The lady who sat to the right of me on my first plane ride this morning, lent me her USA Today when she was finished. There were several health or public health related articles in today's edition but the one that I understood the least regarded information from the CDC.
The CDC is concerned that persons over age 50 who may have kidney disease or be otherwise compromised, are eating lunch meat and hot dogs without heating them to a relatively high temperature of 165* or steaming hot.
Lunch meat is susceptible to a bacteria named listeria which can lead to a deadly food born illness. AT the same time, a spokesperson from the American Geriatrics Society noted that most every senior she knows does not heat their lunch meat and does not get sick.
This sounds like another serious but rare illness. What the article didn't explain is how someone would know if they had the illness. I did find the symptoms on the mayo clinic website. Actually, that was the second website I visited. The first website I found was a little better at describing the illness, but then I noticed that it was run by a law firm that sued companies who were responsible for food born illnesses. Really.
I will post the CDC information from their own website which describes the bacteria, how it gets into our system and the symptoms of the illness. You can make your own informed decision on what to do about lunch meat - like switching to fried bologna sandwiches.
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