Holiday Stomach Flu Isn't a Coincidence
Facebook is a fun way to get updates on all things Christmas. This year was painful though because I swear every third post was about the stomach flu. The real blow came when my cousins started posting the day after Christmas (my birthday) about how they were sick with stomach flu. Why was this so upsetting? Because we spent Christmas night with my cousins. Wonderful. Now every time my stomach rumbles I can't help but think...Tick Tock, Tick Tock. When will we get it???
This really got me to thinking about stomach flu during Christmas. When I was growing up, we often woke up Christmas morning sick with the "stomach flu". It's just one day of the year, why would it be so common for stomach flu to hit on
this particular day?
I've been doing some research and I've found that stomach flu at Christmas time probably isn't a coincidence. It turns out that "stomach flu" is often masked for food poisoning. In fact, 1 out of every 3 cases of "stomach flu" is actually food poisoning and cases of food-bourne illness go up drastically during the Holiday Season because we amateurs don't know the rules of food preparation. We leave food sitting out while we wait for everyone to arrive. We have a party that
lasts for several hours and we far exceed the two hour rule, which is
how long food experts recommend food can stay unrefrigerated.
Here are some facts to keep you awake at night:
1. Purrell doesn't kill stomach flu. Hand-washing can get rid of it and
wash it down the drain but doesn't totally kill it. I know what you're thinking because I thought the same thing. Why don't you just rain on my parade? Every time I take the kids to the mall I douse them in Purrell and call it good. That's not enough?
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