E. Coli infections. The source for this European outbreak is still a mystery. When the media pointed the finger at spinach in a California E. Coli outbreak a couple of years ago, they weren’t entirely correct.
Anger at fresh veggies is woefully displaced.
E. Coli does not come from vegetable sources. If you show me a carrot that shits, I’ll eat my words, and I’ll eat the carrot and take my chances.
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