We can all come down with food poisoning if bugs find their way into our system, but there can be serious complications if our immune system and wellness is threatened in other ways too. Pregnancy, cancer treatments and our age can all make our immune system much weaker than normal, so a simple bug could turn into a serious health event.
What to do
Cancer treatments are designed to rid our bodies of cancerous cells, but side effects of some drugs and radiotherapy means our bodies’ ability to fight infection isn’t as strong as normal. Because of this, it’s very important to protect our wellbeing from bugs in general and one way of doing this is to make sure we prepare and cook food properly. We can get food poisoning when the prepared food we buy is already infected, or if it becomes contaminated when it’s prepared in restaurants or at home, with bugs like listeria, salmonella, and E. coli that can make us sick.
Foods to rule out
Sometimes it’s safer to just avoid entire foods until our cancer treatment is over. Things we can rule out for this time, include those that contain unpasteurised milk, like soft cheeses and raw milk yoghurt. In fact, raw foods in general ought to be avoided, such as sushi, shellfish or anything with under-cooked eggs, and we should also lookout for anything that could contain raw meat. Some shop-prepared snacks containing cold cuts, salads, egg, and ham products could also be contaminated with bacteria.
In the home
Businesses have to abide by certain food safety laws, but sometimes we can get too relaxed in our own homes. But when we have a weaker immune system, it’s wise to be very careful about contaminating our meals. Remembering to wash our hands often and keeping separate chopping boards for raw foods and those that are ready-to-eat, to prevent the spread of germs is good advice. After cooking food we should move it to a fridge within two hours and most prepared food can be discarded on the third day after it was cooked. All these tips can reduce the chances of our weakened immune system from dealing with unnecessary germs, so we can just focus on coping with cancer treatments.
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