How You Really Need To Wash Your Food -- And Your Hands

By Beth Ricanati, M.D. for YouBeauty

We make thousands of choices every day about what to eat, what to wear, where to shop. We are so busy making these choices that sometimes we forget to make some basic choices that can save our lives and help us feel better.

For example, washing our hands. For another example, washing our fruits and vegetables.

We live in a global world, and our food comes from all over. Just because we all aspire to eat better, (which usually also means eating more locally grown food) doesn't mean this always happens.

Earlier this month, the CDC documented a nationwide food contamination with an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes that affected cantaloupes. Unfortunately, many people were infected. Those infected were from all over the United States; in fact, at least twenty states reported cases.

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This unfortunate outbreak is a great reminder to us all about the choices that we make individually, every day, to be healthy.

It's not always the big three: eating well, exercising and exhaling (stress management).

Sometimes it's as simple as washing our hands, making sure that we wash our fruits and vegetables, and being mindful of other healthy kitchen safety tips.

These include handling raw meat and eggs safely (think, for example: using a separate cutting board and utensils to handle raw meat; washing the counter with soapy water; and of course washing your hands!); cooking meat thoroughly; and checking your refrigerator to make sure that it is below 40 degrees Fahrenheit and that your freezer is set to 0 or below degrees Fahrenheit.

While I'm at it, let's talk for a moment about hand washing.

It's something we are all supposed to do, and we all think that we know how to wash our hands. Right? Come on? We've been doing this simple act all of our lives. But do you really wash your hands long enough? Most of us don't, and hand washing is perhaps one of the easiest ways to keep ourselves and those around us healthy. (And in addition to food safety, flu season is just around the corner...) So, what to do: turn on the water, make it comfortable (you're going to be here for a few minutes, after all), put some soap on your hands and start to sing your favorite song (the ABC song, sung twice, works nicely in a pinch) and scrub your hands -- back and front, past your wrists -- under the water.

When you think you're done, scrub a bit longer.

Once your hands are rinsed, before turning off the water, grab a towel to both dry your hands and turn off the faucet. This last step is good practice for when you are in a public restroom, especially! Et voila, clean hands.

So, what five servings of fruits and vegetables today are you going to enjoy today? Of course, after you've washed them thoroughly first!

Comments

[Vegan Raw Food]

12:26 PM on 10/24/2011

Great information.
I do buy a lot of organic. I wash everything no matter what. Hand washing is so important. I can almost get in and out of a public restroom without touching with my fingers. I use other parts of my body. Feet too and paper towels to open doors.
http://www.veganrawfood.net

[Philip Masiello]

07:54 AM on 10/23/2011

Yes, I agree that we should wash our fresh produce before we eat it because we do use pesticides to manage insect damage. But the real tragedy in the latest outbreak is that is was LISTERIA on cantaloupes, and prior to that, tomatoes. Listeria is an animal disease. Prior to 7 years ago, Listeria was unheard of on fruits and vegetable. It is not coming from animal fecal matter that seeped into the soil. Generally, on large produce farms, animals are many many miles away. It is coming from the fertilizer that is being used, part of which contains ground up whole animals such as chickens.

Our food supply is so tainted and altered from what is started out to be, I cannot think that the rise of cancer incidences and the early maturation and development of young kids is directly correlated to it. We don't even grow our corn from corn today. Most of it is genetically modified. GMO's are so pervasive that there are groups forming to store Non GMO seeds for our long term survival.

I don't care about organic/natural foods designations. They are all complete garbage as no one is monitoring it and there is no consistent oversight group. It can be organic and still come from GMO's. I am speaking of the altering of our food supply and putting chemicals in our bodies that were never meant to be there. This should be a priority for the world

[Rebecca Fetler]

04:21 PM on 10/19/2011

To me it's really sad that we even have give our fruits and veggies more than just a quick rinse. It's sad that so many foods are riddled with pesticides--enough that we have to worry about it at all.

[Blarg]

06:07 PM on 10/18/2011

Misleading title; I thought there was going to be something on washing food here besides "making sure to".

For instance, I've read elsewhere that you should wash bananas, as they are heavily treated with pesticides. And I've read elsewhere that potatoes are too, so don't eat potatoes with the skin on as much anymore. Also that apples are usually waxed, and that locks in pesticides, so now I'll often use a little soap on the skin to cut back whatever it can cut back. Doesn't affect the taste any and only takes a few seconds more.

[Chuck Bluestein]

02:34 PM on 10/18/2011

That is a good idea to turn the faucet off with a paper towel but many places save on paper by just havig hot air dryers. I guess that you can always wash the spicket.

[thecatwoman]

03:28 PM on 10/18/2011

I use toilet paper in those cases though it sticks to your wet hands :-/

[Blarg]

06:09 PM on 10/18/2011

I whack the air dryer knob with my forearm to turn it on. I also open a lot of doors with a forearm or the back of my hand.

[thecatwoman]

01:10 PM on 10/18/2011

It should be noted that just plain soap is all you need to wash your hands. Those labeled as antibacterial contain Triclosan and were found to be nor more effective at reducing bacteria than washing with soap. Aside from being an environmental hazard, Triclosan is a hormone disruptor; it lowers sperm production and is linked to numerous other health issues. It's already in so many other products (toothpaste, mattresses, tissues, etc) and is now showing up in our bodies, so it certainly wouldn't hurt to eliminate it from at least one source.

While we're on the topic, I can't help but mention that if you're interested in supporting handcrafted soap makers rather than the big companies disguising their detergents as soaps, check out our all natural bar and liquid soaps at BelleJourneeUSA.com!

[thenegry]

07:31 AM on 10/18/2011

db025: "Fill your sink half full with water and top it off with PURE BLEACH. toss in your veggies, fruits, and meat."
First, vegetables, meat and fruits are going to get damage if you do that. Then, using straight bleach either to wash food or to drink is toxic and can cause severe injury to your digestive system. You only need about one tablespoon (1/2 fluid ounce, 15 ml) of typical chlorine bleach per gallon of water is the maximum to be used for sanitizing food surfaces, according to federal regulation. If higher concentrations are used, the surface must be rinsed with potable water after sanitizing. Contact times of ONE TO FIVE minutes are usually sufficient to achieve a thorough kill, depending on chlorine concentration and organic load. Therefore, it can help to kill many bacterias found in fruits and vegetables.

"Let everything soak for 30 to 90 minute, with PURE BLEACH" That will make your food have a delicious bleach taste. Mmm Mmm yummy!..., Not! As I said above, there is no need to soak them over 5 minutes.

"Every thing must be re-washed before cooking...
rinse each item in individual sink-fulls of water. Be sure to scrub the sink with hot water and bleach between each item." Is that the "doing nothing but cooking city". Get real!!, people have other things to do as well.!!
So take the time for cleaning your fruits and vegetable, safely! :)

[Steve68112]

04:44 AM on 10/18/2011

And have some class when out in public: Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, and wash your hands after blowing your nose instead of wiping it on the nearest hand railing where 100 other dupes will pick it up, get sick, and spread it further. Wash your hands well as soon as you return home from areas like the mall, grocery store, etc. and always avoid wiping your face with your hands both to avoid spreading something to anyone else and to avoid acquiring it yourself. You don't need to be a hermit, just take reasonable precautions and you can reduce the number of times you get sick in a year by at least 80%. Get a flu shot at least every couple of years, or sooner if there is a major new strain of the flu. Of course if you are over 65, weak immune system, etc. talk to your doctor about getting one every year plus the pneumonia shot if needed. Stay clean, stay well!!

[Steve68112]

04:44 AM on 10/18/2011

The ignorance is VAST, and there are simply massive numbers of gross people out there, wandering around and reproducing. Most have no clue how to properly wash their hands, many trying to simply 'rinse' the germs away, while actually only spreading more by touching water faucets and door handles, etc. Others don't even bother to try! GROSS! Make sure to wash your hands long enough with enough soap and by all means avoid touching faucet handles, door knobs and handles, etc. on the way out (use paper towells or carry in an extra napkin or 2 if needed). And if you are in a restaurant (or god forbid even a hospital) and can't find soap in the restroom or see employees fail to wash their hands when leaving a restroom be sure to tell the manager and make a scene on the way out (without eating, if possible), then report it to the health department. Don't go back there again if you can help it, either. That is no joke--these idiots spread more diseases than rats spread plague--and kill more people. They all need to be run out of business as quickly as possible. True some germs are natural in our environment, but we are not talking about those here--these can be real killers like E. coli, Listeria, MRS, and other deadly flesh eating and antibiotic resistant strains, and the flu.

[Kev n]

04:42 AM on 10/18/2011

Ok. We got the hands part, but please explain how to wash fruits and vegetable.

[fourstrongwinds4]

04:32 AM on 10/18/2011

I know it's weird, but when I have a work man in my house after he leaves I windex the door knobs and things he touched. I wash my hands whenever I come in the house from being out and about too, using baby wipes in the car and the bathroom. I just can't stand having my hands dirty. I don't know why, but at least I don't have compulsions for other things. Kept in check, it's an OK weirdity to have.

[fourstrongwinds4]

04:25 AM on 10/18/2011

I have a compulsion to wash my hands and I can tell you right off, it's a pain in the a**! I can't touch something without washing my hands. No, not the cat or whatever. But food? Wash wash... I wash my fruits and veggies with dish soap and thouroghly rinse off. Hey, you wash your dishes with dish soap, why not what you eat? I had fish tonight, washed it with a tiny drop of dish soap then rinsed off. Tasted great. Problem is I cannot stand anything on my hands, so lotion annoys me. But I use it anyway...just wipe off my palms. Weird, I have no other such compulsions.. thank God! BTW, haven't had a cold or flu in over 10 years. No flu shot, don't trust them.

[StevenRussell1]

01:56 AM on 10/18/2011

Found nowhere in Scripture.

[Blarg]

06:14 PM on 10/18/2011

LOL maybe God thought we could figure out some things by ourselves. He doesn't tell us not to stick pickles in our ears either; he probably thought he didn't have to bother.

[William Niver]

08:55 PM on 10/17/2011

OR you can resolve not to live life in xenophobic fear of microbes and use common sense when washing. Use the bathroom? Pee on your fingers? Sneeze into your hand? Shake with sick people? Wash your hands in warm water with regular soap. Your farm fresh eggs come with some "extra coloring" or your store-bought mushrooms have traces of dirt and worse? Wash them, by all means. BUT sterilizing one's environment will actually promote infection: without small exposures to pathogens, we don't build resistance like our dirty ancestors did, and using germicides simply kills off the wek bacteria, leaving only "super germs" to breed and multiply. I can remember when kids played in the dirt, rolled on the grass, made pies out of mud, occasionally stepped in dog doo, and even cut their bare feet from time to time. What I DON'T remember is those same kids developing the allergies and sensitivities so prevalent in today's "sanitized" world.

[jtoenis]

10:06 PM on 10/17/2011

You are so right William! Everyone use a little common sense. This article is a little much unless you are planning on doing a surgical scrub then go ahead & sing your ABCs twice otherwise you're going to end up with some dermatological problems!

[Blarg]

06:17 PM on 10/18/2011

George Carlin has a concert video up where he says we're too paranoid about germs too. He says he used to swim with the other kids in a river that had raw sewage dumped into it. He says his body had so much practice fighting off germs that now he never gets sick.

For my part, I used to work in an office with mostly women who had young children. Those children constantly catch every disease and pass it around to everyone who comes near. I got exposed to so many germs from so many kids' mothers from so many different neighborhoods that it was a miracle if I ever caught a cold or flu. Like Carlin says, my immune system was kept in tip-top shape because it had so much practice.

[Brenda Orr]

06:24 PM on 10/17/2011

When I was teaching ART. I taught the kids how to wash their hands on the first day.. I added Cleaning under their fingernails... I showed them how to wet hands, put small amount of hand soap on hands,clean under their fingernails & lather away from the water ,while singing Happy Birthday twice. Then to rinse their hands under the water, grab a towel dry hands and turn off the water with the towel... Believe it or not, A parent was upset that this information came from of all places the ART TEACHER... I guess that it does not pay to know too much and to care about student's health. I have heard back from so many students, thanking me for the extra information.

[Blarg]

06:21 PM on 10/18/2011

Parents are amazing, and not always in a good way. It's amazing how many kids are more or less raised by wolves. I see it every time I go out to eat and see (and hear!) both children and adults chewing with their mouths open. Blecchwow ... it can be disgusting.

Then there are some cultures in which that is the norm, and others in which it is common to loudly suck your teeth after a meal ... ugh. I'm sure we do things which disgust them right back, but it would be nice if we all moved upward a little bit instead of having our own grotesqueries.