Posted on 04/27/2022 9:47:36 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
New research suggests that disease-causing amoebas that live on organic leafy vegetables can shelter human pathogens like Pseudomonas, Salmonella, and Helicobacter and are a potential risk to public health.
Foodborne illness from consuming contaminated fresh produce is common and can have serious effects on human health, especially when eaten raw. During growth, harvest, transportation and further processing and handling, fresh produce can be contaminated with pathogens from human or animal sources, through contact with soil, irrigation water, air, rain, insects, and during industrial produce-washing.
Vegetables can become contaminated with certain protozoa (single-celled organisms) such as free-living amoebae (FLA), that feed on bacteria and can act as hosts to pathogenic bacteria (the so-called "Trojan horses") which resist FLA digestion and could be a threat to public health.
The main bacterial types identified were Flavobacterium (found in 10% of vegetable samples) and Pseudomonas (10%), many of which do not cause disease in humans. However, a third of samples (34%) contained 52 potentially disease-causing types of bacteria including Legionella, Salmonella, and Arcobacter. The resulting infections can cause pneumonia and gastrointestinal illness.
Moreover, the FLA species Vermamoeba vermiformis that commonly causes severe infections in humans was found in a fifth (19%) of vegetable samples; and Acanthamoeba castellanii, that can cause blindness and encephalitis were identified in almost two thirds (63%) of samples.
"The presence of bacteria contained inside the free-living amoebae suggests that they are vehicles that can easily transmit pathogens capable of reaching humans and causing health problems through contaminated organic vegetables", says Dr. Moreno. "Contamination can arise as a consequence of treating soil with organic fertilizers such as manure and sewage sludge and from irrigation water. Leafy greens are particularly susceptible to fecal contamination due to their proximity to the ground and the likelihood of humans consuming them without cooking."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Could have more nutrients such as B12.
They just figuring that out? Organic is not necessarily healthy.
“Organic vegetables” by definition are fertilized with poop and not chemicals like ammonia. Personally, I choose the ammonia fertilized vegetables, they look healthier.
Wouldn’t a simple washing of the produce before eating remove the microbes?
“Preliminary study finds organic vegetables contaminated with wide range of disease-causing microbes”
uh huh, because unlike organic vegetables, NOT-organic vegetables are free from surface microbes ...
and except for NOT-organic vegetables, EVERYTHING in our environment is coated with microbes .... basically, we ALL live in a sea of microbes ...
Humans are designed to eat cooked food anyhow. We don’t have the dentures for a raw vegetable diet. So if you lightly cook veggies, like steaming them, You can kill the microbes. All is then good.
They just figuring that out? Organic is not necessarily healthy.
For most a “simple washing” means running some cool tap water over the vegetables. This is typically not enough to even get rid of the tiny slugs which carry Rat lung worm disease which is the leading causes of meningitis in many parts of the world which often results in death. The little slugs are millions of times larger than microbes.
If you want to pay twice as much eat scrawny dirty looking organic vegetables from Mexico etc... where their hygienic standards are much less than they are here that is your business. Scrub away.
I spray or soak my produce with vinegar
Wow. Buy organic, wash well, and cook well.
I use food grade hydrogen peroxide or ozone water to rinse vegetables.
Love those huge, bright red tomatoes that are mostly water with little taste on account of they look so good in the grocery store and they don't bruise.
You could probably even bowl with them!
“Half of them died on the way they were so unhealthy”
How many weigh scales did you have to pass over with your over loaded load of chickens?
Let's all dive in!
Sewer sludge for organic veggies? Yuck!
How many weigh scales did you have to pass over with your over loaded load of chickens?
Good for you. Most people don't.
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