Microbiological Reasons Why You Should Stop Eating Salad and Raw Meat!

Microbiological Reasons Why You Should Stop Eating Salad And Raw Meat!

          Well prepared, but it's dangerous!

    Salad as it is known, a combination of different vegetables or fruits slashed together uncooked, prepared fresh with dressing such as vinegar or mayonnaise for human consumption. 

    It's a delicacy for the provision of nutrients which may not be present in few cooked food because of their degradation on exposure to heat(heat labile- the nutrients do get destroyed by heating or cooking them). But with the advantage comes the disadvantage: in exposing yourself to being infected or getting acute and chronic diseases such as Cholera, Typhoid, Hepatitis, Enteritis, Ulcer, etc.You may wonder at times when you catch one of these diseases mysteriously and you don't know how you came down with it, your salad and other raw foods are responsible for it! 

     When the disadvantage of a thing most of the time outweighs the advantage, it is advisable to let go of the little advantage to avoid great disadvantage to our health and well being. 

So, here is my case against the consumption of salad!

What Is Harmful In The Consumption Of Salad?

The danger in the salad is not visible to the naked eye!

   To those who consume and enjoy salad and those whom the consumption of salad is the staple, they may not see anything wrong, since it goes well with their body. Nothing could be wrong in this food, they'll say. But there are many things wrong with the consumption of salad which I'll expatiate on and through this expatiation, I'll recommend a safe mean of eating natural foods without being exposed to the disease vectors all because we are enjoying nutritious delicacies!

Microbiological Research

    

A vegetable with plethora of germs(normal flora)

    Right from the farm where vegetables and fruits used in the preparation of salad are produced, contamination with germs are rife! Many farmers use organic fertilizer e.g. poultry waste, human faeces, and compost to prepare and fertilize the soil which are used to plant their vegetables. In the process of growth and development of the vegetables, water is supplied either by rainfall or irrigation to the soil for the organic manure/fertilizer to feed the vegetables to produce bumper harvest.

          The soil is a natural habitat  of                      germs 

     Mind you, while the vegetables are growing and producing fruits, they are consistently being splashed with germs/ pathogens in the poultry or faeces that are used to manure the soil, which till harvest time get stuck on the vegetables and their fruits until they are harvested. 

These germs can be visible or invisible:

Visible germs(normal flora) under microscope

 they are called normal flora- they always stick to plants or vegetables and fruits that are cultivated with manure such as faeces(animal or human), poultry waste, etc. 

These germs called normal flora are ubiquitous(all over or everywhere) on the vegetables and fruits planted with waste or organic manure.

     Nevertheless, if these vegetables were not planted with poultry or human waste, the soil used in cultivating them is a natural habitat of uncountable microorganisms(germs- bacteria, fungi, protozoan, viruses and their eggs(spore or spore)) and they get stuck on vegetables either near or above the soil through water or air deposition.

Health Implications For People Who Eat Salad

Though they are washed, all of the germs cannot be washed away!

Here we go!

     After harvest, the vegetables are processed, packaged and delivered to restaurants or stores where they are made available for human consumption.This is where the avoidable danger lies! Before the vegetables are prepared for human consumption, they are washed either thoroughly or not, before they are chopped or cut to be put on plate for serving. From microbiological research, no matter how you wash these already contaminated vegetables(vegetables that have bacteria, fungi, viruses and their spores or eggs stuck on them) you cannot remove all of these harmful and dangerous germs from your salad, they will always be there on your salad and you'll always be exposing yourself to this harmful germs every time you eat salad!

   This microbiological fact makes me recall the case of a man that I read about in a publication, who went out eating with his family in a restaurant and was unfortunate to contract hepatitis virus from the onions in the salad which was served to him. He came down with hepatitis and died. He died as a result of eating salad whose onions had been contaminated with hepatitis virus!

What could have been done to avoid this avoidable loss of life?

Simple: Cook your vegetables before eating them!

All of the germs that do get stuck on our vegetables from the farm where they are produced can be killed and removed by boiling them at temperatures above 100°C over dry or moist heat.

   If we say we cannot do without eating vegetables raw as salad, the diseases which the germs that do get stuck on the raw vegetables do produce will not stop manifesting or militating against our health!

Warning For People Who Love Eating Raw Meat And Fish

Uncooked meat prepared to be eaten raw

    Raw foods such as meat and fish do come loaded with parasites, germs and normal flora, which are very harmful to any human being that is predisposed to or like eating them raw. As I have expatiated above concerning salad, normal flora are germs such as bacteria(pathogenic), fungi(pathogenic), protozoans(parasites) and viruses (pathogenic) which if given the privilege of getting inside the body of human being(when we eat food that ought to be cooked raw) they do wreak havoc in the human body by developing diseases in the human body bringing ill health.

Recommendations

   It is expedient for our health and well-being to stop eating salad, raw meat and raw fish to avoid avoidable germs-protozoans, fungi, bacteria and viruses which propagate or produce diseases in the human body when we eat or ingest them along with raw foods.

   The food items that we should eat raw are fruits which can only be eaten raw after thorough washing with soap or detergent so as to avoid putting ourselves into an inconvenient dangerous condition which we can and should have already avoided.

Be informed, so as not to be deformed health-wise!

P.S. If you find this article educative and informative, you can endeavour to help share around to other people who will be in need of it. This endeavour of yours will go a long way in breaking the vicious cycle of diseases in our society and contribute a lot to improving Public Health.