Another E. Coli Lettuce Recall

It seems to be happening more and more often these days, recalls on some type of produce for e. coli. This time it is shredded romaine lettuce manufactured by Freshway Foods of Sidney, Ohio. So far it is linked to 19 cases of e. coli, of which 12 people were hospitalized.

This is why I recommend, if at all possible, growing your own food. Even if you live in an apartment, you can grow a little garden in a window box or in pots inside. If it is absolutely impossible to grow your own fruit and vegetables, try shopping at a local farmer's market or a grocery store that sells local produce. This reduces the chance of infection.

If you're someone like me and do not have a "green thumb," try it anyway. I had my first ever garden last summer. I know very little about plants. I bought some seeds for fruit & vegetables that we like and planted them in the backyard. Some of the plants did very well and others didn't. I planted watermelon and they didn't come up at all. That's okay, I'm going to try again. I was glad to get whatever survived my inexperienced gardening. It's all about trial and error. I'm planning to plant another garden this year if it will ever stop snowing!

Beware Of Self Serve Fountain Drinks!

STUDY: Nearly half of soda fountains contaminated with fecal matter
By Dr. Kim Mulvihill
SAN FRANCISCO -- Many of us have filled up our cups at the local gas station. But those self-serve soda fountains may be serving up a lot of bacteria.

Researchers from Hollins University in Virginia tested more than 100 beverages from self-serve and staff-serve dispensers. What they found coming out of these machines is pretty unappetizing.

"We obtained soda fountain beverages from a wide variety of fast food establishments and found that a significant number of the drinks had levels of bacteria, including coliforms, which would not be allowed in municipal drinking water," said Dr. Renee Godard, professor of biology and director of environmental studies at Hollins, and a co-author of the study. "To our knowledge, no one has looked at bacterial contamination from soda fountain machines before, and our results may have public health implications. They signal the need for regulations that enforce the manufacturer's recommended cleaning regimens for these beverage dispensers."

They found 48 percent of the beverages contained fecal matter.

More than 11 percent were contaminated with E. coli and 17 percent were tainted with a bacteria known to cause meningitis.

Most of the bacteria showed resistance to one or more of the 11 antibiotics tested.

In these drinks, they also found smaller amounts of other kinds of germs including staphylococcus, klebsiella and candida.