About five years ago or so I went to a Wilderness Medince Society Meeting for several days... and one presentation of interest to me was on "travelers' enteritis" ... or travelerr's diarrhea. One of the most prominent predictors of getting a food induced diarrhea was eating at any eatery (i.e. not preparing your own food and drink). We were shown dozens of photos of how food was prepared and stored at many eateries in many places.... primarily to demonstrate what some of the problems are in places where food inspection standards may be non existent... and education on such issues may be unusual. Street vendors were one of the biggest problems, according to the speaker, because the food is often cooked elsewhere, then transported and stored all day in unsafe ways ... and sold hours later. Although a huge part of the experience in traveling is to eat out.. yes where the locals do... but that is not necessarily, from a numbers standpoint... the most reliable way to avoid food related illness. Cooking your own food (if you know what you are doing) is in fact the safest way to avoid food borne illness... according to the speaker... if you are traveling to places where food safety is not well regulated and/or those restaurant operators are not well informed on food safety issues. (common in places with less regulation and infrastructure.) It also was said that, as expected... living in a place for some sig period of time (i.e. 18 months or so... not sure on that number) does result in your getting acclimated to the bacterial challenges of a given area, and therefore seems to be accompanied by less gi troubles if you stay in that area. Cipro is thought a good thing to have available in such places... in case the event occurs. Also... food borne illness clearly can happen in the USA also... or any country. Mike Orchard (I have some background in such things... although it is not my primary focus) Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:44:46 -0700 From: Craig Jungers <crjungers_at_gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] PaddleWise list censorship "On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 7:40 PM, Bradford R. Crain <crainb_at_pdx.edu> wrote: > Not that anyone cares, or needs to know, but we have found through > experience that blockages can be relieved promptly by traveling to Mexico. > > Gmail puts ads alongside the email that are referenced to part of the email content on the theory that if you are writing about something then you - or someone you're writing to - might be interested. Two of the four ads next to Brad's post were for a laxative. LOL. On a related note, however, and from many years of living in Mexico and South America I can say that I avoid problems by not eating at places frequented by tourists and search out restaurants that cater to local residents and are busy. The theory is that a tourist hotel with a restaurant has already got your money and may not care that you spent your vacation sick in your room. But a local restaurant that gets its clientele sick will not last long. Local restaurants are more likely to be run by owners not employees who also might be more interested in keeping their business going. It's flimsy reasoning but it worked very well for me. And I never eat anywhere that has any cutesy name like "The Tipsy Parrot" or any restaurant with any hint of English in its name. Another tip: Chinese restaurants - owned and operated by emigrants from China - are all over Mexico and S. America and usually have safe food. One of my favorite eateries was a Chinese restaurant in Sao Paulo, Brazil where they served a terrific spaghetti." *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 3:43 PM, Michael Orchard <mspadorchard_at_comcast.net>wrote: > > Street vendors were one of the biggest problems, according to the speaker, > because the food is often cooked elsewhere, then transported and stored all > day in unsafe ways ... and sold hours later. > > Very true. One of the skill sets to traveling in foreign countries is to learn to recognize the street vendors that are "most likely" safe and if they are deep-frying their food in front of you (like fish-taco stands do in La Paz, BCS, Mexico for instance) then that is very likely safe. You can also see just how they are moving and storing any food prepared elsewhere if you look around their stand. Since we were on a cruising sailboat we didn't spend enough time in one place to get "acclimatized" although a physician advised us that we were no more, or less, likely to get sick from poorly stored food than a local. There are, however, some localized bacteria (particularly in the water) that one can get "used to". We did lead "taco walking" tours in La Paz for visiting yachties in which we showed them the places we had found to be safe. No one, that I knew anyway, got sick on one of these. But in Rio de Janeiro, where I lived for a few years, no one I knew - local or visitor - ever drank the water without first filtering it and then boiling it for 15 minutes. Although, after a few months, I brushed my teeth with tap water. Probably not all that smart. But here I am hale and hearty at age 66 and barely look 88. :) Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Of course, as you say... poorly stored food gets anyone local or visitor... There are different serotypes however of things like E.coli that are not truly pathogenic once you get "used" to it... and we all get some of that stuff in our food (and water) .. only in small quantities hopefully. That is the type of bug that the locals are aclimated to... and the visitor will become aclimated to in time... Have fun.... Mike O. ----- Original Message ----- From: Craig Jungers To: Michael Orchard Cc: PaddleWise_at_paddlewise.net Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2009 4:12 PM Subject: Re: Eating in third world eateries.... On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 3:43 PM, Michael Orchard <mspadorchard_at_comcast.net> wrote: Street vendors were one of the biggest problems, according to the speaker, because the food is often cooked elsewhere, then transported and stored all day in unsafe ways ... and sold hours later. Very true. One of the skill sets to traveling in foreign countries is to learn to recognize the street vendors that are "most likely" safe and if they are deep-frying their food in front of you (like fish-taco stands do in La Paz, BCS, Mexico for instance) then that is very likely safe. You can also see just how they are moving and storing any food prepared elsewhere if you look around their stand. Since we were on a cruising sailboat we didn't spend enough time in one place to get "acclimatized" although a physician advised us that we were no more, or less, likely to get sick from poorly stored food than a local. There are, however, some localized bacteria (particularly in the water) that one can get "used to". We did lead "taco walking" tours in La Paz for visiting yachties in which we showed them the places we had found to be safe. No one, that I knew anyway, got sick on one of these. But in Rio de Janeiro, where I lived for a few years, no one I knew - local or visitor - ever drank the water without first filtering it and then boiling it for 15 minutes. Although, after a few months, I brushed my teeth with tap water. Probably not all that smart. But here I am hale and hearty at age 66 and barely look 88. :) Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On Apr 26, 2009, at 6:43 PM, Michael Orchard wrote: > Cipro is thought a good thing to have available in such places... > in case the event occurs. My wife is an Ear Nose and Throat MD in the US. She agrees with this and prescribes it on occasion for this. She said it is a drug that only certain types of Doctors can write for so keep that in mind when asking your Doctor about it. Just a hopefully interesting tidbit. Jim et al *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:51 PDT