
What to Blame for Your Stomach Bug? Not Always the Last Thing You Ate - 101carl
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/well/live/what-to-blame-for-your-stomach-bug-not-always-the-last-thing-you-ate.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
======
boyce
As a restauranteur, I (very occasionally!) get calls from people accusing us
of making them ill, threatening bad reviews and demanding vouchers or refunds.

The majority of the time it's someone who tries the same scam on every
restaurant. Fortunately, around here at least, independent restaurant owners
and managers keep in contact with each other and keep a track of these things.
I did hear about one scammer recently who called every restaurant in town
saying they had made him ill on the same day - the chain places pretty much
all gave a cash refund for what he said he'd spent.

Other times it's someone who has actually eaten with you but forgotten that
they had seven beers with their steak.

Whatever the situation appears to be, the best way is to always take
accusations super seriously, ask for a doctor's letter, a sample for testing,
contact environmental health etc. This is the point where everyone backs down,
scamming or just hung over.

Never had a genuine food poisoning case at anywhere I've worked or failed an
inspection or anything of that sort...we know what we're doing better than you
do at home after all

~~~
kpil
From a customer's perspective, it's really hard to prove, so I have rarely
done anything when I have gotten ill.

Most of the cases it's been rather mild symptoms and I have suspected the
canteen at work for serving leftovers that probably hadn't been chilled fast
enough. I've simply stopped eating things that I recognize from the past...

I have also gotten sick from moules marinières where I suspect that they used
the same tools for fresh and cooked mussels as it must have been some kind of
virus that knocked out both me and my friend with a high fever and rather
alarming symptoms for 24 hours. I just decided to never go there again...

However, I once called the health and sanity inspectors when I was served a
incorrectly cooked Escolar served as "butterfish" at a lunch restaurant, which
led to an interesting night for everyone in the same company. The restaurant
offered a free meal but I just wanted them to stop serving shit they didn't
know how to cook.

~~~
askvictor
There is no correct way to cook escolar aka butterfish aka olestrafish. It's
banned for sale in some places, should be banned everywhere.

~~~
kpil
Theoretically, you can grill it, and hope that most wax esters will melt, but
I wouldn't want to bet my underpants on that again.

I'm told that it also develops histamines in a much higher rate than other
fish so there is also a risk for a severe reaction in general.

~~~
dpark
I can't imagine that most of the fats would melt off without it ruining the
fish anyway.

------
elorant
Since last August, when I had a severe GERD issue that took six months to go
away, I keep a very detailed daily journal of everything I eat, the time I eat
it and any kind of symptoms it might be causing me even hours later. It's the
best way, and probably the only one, to isolate foods that make my stomach
upset. Now I can correlate symptoms with foods/hours and draw conclusions
based on hard data. It has helped me a lot to fight GERD, even more than the
drugs my gastroenterologist prescribed. So I guess I've hacked my own health
in a way.

~~~
m_ke
Hey, how do you track your meals?

I'm working on an app (Bitesnap) to help people keep track of their diet. At
some point we'd like to add more features to help users figure out what's
causing their dietary issues.

~~~
elorant
I'm using a simple Excel worksheet to record everything and once a month I
move the data to an SQL Server table for easier correlations.

BTW, make sure you also give the ability to record beverages because in many
cases they're the root of stomach problems. And you could add some social
functionality so users could correlate with others who have similar dietary
habits.

------
interfixus
In my younger days, I used to get my normal share of cold and flu and gastric
upsets. Since instigating a few basic precautionary behaviors and no-gos, I
haven't had a sick day for more than ten years.

I _never_ stick fingers in my mouth or nose, and I only rub my eyes when
reasonably satisfied that it is safe to do so.

I take care not uncritically to touch exposed things and surfaces in public
areas. And only use trolleys or baskets in supermarkets if absolutely forced
to. I'm aware that anything conveyed by the check-out conveyoer belt is
potentially contaminated.

I wash my hands, of course, though I am by no means fanatical about it.

~~~
spodek
Curiously, I do all those things without a second thought -- as well as my
daily habit of picking up at least one piece of trash from the street and
putting it in a trash can, putting my bare hands on subway poles and in dirt
when gardening -- and have also not had a sick day in as long as I can
remember, at least a decade.

------
GoToRO
And if your goal is to be productive as a programmer: any faint headache will
make you feel as if you are not motivated. These barely noticeable headaches
may come from bad water, bad food, no water, no food, you stayed in wind, you
are about to get sick, you stayed in hot sun, you didn't rest well (too cold,
too hot, not enough sleep) and so on.

~~~
yosito
This probably explains why I'm often tempted to binge eat instead of working.

------
naasking
Gastrointestinal issues are almost never due to the last thing you ate, unless
you're living in a third world country. It's usually the highly contagious
norovirus, which you typically get from shared bathrooms and door handles.
Most people just call it food poisoning because that's just how our brains
work, as a protective bias.

~~~
oliv__
Citation needed

~~~
naasking
See outbreaks:

[https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/trends-
outbreaks.html](https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/trends-outbreaks.html)

50% of food borne illnesses are already caused by norovirus. Now look at the
graph above, and notice that non-food based transmission of norovirus is
almost 8x higher.

Differentiating between norovirus from actual food poisoning is not too
difficult either.

------
habitue
This strikes me as an interesting case if the credit assignment problem from
reinforcement learning[0] (Think of the reward in this case being negative,
you get sick)

[0]
[http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Reinforcement_learning#....](http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Reinforcement_learning#.28Temporal.29_Credit_Assignment_Problem)

------
jghn
When people say they have "food poisoning" and blame it on something in
particular I always point out that it's almost _never_ what you think it is.

However, even knowing that doesn't help a whole lot with the queasiness that
one associates with that food item. I've had a few GI bugs which have caused
me to never be able to eat at the "offending" establishment ever again, even
though I now the likelihood that the mental connection is correct is near 0

~~~
just4themoney
I got sick drinking a bit too much limoncello once day. Now I can't stomach
lemon flavored seltzer. I taste it and feel like I'm going to vomit.

~~~
weaksauce
That's called taste aversion.

------
kbos87
My family used to own a restaurant. We used to get occasional calls from
people claiming to be sick. People would be dumb enough to call us screaming,
with an indignant attitude, blaming something they ate at our establishment an
hour ago.

Foodborne illness usually takes longer to set in, and in most cases, is
something they prepared for themselves at home. Not all restaurants are
perfect of course, but most take precautions, not risks, when it comes to
their livelihoods.

------
danwills
It surprises me that the article doesn't mention the idea that intentional
maintainence and nourishment of ones own intestinal flora is one way to help
defend against unpleasant intestinal events.

~~~
SpikeDad
Because it's still unproven. And your friendly intestinal flora is gonna get
it's asses kicked if a load of salmonella or e-coli comes a-callin.

------
oliv__
This article reeks of Germ-o-phobia.

