Meat Can Make You Sick. Duh.
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By now this is old news, but it’s worth preserving and sharing with anyone who many not already know:
Meat can make you sick.
CNN recently reported that almost 50% of meat is infected with dangerous bacteria. About 25% is infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria, aka superbugs like MRSA.
Here’s what they wrote:
Almost half of the meat and poultry sold at U.S. supermarkets and grocery stores contains a type of bacteria that is potentially harmful to humans, a new study estimates.
Researchers tested 136 packages of chicken, turkey, pork, and ground beef purchased at 26 grocery stores in five cities around the country, and found that 47 percent contained Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), a common cause of infection in people.
What’s more, roughly half of the contaminated samples contained strains of the bacteria that were resistant to at least three antibiotics, such as penicillin and tetracycline. Some strains were resistant to a half dozen or more
Emphasis added.
Remember, this isn’t new. Over two years ago, another study found MRSA in nearly half of factory farmed pigs AND the pig workers. Just over one year ago, CBS warned “overuse of antibiotics in animals is leading to the creation of new strains of drug resistant bacteria that could make humans sick” and said “evidence of MRSA has been found in the nation’s meat supply.”
The CDC expressed concern about factory farms and the rise in drug-resistant bacteria. And in 2008 the LA Times warned “Factory farms produce cheap meat, until you consider the rivers of sewage, the contaminants and the superbugs.”
CNN is recommending that people cook meat thuroughly in order to make it safe to eat. And to make sure not to crosscontaminate other food or kitchenwares with uncooked meat. But there’s an easier way to kee your kitchen safe and feed your children clean foods: choose vegan.
Good reasons to not eat any meat, eh? You can also create problems with cutting boards when you cut meats on them even if you wash them off afterwards.
The only real solution is don’t eat meat!
This it turns out also becomes an issue in households that consume raw/mostly raw vegan food blended with those that eat meat. Unless your vigilant in sanitizing everything it could become a major concern. Best cure absolutely is to replace the meat!
Most food safety recommendations say to use separate cutting boards and knives for meat (obviously this includes “poultry” and fish) but how many people follow the guidelines?
Bea, sounds like that if you live with nonvegans it’s wise to eat a cooked foods vegan diet rather than a raw diet simply due to the high potential for crosscontamination.
The people most at risk of death from food poisoning are children and people with compromised immune systems (AIDS, cancer, eldely, etc). For this reason, as well as reasons that PCRM suggests, I think it’s especially important to recommend a cooked foods vegan diet for children.
Seriously?!
The poll they had asking how this report affected their meat eating habits and the answer that had the highest amount of votes was “I just don’t care – bring on the meat 19.44% (9,593 votes)”
Some people just don’t care about anything, not even themselves!
I am dissapointed, humans….
Actually cooking carcass still doesn’t make it “safe to eat”. Regardless of whether the body part came from a victim imprisoned on a factory farm or a pasture, it STILL causes cancer and heart disease; “it’s in the meat(itself), stupid”!