Sometimes eating out is the best option for when you’ve had a long day and don’t want to bother cooking, the problem these days is that while you might be spending from $10-$40 in a meal, you are not aware of the fact that you are paying to get sick as well.
Eating at a restaurant has a lot of side effects:
Not aware of the calorie intake: if you are on a diet it is better for you to cook your own food, so this way you are aware of the things you are putting in your food. You may order a chicken salad at a restaurant that can contain 1000 calories and not even notice.
Food poisoning/foodborne illness: (most common)
Foodborne illness has affected millions of people around the world, it is caused by bacteria that will make you seriously ill. In some cases, this bacteria is produced by the bad manipulation of products, for example not refrigerating, washing or cooking food Properly.
Norovirus:
It’s a gastrointestinal illness, causing a lot of vomiting and diarrhea, and lasts for around 2-3 days.
Salmonella:
There are a lot of salmonella types but it happens when the bacteria in the intestines of the animal spread in its bloodstream and it can be passed to humans when the meat is not properly cooked. The illness causes fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps and sometimes serious and killer infections.
Affects your budget:
Let’s say you have an amazing dish in front of you, it looks fresh, delicious and it’s tasty, how do you know the chef didn’t miss washing his hands, the waiter didn’t touch the plate and food in it with his hands that have been serving other peoples food all day? that the meat you are about to eat is properly washed and cooked? That the lettuce you are eating doesn’t contains tiny little bacteria or food worms that will affect your health? There are a lot of factors that we take for granted and we assume we will eat a properly made meal since we are paying $20 for it.
1. Chicken
Meat may become contaminated during slaughter or not properly washed or cooked at a restaurant; for it to be properly washed it has to be done with soap and warm water and anything that has touched the raw chicken/meat should be washed this way as well.
What to do?
Always request that your food be cooked thoroughly, especially meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. Check the meat by cutting it in the middle, check for it if to be all white this will indicate it is properly cooked, any pink white meat, send it back.
2. Salads/Lettuce
Fruits and vegetables are extremely altered with chemicals and sometimes they have been sitting there for weeks. An easy example is lettuce. A salad in a restaurant contains more than half a lettuce, it should be properly washed leaf by leaf for it to actually be clear of bacteria. In some cases people wash lettuce with a few drops of chlorine, since it contains tiny worms and bacteria that can cause big damage to our stomachs. While making around 100 salads per day do you think there is someone washing lettuces properly in a restaurant?
3. Seafood:
About 70% of the time the seafood that you eat in restaurants, come from markets. Seafood restaurants buy big quantities of fish cheaper in these places, you don’t really eat fresh sea food and don’t know how it was manipulated or how long it has been out of the water.
4. House specialties:
Every restaurant has a house special, it is their high demand and main product, for them to have time enough to prepare them they have to pre-make them, meaning they could be sitting there for hours.
5. Tap water and ice:
Water is extremely contaminated these days, even though there are water filters, restaurants refill their pitchers with water that sits there for hours, also by adding ice, even if the person used something to put it in the glass, ice has been sitting there and ice cubes are very dirty and full of bacteria as well.
6. Do it yourself grilling places:
People who go to those places where you can cook your own food, are doing 3 things wrong:
· after the restaurant closes, chefs or whoever cleans up the place uses chemicals to clean up the residue, if you are one of the first costumers you might be eating your food with some of these chemicals.
· the restaurant serves the food raw for you to cook it, this food sits out there in room temperature for a while, making it more vulnerable to bacteria.
· these type of restaurants are usually more expensive and think twice you are paying for cooking your own food? Yeah it might be a fun thing to do especially if going with kids but opt for getting a cooking set of your own and do this activity at home you will save lots of money and avoid a lot of bacteria and germs!
