The Dangerous Disease Lurking Next to You, Guardia Lamblia

Food, Fluids, and Their Relationship to Disease

We here in the United States never consider the consequences of what we are eating or drinking. We assume it is all safe. We are notorious for stuffing our plates and our stomachs, because we have an abundance of food available. Food comes from our own farms and ranches, but it also comes from foreign sources as well. We get fruit from South and Central America, Canada and some things are shipped in from as far away as the Orient and Australia. The global economy has affected not only our Toy market, but our foods as well, but salmonella is not the only danger we have to face.

When I lived in the Orient they had something called "honey buckets". These were usually two buckets of human waste carried on a stick between the shoulders of workers going into the produce fields into the fields. Here they were poured on the vegetables and used as fertilizer to help the crops grow. Other countries do not always worry as much about HOW they fertilize their products as we do in the US.

When we were on the other side of the world we knew there was a risk and took extra caution with what we bought. It was thoroughly washed/cleaned before we consumed it. In Mexico there used to be signed that people laughed at because they said, "Don't drink the water, drink the Cerveza." because the water is considered dangerous and full of bacteria that people who are not from their country might catch. I've heard this referred to as "Montezuma's revenge" and if you fail to heed the warnings, you soon would know what that term meant.

I had not been in Mexico or any other foreign country for some time when I made the serious mistake of eating a grape in the grocery check out line. The grape looked luscious and indeed it was. However I will NEVER do that again. This seems like an innocent thing, but I learned the hard way as it almost cost me my life. We all need to be more careful with our food and what we put in our mouths, including our hands.