Remember to wash your fruits and vegetables

People of a certain age remember Popeye the Sailor Man and the superhuman strength he gained from eating spinach. Of course, he wouldn’t have to worry about the recent E. coli outbreak linked to bagged spinach. His spinach came from a can.

Had he eaten bagged fresh spinach grown in Monterey, San Benito or Santa Clara counties in California, he might have been felled, not by the villain Bluto, but by severe cramps and bloody diarrhea. Or given his advanced age and the weakened immune system that comes with accumulated birthdays, he might have developed a more serious illness – hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS.

Nearly 200 E. coli-related illnesses related to contaminated spinach have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control. Ninety-five people have been hospitalized and one has died. It’s likely that more people became ill, never went to the doctor, and their uncomfortable tummy ailment was self-limited.

But those who became very ill may have developed dehydration from fluid loss caused by the severe diarrhea. Or they may have developed HUS, more likely to affect those with developing or weakened immune systems, including children under 5, the elderly and those with HIV/AIDS or who are receiving chemotherapy for cancer.

In HUS, red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail. According to the CDC, about 8 percent of the people who have E. coli-caused diarrhea severe enough to send them to a doctor develop HUS. HUS is the leading cause of kidney failure in children, and most of them have HUS caused by E. coli O157:H7.

This particular E. coli is the evil cousin of the friendly E. coli that live in our own colons. E. coli plays a crucial role in our bodies by producing vitamin K from undigested food. We need vitamin K to help our blood clot.

So how did the evil E. coli get on that spinach? I don’t think the CDC has figured that out yet, but it could have come from contaminated manure or contaminated water.

Other recent outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 were associated with improperly cooked beef. Remember the Taco Bell outbreak a few years back?

We were taught to barbecue the heck out of our hamburgers and to send the undercooked cheeseburger back to the restaurant kitchen.

But spinach? Does that mean we are at risk for food-borne illness from our fruits and vegetables? Well, in a word, yes.

Many hands have touched that produce before it makes its way to your salad plate, not to mention the soil amendments often used as it’s grown.

And so I pay homage to my mom, who diligently soaped up all our fruits and vegetables before they went into our refrigerator. Actually, she probably went a little overboard, since soap is not really required, and there’s no need to buy the fancy washes they sell in the supermarket.

Plain old water makes a big difference. You should thoroughly rinse all your fruits and vegetables under running water.

Don’t throw them in a sink full of water and let them sit there, since that won’t effectively remove the dirt you want to get rid of. Rub the fruit or vegetables under running water.

Make sure you dry them before you put them in the refrigerator, if you’re washing them ahead of time. These steps will slow the growth of bacteria.

Keep in mind, though, the CDC says simply rinsing and washing fruits and vegetables may not remove all of the contaminants. To kill the E. coli on spinach, you need to cook it to at least 160 degrees. Also, produce with rinds and waxy vegetables like cucumbers should be scrubbed under running water with a brush. Bacteria and dirt can hide in the grooves and pits of fruit like cantaloupe or stick to the wax, and when you slice them with a knife, you can contaminate the flesh inside.

Or, you can always do like Popeye and eat canned spinach, but I am reasonably sure that canned spinach is what gave that lovely, vitamin rich vegetable such a bad name.