A Blanket Ban on Chopped Romaine Lettuce in the USA?

[GotGarlic]

Yep... meat and cooked veggies.... add in some potatoes and you've got me.

And raw potatoes will give you a tummy ache

 

[GotGarlic]

GG, I was just going to post a link to that same article!
Give me a day, I'll forget that it's here, and I'll make a big deal about something new to read.

My take-away is that it's safer to eat meat than to be a vegetarian.

Yup. I used to love sprouts, especially mung beans, but they're basically grown in a bacteria incubator - warm, moist conditions - so I haven't eaten them in years.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I have self grown mung bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, broccoli sprouts and radish sprouts. Can't help it, I like sprouts and found out years ago I could grow them cheaper than buying them.

 

[Kayelle]

Back in the day I loved alfalfa sprouts on sandwiches..my kids did too. How do you grow them PF?

 

[Caslon]

Most major supermarkets have romaine lettuce back on the shelves now. I got the most pathetic laugh when I asked about it today (as if major supermarkets would still be selling tainted romaine lettuce).

Sprouts are a leading candidate for outbreaks of E-Coli too. I occasionally make my own easy to grow alfalfa sprouts in a quart mason jar. I've not tried growing my own bean sprouts. They're bigger. Bean sprouts sure go well on a sandwich with some avocado and cheddar cheese.

Does anyone get good results growing bean sprouts with the quart jar method? Alfalfa is much smaller.

 

[taxlady]

I have grown mung bean sprouts in various sized jars. My only problem was sprouting too many and having the leftovers go yucky.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Back in the day I loved alfalfa sprouts on sandwiches..my kids did too. How do you grow them PF?

I have several plastic quart size strawberry boxes that I have disinfected, lay a damp, doubled paper towel in the bottom and sprinkle about a half cup of seeds over. Close the top and set on the counter out of the sun, keep damp with a spray bottle. When they are the right height, about three inches, put in the fridge and enjoy. I get 3-4 servings out of each quart box.

Or go here: https://greatist.com/eat/how-to-grow-sprouts-at-home

 

[buckytom]

I still can't figure out how humankind has survived this long with the impending threat of food poisoning every 2 hours outside of the safe zone; with bacteria around every corner

 

[GotGarlic]

Enough people lived long enough to reproduce enough to keep the species going, but that doesn't mean they weren't severely affected by food poisoning. I'm sure you'll be wondering the same thing again six months from now, but here goes.

From http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...health_and_medical_advances_that_lead_to.html

Why Are You Not Dead Yet?
Life expectancy doubled in the past 150 years. Here’s why.

The most important difference between the world today and 150 years ago isn’t airplane flight or nuclear weapons or the Internet. It’s lifespan. We used to live 35 or 40 years on average in the United States, but now we live almost 80. We used to get one life. Now we get two.

You may well be living your second life already. Have you ever had some health problem that could have killed you if you’d been born in an earlier era? Leave aside for a minute the probabilistic ways you would have died in the past—the smallpox that didn’t kill you because it was eradicated by a massive global vaccine drive, the cholera you never contracted because you drink filtered and chemically treated water. Did some specific medical treatment save your life? It’s a fun conversation starter: Why are you not dead yet? It turns out almost everybody has a story, but we rarely hear them; life-saving treatments have become routine...

To understand why people live so long today, it helps to start with how people died in the past. (To take a step back in time, play our interactive game.) People died young, and they died painfully of consumption (tuberculosis), quinsy (tonsillitis), fever, childbirth, and worms. There’s nothing like looking back at the history of* death and dying in the United States to dispel any romantic notions you may have that people used to live in harmony with the land or be more in touch with their bodies. Life was miserable—full of contagious disease, spoiled food, malnutrition, exposure, and injuries.

But disease was the worst. The vast majority of deaths before the mid-20th century were caused by microbes—bacteria, amoebas, protozoans, or viruses that ruled the Earth and to a lesser extent still do. It’s not always clear which microbes get the credit for which kills. Bills of mortality (lists of deaths by causes) were kept in London starting in the 1600s and in certain North American cities and parishes starting in the 1700s. At the time, people thought fevers were spread by miasmas (bad air) and the treatment of choice for pretty much everything was blood-letting. So we don’t necessarily know what caused “inflammatory fever” or what it meant to die of “dropsy” (swelling), or whether ague referred to typhoid fever, malaria, or some other disease. Interpreting these records has become a fascinating sub-field of history. But overall, death was mysterious, capricious, and ever-present.

This is just an excerpt. The article is much longer and there are more articles on this topic. If you're interested, they're not hard to find.

 

[Caslon]

Alfalfa sprouts are also known as a good survival food. Easy to grow, no sunlight needed.

"Alfalfa sprouts are a rich source of numerous [5]minerals, such as phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, copper, manganese, in addition to vitamin C, vitamin A and numerous B vitamins, such as folate, thiamin, riboflavin and pantothenic acid.

I'm going to order some bean sprout beans and break out my quart sprout growing jar with draining lid and attempt growing the bigger bean sprouts. I've only grown the smaller alfalfa sprouts so far, with great success.

 

[buckytom]

But, but, you could die from survival food.

Run awayyyyyyy.

 

[Caslon]

Carls Jr. drive thru used to put alfalfa sprouts on their Club sandwiches. Not anymore. Risk vs. Reward just isn't there. It added a nice fresh taste. Romaine lettuce on sandwiches also adds a fresh taste.