Words on Wellness

Moms want the best for their babies, and typically pay more attention to their diet and physical activity during pregnancy. They eat more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and dairy products. Because pregnancy affects the immune system, moms and their unborn babies are more susceptible to bacteria, viruses, and parasites that cause foodborne illness. But do you know there are foods to avoid during pregnancy? Pregnant women are at increased risk of bacterial food poisoning because the immune system is compromised.

Here is a checklist to help ensure that moms and babies stay healthy and safe.

• Raw, undercooked, or contaminated seafood may contain harmful bacteria or viruses. It’s important to avoid raw oysters and clams and refrigerated smoked seafood, such as lox. Cook most fish to an internal temperature of 145°F. Canned, shelf-stable versions of seafood (e.g., tuna and salmon) and seafood cooked to the proper internal temperatures are safe to eat.

• Avoid undercooked meat, poultry, and eggs. Fully cook all meats and poultry before eating. Cook hot dogs and processed deli meats until steaming or avoid them all together. Cook eggs until the egg yolks and whites are firm as raw eggs can be contaminated with the salmonella bacteria. Bake cookies and cakes. Raw cookie dough or cake batter may contain salmonella from raw eggs.

• Avoid unpasteurized foods such as unpasteurized milk or soft cheeses. Be sure these cheeses are clearly labeled as being pasteurized or made with pasteurized milk: brie, feta, camembert, blue cheese, and mexican-style cheeses such as queso blanco, queso fresco and panela. Avoid drinking unpasteurized juice or homemade apple cider. Check their label.

•  Avoid unwashed fruits and vegetables as they may harbor harmful bacteria. Cut away any damaged portions as well. Avoid raw sprouts of any kind. Alfalfa, clover, radish, and mung bean sprouts may contain disease-causing bacteria, so cook thoroughly. Always check with your healthcare provider for specific food, food safety, and pregnancy questions.

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Great lunch ideas when you do not have refrigerator access:

• Peanut butter sandwiches (check the label because some peanut butters may require refrigeration)
• Popcorn (great whole grain addition to your food intake)
• Bread, crackers, bagels (choose whole grains)
• Fresh fruit with the peel on
• Unopened single-serving containers of fruit, fruit juice, and shelf-stable pudding
• Dried fruits
• Nuts (combine fruits, nuts, and cereal for a healthy granola)
• Cookies, cereal bars

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You now have food safety at your fingertips by downloading these free apps from the Apple Store for your iPhone, iPodTouch, and iPad.

Not sure what temperature to cook that pork, beef, fish, or poultry to prevent foodborne illness? Use the SafeFood© app to quickly find the right temperature for safe eating.

Not sure how long to keep those leftovers? Use the 4 Day Throw Away Leftovers app to check if the food in your refrigerator is safe to eat.

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Hot or Cold?

Warm weather and outdoor celebrations increase foodborne illnesses. The most important principle of keeping food safe is to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Bacteria grow best between temperatures of 40°F and 140°F so it is essential to keep food out of this temperature range.

For warm weather travel, it is best to transport chilled foods.

• Refrigerate or freeze the food overnight.
• For a cold source, bring frozen gel-packs or freeze some box drinks.
• The drinks will thaw and keep your meal cold at the same time.

If you are keeping hot foods hot while traveling, you can use the new insulated casserole dishes, which will keep food hot for an hour or so. Use a food thermometer and follow the new recommendations for safely cooking meat, including grilling. Take the temperature in the thickest part of the meat without the thermometer touching bone while it is still on the grill. When it comes to safely grilling meat, remember these three numbers:

• 145°F for all whole meats PLUS three minutes rest time (This is a new recommendation for pork.)
• 160°F for ground meats
• 165°F for all poultry (including ground poultry)

Hot or cold, plan ahead: decide what you are going to eat, how it will be prepared, and how you will transport and store it.

• Pack safely: use a cooler with a cold source if picnicking, camping, or boating; pack foods in the frozen state with a cold source if hiking or backpacking.
• Keep raw foods separate from other foods.
• Never bring meat or poultry products without a cold source.
• Toss leftover food unless your cooler has enough ice to maintain foods below 40°F.
• Wash your hands with soap and water before and after handling food.
• Pack cold beverages separately from food to prevent food being exposed to frequent opening/closing of cooler.
• Never use the ice used for cooling for consumption.

Adapted from USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS)

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Preserve the Taste of Summer is now being offered by Iowa State University Extension Nutrition and Health program specialists. This comprehensive program includes both online lessons and hands on workshops. The program is a great opportunity for anyone age 18 years or older interested in learning safe food preservation techniques. Youth age 17 years and younger are welcome to participate but will need a parent or guardian also in attendance.

First, complete both online general overview sessions and any online method-specific sessions, if you are interested in further information.

General overview sessions include:

• food safety
• canning basics

Method-specific lessons include:

• canning acid foods
• pressure canning low-acid foods
• preparation and canning of pickled and fermented foods
• making and preserving fruit spreads
• freezing food, storage of frozen and refrigerated foods
• drying foods

Each regionally-based workshop will begin with a brief review of information presented in the overview lesson.

The anticipated workshops are:

1. hot water bath canning (salsa making) and freezing
2. jams and dehydrating
3. pickle making
4. pressure canning

Contact your local Extension office and ask for the nutrition and health program specialist for more information.

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Eggs made news earlier this year because of a salmonella outbreak. Properly handling and storing eggs will reduce the risk of contaminating eggs with salmonella. Salmonella infection is often the result of eating raw or undercooked eggs or egg products, meat, or poultry. It can take from several hours to about two days to cause symptoms. Following is a list of possible signs and symptoms of salmonella infection:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Abdominal pain
• Diarrhea
• Fever
• Chills
• Headache
• Muscle pains
• Blood in the stool

There are many ways to make sure eggs are safe to eat. Use the following tips:

1. Buy eggs only if sold from a refrigerator or refrigerated case at 45°F.
2. Store eggs in their original carton on a shelf in the refrigerator (not in the door) and use them within 3 weeks for best quality.
3. Wash hands, utensils, equipment, and work surfaces with hot, soapy water before and after they come in contact with eggs and egg-containing foods.
4. Cook eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm. Scrambled eggs should not be runny.
5. Casseroles and other dishes containing eggs should be cooked to 160°F (72°C). Use a food thermometer to be sure.
6. For recipes that call for eggs that are raw or undercooked when the dish is served—Caesar salad dressing and homemade ice cream are two examples— use pasteurized egg products.
7. Avoid taste-testing egg-containing foods before they are thoroughly cooked.
8. For buffet-style serving, hot egg dishes should be kept hot, and cold egg dishes kept cold.
9. Cooked eggs, including hard-boiled eggs, and egg-containing foods should not sit out for more than 2 hours. Within 2 hours either reheat or refrigerate.
10. Use hard-cooked eggs (in the shell or peeled) within 1 week after cooking.
11. Refrigerate leftover cooked egg dishes and use within 3 to 4 days. When refrigerating a large amount of a hot egg-containing leftover, divide it into several shallow containers so it will cool quickly.
12. Cooked eggs for a picnic should be packed in an insulated cooler with enough ice or frozen gel packs to keep them cold. Don’t put the cooler in the trunk— carry it in the air-conditioned passenger compartment of the car.

Source: Retrieved from “Playing It Safe With Eggs”

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It’s May and time to brush off the outdoor grill. A national poll reveals that 6 out of 10 Americans can’t wait to fire up the grill for the outdoor cooking season. Nearly 90 percent of people say they plan to enjoy grilled food in their own backyard this summer.

It’s important to have a safe as well as an enjoyable barbecue season. Here are some safety tips to guide you through a safe grilling season.

1.  Grills are for outside only. Never barbecue in your trailer, tent, house, garage, or any enclosed area because carbon monoxide can accumulate and harm you. Set up your grill in an open area that is well-ventilated and away from buildings, overhead combustible surfaces, dry leaves, or brush. Use baking soda to control a grease fire and have a fire extinguisher handy.

2.  Use different utensils, platters, and tongs for raw versus cooked meats, fish, or poultry on the grill. One of the biggest mistakes made while grilling is to use the same platter for raw meat as well as grilled meat. That mistake allows the bacteria from raw meat juices to contaminate the cooked meat. Be sure to wash utensils and platters with hot, soapy water and rinse with hot water to remove and kill bacteria.

3.  Keep cold foods cold. If you are transporting cold food outside, be sure to keep it cold for as long as possible by using a cooler with ice. Place the cooler in the car rather than in the trunk to keep cold foods cold while transporting. Keep raw meats separate from foods that won’t be cooked. Meat stored on ice will contaminate the ice, so use very heavy plastic bags or a separate ice chest for the meat.

4.  Use the two-hour rule. After the picnic, chill your leftover foods quickly. Leaving food out longer than one to two hours will allow it to warm up to temperatures that permit illness-causing bacteria to grow. Put your leftovers back on ice or discard them if you can’t keep them cold.

Be sure to follow these safety tips so your grill season can be fun, relaxing, and safe.

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Cutting boards are one of the most common kitchen items that can cause cross contamination. A different cutting board should be used for raw meat, poultry, and seafood than is used for preparing ready-to-eat foods like salads and fruits.

Produce may not be cooked before serving, so contaminants will not have a “kill step” prior to consumption. Consider purchasing different color cutting boards and designate each color for a particular food. For example, red for meat, yellow for poultry, white for grain products, green for vegetables.

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Sodium recommendations have been revised recently. Americans 51 years and older, African Americans, and those diagnosed with high blood pressure, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease are advised to consume no more than 1,500 milligrams (mg) a day.

The recommended amount for everyone else is 2,300 mg, the amount of sodium in one teaspoon of salt. Currently, the average American consumes 3,400 mg daily. If Americans could achieve the lower sodium recommendation, it is predicted that 92,000 deaths and 66,000 strokes could be prevented every year. In addition, 99,000 Americans would be spared a heart attack and 120,000 would be spared heart disease every year.

Hypertension is a chronic condition resulting from elevated blood pressure. It is referred to as the silent killer because it doesn’t have noticeable early warning signs or symptoms.

Below is a table showing the different categories of hypertension. Our goal is to keep our blood pressure below 120/80. We can do this through lifestyle practices and medications.

Your physician may consider prescribing medication when your blood pressure is “high,” at least 140/90. However, it’s important to recognize that high blood pressure is a threat to your blood vessels before it crosses that line. Blood pressure higher than 120/80 is associated with increased risk of some types of cardiac events. The area between normal and hypertension is called pre-hypertension and afflicts roughly 1 in 3 Americans; another 1 out of 3 Americans has hypertension.

Researchers aren’t sure how elevated blood pressure raises the risk of heart attack and stroke, but one possibility is that it may accelerate the clogging of arteries. The higher blood pressure may lead to damage in the blood vessel walls. The body attempts to correct this damage with plaque.

How to begin to adopt the new sodium guidelines?

• Limit meals eaten away from home and buy fewer processed foods.
• Read food labels, watching for words indicating sodium such as: monosdoium glutamate, onion salt, garlic salt, seasoned salt, catsup, BBQ sauce, soy sauce, and bouillon. Try low sodium versions of these items.
• Take the salt shaker off the dinner table.
• Add salt free vegetables, beans, or grains to high sodium foods (pre-packaged mixes or restaurant food). This will cut sodium and increase vegetable intake at the same time. For example: Add 1 pound of steamed broccoli to an order of Chinese take-out. Add a pound of carrots and cherry tomatoes to a pre-packaged dish (skillet dinner, rice, or pasta mix). Add 1 cup of brown rice to any quick-cooking, seasoned package of rice.
• Learn about herbs and spices and experiment with new ways to flavor your food.

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Find out what to look for when purchasing fresh vegetables, the proper way to store them to maintain freshness, and what’s in season in ISU Extension’s publication, Fresh Vegetable Guide.

To prevent foodborne illness, you need to wash fresh produce whether it’s from the grocery store, farmers’ market, or your garden. Most produce does not need to be washed until it is ready to prepare or eat.

• Start by washing your hands with soap and water.
• The best way to remove dirt and germs is to wash produce thoroughly with running, drinkable water.
• When washing heads of lettuce or cabbage, you need to loosen dirt. Remove and discard the outer leaves before rubbing gently under cool, running water. Bagged greens that have been washed before packaging do not need to be rewashed.
• Fruits and vegetables that have firm surfaces, such as melons or potatoes, should be scrubbed with a clean brush. Wash all produce even if you aren’t going to eat the skins. Dirt on the surface can pass to the edible parts.
• Do not use soap, vinegar, baking soda, chlorine bleach, or special washes to clean fruit or vegetables.

FDA also offers a great resource on safe handling of raw produce.

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