Jones Regional Medical Center

Gearing Up Your Food for the Holidays
Kirk Kilburg, MD
Jones Regional Medical Center

With the holidays fast approaching, along with all the hustle and bustle come family and friend get-togethers. While it isn’t always the case, most of our cherished get-togethers include a great deal of good food to go along with it. As always, when dealing with food, please remember that you need to be diligent in regard to food safety.

While it isn’t a festive thought, food poisoning tends to occur at picnics, school cafeterias and large social functions such as holiday gatherings. These are situations where food may be left unrefrigerated too long or food preparation techniques are not clean. Food poisoning often occurs from eating undercooked meats, dairy products or food containing mayonnaise (like coleslaw, potato salad or dips) that have sat out too long.

Food poisoning can affect one person or it can occur as an outbreak in a group of people who all ate the same contaminated food. Food poisoning is the result of eating organisms or toxins in contaminated food. Most cases of food poisoning are from common bacteria like Staphylococcus or E. coli. Even though food poisoning is relatively rare in the United States, it affects between 60 and 80 million people worldwide each year and results in approximately 6 to 8 million deaths.

Infants and elderly people have the greatest risk for food poisoning. You are also at higher risk if you have a serious medical condition, like kidney disease or diabetes, a weakened immune system or you travel outside of the U.S. to areas where there is more exposure to organisms that cause food poisoning. Pregnant and breastfeeding women have to be especially careful.

The symptoms from the most common types of food poisoning generally start within two to six hours of eating the food responsible. That time may be longer (even a number of days) or shorter, depending on the toxin or organism responsible for the food poisoning. The possible symptoms include:
• Nausea and vomiting
• Abdominal cramps
• Diarrhea (may be bloody)
• Fever and chills
• Weakness (may be serious and lead to breathing stopping, as in the case of botulism)
• Headache
• Botulism is a very serious form of food poisoning that can be fatal. It can come from improper home canning

You will usually recover from the most common types of food poisoning within a couple of days. The goal is to make you feel better and avoid dehydration. Drink any fluid (except milk or caffeinated beverages) to replace fluids lost by diarrhea and vomiting. Children should be given an electrolyte sold in drugstores. Don't eat solid foods until the diarrhea has passed, and avoid dairy, which can worsen diarrhea.

Full recovery from the most common types of food poisoning usually occurs within 12 and 48 hours. Serious complications can arise, however, from certain types of food poisoning. Please call your doctor if:
• You have diarrhea and are unable to drink fluids due to nausea or vomiting.
• You are on diuretics and have diarrhea, nausea or vomiting.
• Diarrhea lasts for more than two to three days.
• There is blood in your stools.
• You have a fever over 101°F.

To prevent food poisoning, take the following steps when preparing food:
• Carefully wash your hands and clean dishes and utensils.
• Use a thermometer when cooking. Cook beef to at least 160°F, poultry to at least 180°F and fish to at least 140°F.
• DO NOT place cooked meat or fish back onto the same plate or container that held the raw meat, unless the container has been thoroughly washed.
• Promptly refrigerate any food you will not be eating right away. Keep the refrigerator set to around 40°F and your freezer at or below 0°F. DO NOT eat meat, poultry or fish that has been refrigerated uncooked for longer than 1 to 2 days.
• DO NOT use outdated foods, packaged food with a broken seal or cans that are bulging or have a dent.
• DO NOT use foods that have an unusual odor or a spoiled taste.

For more information on this or any other health related topic, call Jones Regional Medical Center at 319-462-6131.

 

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