E.coli 0157 is not your friend!

E. coli O157:H7. This strain of E.coli is not your friend! There are probably strains of E.coli in you right now helping you to digest your food because not all strains are harmful. I thought they were all bad until I read a recent article in Men’s Health. The bad strain of E.coli lives in the stomach of the cow and when they go to the bathroom it comes out but during the gross process of slaughtering the meat can come into contact with the feces. That is when we have a problem. My question, why in the heck aren't the slaughter houses being more sanitary and careful? My guess, it’s attached to money and the more cows they can kill and the faster they can kill them the more meat they sell. This means, more money so who care about E.coli! According to this great article in, Men’s Health , it was pointed out that last year “…30 millions pounds of ground beef were recalled for possible contamination of E.coli”. That’s a lot of meat that has come into contact with cow poop! The USDA is supposed to test the meat and if it has come into contact with E.Coli or if infected it cannot be sent onto the next processing stage and be ground up for us to make our hamburgers. Except, some of it does. This means we can get sick and if you aren’t healthy you can die and your kidneys can shut down. The author of the Men’s Health article does give kudos to the USDA because they’re testing more but they are finding more!

This article , refers to the fact that it might be the cows fault and I laugh at this. Yes, it’s the cows fault! They are being fed a different kind of grain that is making them poop different and then they want to be chopped up for dinner and have their feces come into contact with their chopped up parts! The different kind of corn is supposedly increasing the amount of E.coli that the cows have in their gut but can we really blame the cow?

All of this does make me sick but I have to admit I still buy hamburger (don’t get your panties in a bundle) because as much as I don’t like this and it makes me ill my husband will not change his ways. I cannot make other people change but I can change where I get my meat and what I buy. I buy from someone I know, a small local farmer, who I can look in the eyes. That’s my advice for those who still choose to eat beef or have to buy it for their loved ones that won’t change.

*If the format of this post is all messed up with no seperations or paragraphs, it's because blogger isn't publishing it any other way for some odd reason?