Mike wrote:
> Causes of food diseases escape officials
> By Thomas Hargrove
> SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
> Published November 24, 2006
>
> More than 50,000 people got sick or died from something they ate in a
> five-year period -- a hidden epidemic that went undiagnosed by the
> nation's public-health departments.
> Americans play a sort of food-poisoning Russian roulette depending
> on where they live, an investigation by Scripps Howard News Service
> found. Slovenly restaurants, disease-infested food-processing plants
> and other sources of infectious illness go undetected across the
> country -- but much more frequently in some states than others.

My theory is that a lot of this may be due to food allergies. We tend
to think of anaphylactic shock and dramatic episodes with epi-pens. But
Vasculitis is an example of other disorders that, while supposedly
rare, can be due to toxic and allergic reactions. Vasculitis symptoms
are often confused with flu or food poisoning and is often never
diagnosed until the patient is -uh- dead.

There are many connections between food and disorders and diseases that
we don't even know about. And we're having disorders and diseases that
we don't take seriously until they get acute or life-threatening.
Frankly, the testing involved is too damned expensive, and there just
aren't any easy diagnoses. There just ain't 'nuff research yet.

Symptoms of food allergies can be so minor that a person forgets about
them and doesn't tell the doctor. Or attributes it to bad food
hygiene, the flu, or some other minor upset.

In a catastrophic attack, If the patient is lucky enough to get to the
hospital and have doctors who don't waste time confusing this with flu
or minor food poisoning, or some other disorder the patient may win the
life lottery by being treated correctly, and that is a costly,
sometimes risky process, since it's hard to figure out what is wrong.

Watch an episode of "House".

Americans are overexposed to so many exotic and technologically
marvelous substances, not to mention bacterium and viruses, that we
don't know what the heck is happening with our immune systems. Lupus,
a supposedly rare and difficult to diagnose disease, is claimed by a
host of people. "Fibromyalgia" is another disease where no one can
even agree if it is a hoax or a legitimate disorder. The arthritis and
food connection has been talked about at length, yet there is still no
clear information.

We eat food and drink drink that our immune systems never knew, or
prepared our systems for, and we use products (and drugs) that aren't
even supposed to exist naturally. Then we shop health food stores and
obsessively look for the "organic" label.

(Frankly, the last time I saw a list, rating the hygiene of local
supermarkets, "Whole Foods" wasn't exactly at the top of the list.)

So, while the hygiene in food production and delivery is always
suspect, as far as I'm concerned, the research in autoimmune rejection
of food and drink is in need of some dollars and attention.

Thanks for letting me rant.
Happy belated Thanksgiving!

M.