by Paul ArcoOSF Healthcare
• Food poisoning cases increase over the holidays due to the raw ingredients in many traditional dishes. • Always wash your hands before you prepare any meal. • Keep all food like meat, chicken, seafood and eggs separate in your shopping cart and refrigerator. • A food thermometer is a handy tool used to properly cook meat, chicken and seafood. • Avoid eating raw cookie dough or batter which can contain E. coli and Salmonella.
Food poisoning cases tend to increase in November and December, because many traditional holiday foods include raw ingredients such as egg, meat or unpasteurized milk. That’s why health experts like Nicole O’Neill, a clinical dietitian for OSF HealthCare, stress the importance of playing it extra safe this time of the year.
“Make sure you’re always washing your hands before you prepare," says O'Neill. "If you can get all of your guests to wash their hands before they join the buffet line that is an excellent way to keep everyone safe. Make sure your hot foods stay hot and your cold foods stay cold. There are lots of products out there that can help you do that. Make sure you have a great thermometer. One that you use through the entire process, and make sure you clean your thermometer between different foods so you don’t accidentally cross-contaminate.”
Another important reminder is to keep all food separated. Remember to keep meat, chicken, seafood and eggs separate from other foods in your shopping cart and in the refrigerator. Store these items in containers or plastic bags to ensure their juices won’t leak or drip onto other foods.
“You don’t want to ever mix things," says O'Neill. "In your refrigerator all your meat should be on the bottom and away from everything else. Your fruits and vegetables should be separate too. You don’t ever want to mix raw and ready to eat things together because that’s an easy cross-contamination. It’s easy for bacteria to move back and forth.”
Cook food thoroughly until it’s done. A food thermometer is a helpful instrument that helps determine that the meat, chicken or seafood is properly cooked to a safe internal temperature.
O’Neill says bacteria can grow quickly in the danger zone between 40°F and 140°F. Perishable foods should be refrigerated within two hours of preparation or serving.
“Make sure you cook your food properly to the right temperature; there are a lot of charts out there, or you can buy magnets to put on your fridge," says O'Neill. "Certain meats should be cooked to a certain temperature, which means you have to have a thermometer. There are many versions. Some you can leave in the meat or in the oven. As you cook – you pull the thermometer out and you’re good to go.”
And who doesn’t love a nibble of raw cookie dough or batter? If you do, O’Neill says to walk away. Dough for cookies, cakes, pies and other treats is made with eggs or flour that can contain E. coli and Salmonella. If you simply can’t resist, shop for edible cookie dough that uses pasteurized eggs or no eggs. Pay attention to labels.
The bottom line, O’Neill says, is to take the extra steps to ensure your meal or appetizers doesn’t leave your guests feeling blue this holiday season. After all, no one wants a gift that keeps on giving.
“Everyone needs to be super safe especially if you are going to have other people in your home. You have to, that’s all there is to it.”
URBANA - Janae Hall hauled in nine of her team's 28 rebounds in Urbana's 51-10 loss to visiting MacArthur on Thursday.
"Urbana was shorthanded tonight but worked hard," said head coach Bobby Boykin.
Hall and newcomer Zion Reid finished with just four points apiece on offense. Freshman Lai'yonna Harper rounded out the Tigers' scoring effort with a field goal.
Urbana hosts Mahomet-Seymour in a non-conference contest on Monday.
Dallas, TX - Cardiovascular mortality is on the rise in rural areas of the United States, where more than 60 million Americans live, according to an American Heart Association presidential advisory. Understanding and addressing the unique health needs of people in rural America is critical to the Association’s pursuit of a world of longer, healthier lives.
Today — on National Rural Health Day — the Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, announces two new collaborative efforts to help close the gap between rural and urban hospital care and bring equitable care to all, regardless of where you live.
“Addressing the unique health needs of people in rural America is critical to achieving the American Heart Association’s 2024 impact goal for equitably increasing healthy life expectancy nationwide,” said Karen Joynt-Maddox, M.D., MPH, American Heart Association volunteer, associate professor at the Washington University School of Medicine and co-director of the Washington University in St. Louis Center for
Advancing Health Services, Policy & Economics Research. “Innovative collaborations like these are key to improving rural health across the nation.”
Sharing clinical educational resources
The American Heart Association is collaborating with the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) to highlight and share cardiovascular and stroke clinical educational resources such as model practices, collaborative learnings and rural quality research findings with NRHA membership.
Through this collaboration, the American Heart Association will submit content for NRHA’s magazine Rural Horizons, weekly e-newsletter NRHA Today and Journal of Rural Health, as well as participate in NRHA’s 2024 Annual Rural Health Conference and 2024 Rural Health Clinic and Critical Access Hospital Conference.
“NRHA is excited to partner with the American Heart Association to share resources and education to help reduce rural cardiovascular health disparities,” said NRHA CEO Alan Morgan.
Harmonizing quality data for analysis and validation
The American Heart Association and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) are collaborating on efforts to resolve outcomes gaps and identify model practices for hospitals and health systems in the rural setting. This effort will identify sites participating in both organizations’ respective quality programs and cross-promote their data registries, as well as explore data harmonization and opportunities for shared data analysis and validation.
The Association and ACEP share common priorities in addressing outcomes gaps in rural areas and building the knowledge base needed for evidence-based clinical practice. Reaching clinicians and providers and other key constituents with important messages is foundational to these efforts.
ACEP’s E-QUAL stroke initiative strives to make stroke quality improvement strategies accessible for emergency departments of all shapes and sizes. The E-QUAL data submission activities have been designed to allow hospitals who are already participating in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines® programs to seamlessly meet all E-QUAL reporting requirements.
“Through ACEP’s E-QUAL stroke initiative, we strive to make stroke quality improvement strategies accessible for emergency departments of all shapes and sizes,” said Kori Zachrison, M.D., MSc, E-QUAL Stroke Initiative co-lead. “While many rural EDs may be working with fewer resources at their disposal, they remain the anchor of the community’s stroke chain of survival. We’re thrilled to work side-by-side with the AHA in investing in these communities.”
