“Superbugs” are not creepy crawly insects. They are bacterial organisms that can make you very sick. They’re called “superbugs” because they can’t easily be controlled with medicine. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be eating superbugs with your burger!

According to research conducted by Consumer Reports, superbugs are proliferating in conventionally-produced ground beef. If that’s what you buy when you make a burger or other food with hamburger (like meat loaf or spaghetti sauce), you run the risk of getting so sick you could die.

That’s especially true if you like your burgers rare or medium-rare, and only cook them to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.

Consumer Reports tested the equivalent of 1,832 quarter-pounders, bought from 103 grocery, big-box and natural food stores in 26 cities across the U.S.

What they found is stunning: five types of bacteria: clostridium perfringens, E. coli, enterococcus, salmonella and staphylococcus aureus.

All of these bacteria can cause food poisoning.

But you should be concerned about more than an uncomfortable stomach ache.

One strain of E. coli can release a toxin that damages the lining of the intestine, often leading to abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea, vomiting and in some cases, life-threatening kidney damage.

Between 2003 and 2012, there were almost 80 outbreaks of E. coli O157 due to tainted beef, sickening 1,144 people, putting 316 in the hospital and killing five, Consumer Reports’ analysis found.

“Ground beef was the source of the majority of those outbreaks,” said the non-profit research group.

⇒ And here’s the kicker.

“For every case of E. coli O157 that we hear about, we estimate that another 26 cases actually occur,” say the report’s authors.

Beef is the fourth most common cause of salmonella outbreaks—
one of the most common foodborne illnesses in the U.S.

For each reported illness caused by that bacteria, an estimated 29 other people are infected.

How Did Superbugs get So Super?

√ One reason the illnesses occur is because people are eating beef that they don’t cook well enough.

√ But the bigger problem is with the beef itself. Most beef is produced in “conventional” factory farm-type feedlots where the cattle are fattened up with grain and soy and fed antibiotics and other drugs to promote growth and prevent disease.

√ Ironically, these antibiotics encourage the bacteria that cause disease to develop a resistance to them.

√ The more antibiotics cattle are given, the more resistant to them the bacteria become, which is how they turn into superbugs.

Consumer Reports found a type of antibiotic-resistant S. aureus bacteria called MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) on three conventional samples (and none on samples from cows raised in a more humane and sustainable way). S. aureus kills about 11,000 people in the U.S. every year.

√ Bacteria can also get on the meat during slaughter or processing.

With a steak or a roast, the bacteria tend to stay on the surface, so when you cook them, the outside is likely to get hot enough to kill any bugs.

But grinding up the beef mixes the bacteria throughout, contaminating all of the meat inside and out.

√ The problem is compounded because the meat and fat that are ground into beef usually come from several animals. Even if only one cow is contaminated, its meat may get mixed into many other packages.

√ Superbug-infested meat can also contaminate the processing plants that package it, as well as the stores and restaurants that serve it.

Superbugs in Your Kitchen

Your kitchen is at risk, too. If you knead ground beef into hamburger patties or a meat loaf, you could be spreading dangerous bacteria on your counter or in your sink.

And if you don’t scrub your hands after working with the meat, you could spread the bacteria to whatever you touch next.

“There’s no way to tell by looking at a package of meat or smelling it whether it has harmful bacteria or not,” warns Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Food Safety and Sustainability at Consumer Reports.

“You have to be on guard every time.”

How to Avoid Eating Superbugs With Your Burger

Want to take a break from eating so much meat?

Check out our Meatless Monday recipes. They’re delish!

This recipe for a Zucchini Frittata is one of my favorites.

The post Are You Eating Superbugs With Your Burger? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Consumer Reports, which did the research on arsenic contamination in rice, reports that “According to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the U.S. is the world’s leading user of arsenic…since 1910 about 1.6 million tons have been used for agricultural and industrial purposes, about half of it only since the mid-1960s. Residues from the decades of use of lead-arsenate insecticides linger in agricultural soil today, even though their use was banned in the 1980s. Other arsenical ingredients in animal feed to prevent disease and promote growth are still permitted. Moreover, fertilizer made from poultry waste can contaminate crops with inorganic arsenic.”

Most plants absorb some arsenic when they are grown. But because rice is grown in water, it  absorbs significantly more arsenic, which ends up in the rice grains we eat.

What can you do?

* Eat less rice, especially babies, kids and pregnant women – Consumer Reports recommends that “babies eat no more than one serving of infant rice cereal per day on average. And their diets should include cereals made of wheat, oatmeal, or corn grits, which contain significantly lower levels of arsenic, according to federal information.”

* Wash rice before you cook it. Rinse rice before you wash it until the water runs clear, which will help wash away some of the arsenic .

* Cook rice in a lot of water. Consumer Reports recommends cooking rice in six cups of water for every one cup of raw rice you want to cook. When the rice is done, pour off the cooking water before serving. Between washing the rice and cooking it in extra water, you can reduce your exposure to the arsenic it contains by as much as 45%.

* Vary your diet. Regardless of your age, it makes sense to vary your diet and find healthful vegetable and whole grain alternatives to rice. Replace rice cakes with popcorn, rice cereal with oats or other whole grains, rice milk with almond milk or soy milk, rice syrup with maple syrup. Replace rice pilafs with whole wheat pasta dishes, couscous, or bulgur.

* Buy more organic food. Ironically, some organic rice cereals contained levels of arsenic equal to or higher than non-organic brands. So when it comes to rice, there may be no truly safe option. Nevertheless, buying organic food generally will help reduce the amount of arsenic added to the soil and that gets into groundwater.

* Sign this petition. Anna Hackman at Green Talk started this Change.org petition to encourage the Food and Drug Administration to set specific safety levels for arsenic in our food.

Here’s the link to the original report from Consumer Reports.

The post How You Can Avoid Eating Arsenic When You Cook Rice appeared first on Big Green Purse.