I just got an email alert from the FDA giving notice of a recall of 6-7 pound tins of canned vegetables that may have been contaminated by the evil bacteria botulism (which produces the paralyzing neurotoxin used for Botox injections! Yum!)

And I know that I really shouldn’t find all this funny, but seven POUNDS of canned veggies? SEVEN POUNDS. Yeah. 

Who hasn’t had a little food poisoning every now and then? Yeah? Everyone? Well here’s a creepy thought: once you’ve puked your guts out for 72 hours straight, the microfauna that glued you to the toilet could be the root cause of your kidney failure 20 years later. Sound fun, non?

The AP has put out a really interesting report on the poorly understood and woefully under-researched longterm effects of food poisoning. Remember the Jack-in-the-Box E. coli outbreak way back when? One little girl named Alyssa Chrobuck survived, but now she has high blood pressure, colon inflammation, a hiatal hernia, thyroid removal, endometriosis. I mean WOW. That is NOT GOOD.

Also, check this out:
“About 1 in 1,000 sufferers of campylobacter, a diarrhea-causing infection spread by raw poultry, develop far more serious Guillain-Barre syndrome a month or so later. Their body attacks their nerves, causing paralysis that usually requires intensive care and a ventilator to breathe. About a third of the nation’s Guillain-Barre cases have been linked to previous campylobacter, even if the diarrhea was very mild, and they typically suffer a more severe case than patients who never had food poisoning.”

Campylocater is spread not only by poultry but also RAW MILK. Definitely another “con” to add to the list when deciding whether nonpasteurized is the way to go.