Spinach Scam E.coli? here's an answer

[wyjoz]

Can you believe all this stupidity about the contaminated spinach,
because a bird might have flown over and dropped on a spinach plant?


PLEASE people wake up and think clearly!!!!!!!!!!


There is no proof of anything! Joz here: news states it's from the cows!
One person supposedly died and 93 more got sick in eight different states????
What is that supposed to mean?
About 500.000 people die each year because of wrong treatments in hospitals!
That's about 41.667 people each month and about 1,389 people every day!
So what is more dangerous?
Who knows from what these people really got sick when "they say" that it was caused by bagged spinach and salad?
Even the hospitals did not confirm and can't say for sure why these people got sick.

Since most bodies contain e-coli bacteria naturally, of course they can grow and multiply
if the immune system is weak. One can easily come to the conclusion that these bacteria
must have come from a food source.
And then of course you need your medication (as doctors say!).


Ursula's opinion:


These is a scam! Just like last year with the raw almonds!
Now is harvesting time for all the farmers and their best crops in years.
Can you imagine the damage and financial loss to the farmers?
We have to thank all the farmers, especially small farmers, for all their work growing our foods!
Would you want only the giants to rule the market and only depend on them?
Who is behind all this?
Does it sound like "they" want to hurt farmers?
Or even get small farmers out of the way so that large farmers buy up the land
and create another monopoly?
Do they want to push all the organic farmers off the market?


As LA Times wrote today: The company farm Natural Selection Foods who packages
spinach for more than 30 companies was investigated and is still ongoing,
but nothing could be found and nothing can be proved!


Sounds like the same scam as the bird flu, doesn't it?, where hundreds of thousands
of chickens and other poultry got killed.
Sounds ridiculous, like any other scare and fear tactic.
Possibilities of contamination seem to "them": Dust blowing over fields, droppings from birds
who have eaten tainted cattle droppings, contaminated floodwater and workers carrying
bacteria on their hands or clothes.
Birds fly everywhere all over the world, but do they only fly in California and only over
Natural Selection Food's crops that they drop and spread E-coli?
Shall we shoot all the birds now?


The main question is here, who profits from it?
Who is the winner at the end?
There's where one has to look into.
There will be the truth!


Think logically please!:
Why is it that only the spinach is contaminated?
Does dust blow over just the spinach fields?
Do birds drop only on spinach?
What will be contaminated next?
All the lettuce, the zucchinis, tomatoes, collard greens, kale, celery etc.etc. ?
Is this a scam from the Food Industry or very paranoid people?


How did people ever eat before pesticides and chlorine?


What is now suggested, can you guess?


Of course, COOK YOUR SPINACH, don't eat anything uncooked!
Don't eat anything raw!


Of course, you might get too healthy! (ironic, isn't it?)


The number of people in America who are seeking healthier foods
and healthier life styles is rapidly increasing.
Of course if people eat healthier, they don't eat so much crap.
Does that have a financial influence on the mass production food market?
You bet it does!


Fight against this idiocy, ask for your spinach at your local market.
Support the farmers, support the Farmers Markets!!!!!!




We at the Good Mood Food Cafe eat spinach every day and none of us
ever got sick. None of our customers ever got sick from our spinach!
We are the best proof that there is something wrong in the national food picture!


If you want to start an amazing step forward into this big time food industry market,


GROW YOUR OWN PRODUCE!!!!!!


Whoever has a garden, even only a small spot or even only a patio,
try to grow as much as you can on your own.
We are so blessed with sun in California, almost everything grows here.
Use your sprinkler water not for a boring lawn, but something that makes
sense. Use it for food!
If you can't eat it all, give it to your neighbors or anybody who does not
have the chance to grow something.
Don't forget: We at the Cafe will happily take what you can't use!


Best regards, Ursula www.goodmoodfood.com

[Sharon in Colorado]

I noticed at my Whole Foods they were still selling frozen spinach.

[Doe]

It reminds me of this excerpt from Herbert Shelton's book The HYGIENIC SYSTEM:

From Europe the early American settlers had brought the idea that fruits and vegetables and, especially uncooked fruits and vegetables, were to be avoided. The New York Mirror warned, Aug. 28, 1830, that fresh fruits should be religiously forbidden to all classes and especially to children. Two years later the same paper carried the information that all fruit is dangerous and, because of the cholera epidemic city councils prohibited their sale in the cities. "Salads were to be particularly feared." Robley Dunglison, the famous physiologist of the period, appears also to have shared this view.

In August 1832 the Board of Health of Washington, D. C. prohibited, for the space of ninety days, the importation into the city of "cabbage, green corn, cucumbers, peas, beans, parsnips, carrots, egg plants, cimblings or squashes, pumpkins, turnips, water melons, cantaloupes, muskmelons, apples, pears, peaches, plums, damsons, cherries, apricots, pineapples, oranges, lemons, limes, coconuts, ice cream, fish, crabs, oysters, clams, lobsters and craw fish.

"The following articles the Board have not considered it necessary to prohibit the sale of, but even these they would admonish the community to be moderate in using: potatoes, beets, tomatoes and onions."

Beef, bacon and bread, with beer and wine were about all they left for the people of Washington to eat. The Board said that the prohibited articles, "are, in their opinion highly prejudicial to health at the present season." The Board were probably afraid that these wholesome foods would cause ague, chills, fever and even cholera.

In that very year (1832) Dr. Martyn Paine, of the New York University Medical School was arguing that garden vegetables and almost every variety of fruit had been known to develop the deadly cholera and that to avoid it the people should restrict themselves to lean meat, potatoes, milk, tea and coffee.

It was in New York City in 1832, the very year that the cities were prohibiting the sale of fruits and vegetables because they cause cholera, that Graham launched his attack upon the false beliefs concerning fruits and vegetables and endeavored to induce Americans and, indeed, the world, to eat more fruits and vegetables and cease eating animal foods.

Graham not only challenged the view that fruits and vegetables cause cholera and that plenty of meat and wine will prevent it; but he declared that a diet of fruits and vegetables with entire abstinence from all alcoholics, tobacco, condiments, etc., and from all animal foods, was the best preventive of cholera.

It is interesting to note, in this connection, that Graham's first observations of the effects of diet upon health were made in Philadelphia and related to the part a vegetable diet apparently played in preventing Cholera. A small sect of Bible Christians had migrated from England to Philadelphia. These people abstained from all animal foods--flesh, eggs, milk, cheese, etc.--and from all condiments and stimulants. They used no tea, coffee, alcohol or tobacco. It was their view that flesh eating violated the first command given by God to man--the instruction to Adam that he should eat the fruit of the trees of the Garden.

Ten years before Graham lectured in Philadelphia for the Pennsylvania Temperance Society, this city had experienced a severe epidemic of cholera. There were many cases with a high death rate. Contrary to what was expected from the medical teachings of the time, not a single member of the Bible Christian Church had cholera. This fact made a deep and lasting impression upon Graham and caused him to turn his attention to the study of diet. No longer was he a mere temperance lecturer. His first series of lectures given the following year in New York were upon the causes and prevention of cholera. So radical and revolutionary did his lectures seem to the medical profession and most of the educated people of the time that it required nearly another quarter of a century for them to discard their false notions about vegetables and fruits causing cholera and concede that Graham may have been right. Fallacy dies slowly. Deep-rooted prejudices are not easily uprooted. Old habits are not quickly abandoned. The world's leaders do not like to admit that they have been wrong and have been misleading the people. They did not give up without a struggle--indeed, it may be truthfully said that they nave not given up entirely to this day.

People tend to believe what they have been taught and are sure that if the schools, the media, government, and medical profession say something it must be true. It's the same in every area of life.

Teri S

* bolded type for ease of skimming

[pinkglttr]

It seems silly to think that they are trying to "bash" small farmers, when the ones getting the pointed finger are bigtime corporations.

If anything, they are SUPPORTING small hometown farmers, where we know where the food is coming from.

[romanticsnet]

Although I do agree with everything you are saying, I should pipe in that I did get sick from the raw almonds from Costco. So.. yes while a majority of these findings may be scare tactics, I am sure that some are valid or legit. Better to be safe than sorry...and of course, SUPPORT your local organic farmer!!!!!

I was also wondering how that San Juan Bautista grower is supplying both organic and non-organic spinach to the middle man (Earthbound Farms etc...) It kind of makes you wonder... if perhaps th EarthBound Farm's Spinach may not be organic??? Dunno... I have heard other bad stories of the bigger organic companies who treat their animals almost as bad as the conventional or corporate factory farms.

[berrymarymac]

Two people that someone knew on a raw email group I'm in got very sick with the E. Coli strain in the bagged spinach. The Whole Foods here in Atlanta that I went to today had signs up, apologizing for the inconvenience, saying they cared about their customer's safety, etc etc.

I don't think it's a scam. I had something wity to say but cannot think of it! Bacteria is serious stuff, my dad had something from the Republic of Georgia...don't take these things lightly. And no one is just saying this because raw spinach is healthy or anything. Evenever we have a water main break...they tell us to boil our water to protect us, not hurt us!!

[Sheryl]

What I've seen in articles is that it's not even confirmed it's in spinach. They think they see a pattern from what the people ate that got sick, however have not yet identified any e coli in the spinach tested. The spinach is a hypothesis that has not been proven. That's what it seemed to say anyhow.

And from what I read EarthBound farms has been incorrectly named as the company, when in reality it's all bagged spinach.

[mongomango]

How people ate years ago isn't relevant. They went and got freshly picked things out of their gardens, or freshly harvested foods at the stores. It's a whole nother situation today.

Most ecoli infections come from dirty processing. For veggies, contaminated wash water is most often the culprit. It is filthy in many places...looks like mud or coffee. This is what agribusiness calls clean. By all means if you can grow your own or purchase from local farms, one should do so.

Now, do they want us to stop eating raw? Absolutely, I believe. There is a vast conspiracy imo to weaken the public health for various reasons, which is beyond the scope of this forum. But spinach and all veggies can get contaminated due to the processing very easily. And if there is a chance of getting sick, it is not worth eating these foods at this time.

The mega corps are BAD places to buy off of. Personally, I don't buy any bagged greens because of the increased processing it has gone through. The more people with profits on their mind touch something, the more it gets sullied. This, unfortunately, is getting harder to do as it is becoming very difficult where I live to buy greens of any sort that are not wilted and on their way to rotting.

[dreamrawalwz]

Hmm, I don't really think it's a scam as much of a skeptic I am. They did jump to conclusions with their "hypothesis" about spinach, whcih is unfortunately, but if it keeps others safe then...

As for the article, it seemed to make sense UNTIL they kinda did an ad for their company/restraunt or wahtever it was So who knows it they're scamming people or persuading them....i dunno, that's just how I read into it.

[rawnora]

Joz,
I appreciate and admire your attitude and ability to think critically! Thanks for pointing out those stats to give us a sense of perspective. These are the tiniest tip of the iceberg. The full truth about how much death and destruction are wrought by the medical profession is much, much worse, unfortunately.

This recent scare involving bagged spinach may or may not be the result of a deliberate conspiracy. I suppose it's possible but it does seem far fetched. However, the motives are not necessarily important. The point is, it is misguided and incorrect to blame sickness on contaminated spinach, because it requires us to ignore the real reasons people get sick.

It is mighty encouraging to see others not being taken in by all the nonsense. Many thanks.

With respect,
Nora
www.RawSchool.com

[Lay-Lay]

I don't think it is a scam either. The spinach is contaminated with something and were not asked to not eat it until it has been cleared. What is the big deal?

[wyjoz]

What is sad is that more people die and get sick of Ecoli contaminated milk and meat and we don't hear about those outbreaks in the news.
But sprouts and spinach! it's all over the world. And only 1 person died! That statistically counts for an epidemic? WOW! The Cholera and Boubonic plage killed thousands and thousands Hospitals kill thousands with wrong procedures wrong medication doses, bacteria, and hospital food malnutrition; that's an epidemic! I'll stop here.

How to keep E. coli from harming you
We tend to associate food poisoning with raw meat and seafood, but the latest E. coli outbreak underscores the danger of that assumption. ..

.the bacteria had not been isolated in products sold by Natural Selection Foods but that the connection was established by patient accounts of what they had eaten before becoming ill.

Joz here SOOOOOOOOOOOO THEY MIGHT HAVE HAD RARE STEAK AND OTHER FOODS that made them ill? AND A LITTLE SPINACH IN A SALAD? AND THAT CALLS FOR NATIONAL outbreak ALARM? This is beyond words! read the article in the link below;

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articl...ecoli0916.html

[wyjoz]

I don't think it is a scam either. The spinach is contaminated with something and were not asked to not eat it until it has been cleared. What is the big deal?

The big deal is only one person died! and it became a national epidemic, a plague! Read the link I provided above. joz

[Lay-Lay]

I don't think it has been labeled an epidemic or plaque, but more of a precaution. One death is too many. May have been from eating meat, but nothing wrong with a little caution to be safe. Eat some homegrown or local spinach and bid yourself good health.

[Frecs]

[QUOTE=wyjoz]What is sad is that more people die and get sick of Ecoli contaminated milk and meat and we don't hear about those outbreaks in the news.
QUOTE]
I'm sorry but yes, those get reported too! The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) always reports when they see a situation such as this regardless of the item in question. There have been problems with e-coli in meat and the recall was shooted from the same rooftops as this outbreak is and just as loudly. e-coli is a very serious bacteria. Salmonella can make you miserable but it won't kill you unless you are seriously compromised immuniologically. e-coli can damage your kidneys -- permanently -- other internal organs...and kill.

Are they overdoing it a bit considering they don't know the source? Yes. All that spinach wasted and it may not even be that item. BUT, they must have had a pretty strong sense that that was the source before they filed the alert. My guess is that they are doing the hyperbole thing because there are allot of ignorant people in this country who do not know how to wash their produce. Better to tell everyone to throw it out than to hope the idiots wash it right!

Oh, and to wash your produce: equal parts vinegar to water. I'm still looking for proof that this solution kills e-coli but vinegar is a strong antibacterial.