Salmonella & Raw Eggs - Garner Healthy Living
You have probably also heard that you can get it from eating undercooked food or food that is left out after cooking. This is also true.
Many people have pointed out the health benefits of eating raw eggs, but they are nearly always countered by someone saying, "But you will get salmonella poisoning that way."
Both points are true.
Eggs are very good for you! Eating them raw is the best way to eat them! Raw eggs are a nearly perfect form of balanced protein for the human body. Part of those proteins are actually very good for latching onto heavy metals and getting them flushed out of the body.
Eggs can also carry salmonella. Your chances of getting salmonella from raw eggs is 1 in 30,000.
That is a small risk, but a risk nontheless.
So, should you avoid eggs because of the salmonella risk?
No! But you need to understand more about salmonella.
You can kill salmonella by cooking things, but only if you cook them long enough. Many people cook eggs to kill any possible salmonella bacteria, but if you are eating them sunny side up, or soft boiled they may not be cooked hot enough for long enough to kill the bacteria. The problem is the more you cook an egg the less health giving it becomes.
Salmonella on the other hand is much less of a threat than you may have been led to believe. The truth about salmonella is that it really can't take hold and cause any problems in a healthy human body. In fact most of us have some small amount of salmonella introduced into our systems all the time. In a healthy body the salmonella is controlled and killed by healthy intestinal flora in the gut.
In the laboratory when they take a sample from someone that they suspect may have salmonella poisoning they have to add an "enrichment culture" to the sample to get the salmonella to grow. Otherwise the other "beneficial bacteria" from the gut inhibits it's growth.
In other words, salmonella can only cause trouble in a system with compromised intestinal flora. So if you keep a healthy intestinal environment you don't need to worry about salmonella poisoning, unless you could somehow ingest a whole bunch of it at one time.
So the next logic question is how do you make sure that you have a healthy intestinal environment.
First, don't do things that will kill off your good intestinal bacteria. That means don't drink a lot of chlorinated water. Chlorine will kill off the bacteria. Don't smoke. Don't drink alcohol.
Second, do things that are good for your intestinal flora. Eat fresh fruit and vegetables. Perhaps add Jerusalem artichokes to your diet. Get plenty of healthy natural fiber which is also good for the intestines. You can also use natural yogurts that contain live beneficial bacteria.
If you live a healthy lifestyle your immune system will take care of any stray bacteria that happens to come along.
Go ahead, enjoy those raw eggs. Live a healthy lifestyle and let the ignorant worry about salmonella.
Just eat a high quality natural foods diet, exercise, drink plenty of good clean water, make sure you get fiber (whole raw foods), get plenty of sleep, breathe deeply and have a gratitude attitude.
Your body will take care of you, if you take care of it.
Coach G.
