Dark angel of salmonella missed us
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
News that it is okay to eat tomatoes again was welcome in our household, because we are big tomato fans, but I have to tell you we weren’t paying much attention to the tomato warnings anyway. The government was saying tomatoes might have salmonella on them, and so we washed our tomatoes before we ate them.
Which must have worked, because we didn’t get salmonella. At least, I don’t think we did. I did have a touch of indigestion one day, and Mrs. Doud complained of an itch, but the dark angel of salmonella passed our house.
The restaurants where I eat were serving tomatoes during the warning period, so they must have been washing their tomatoes, too.
Most people probably did as we did. Tomatoes have earned a good reputation over the years for being good for you, and it was hard to imagine they might be bad. The government can talk you into just about anything, except, perhaps for doubting tomatoes.
It wasn’t so long ago that a lot of us cut back on eating eggs because they were supposed to be full of cholesterol and bad for you. Then, it turned out that although eggs are full of cholesterol, it is good cholesterol, and you can go ahead and eat them unless the shell is cracked, which might result in your getting salmonella.
You shouldn’t eat them over easy or raw, the government says. However, a lot of people I know still eat eggs over easy. I do, too. I ask for them over medium, but most cooks don’t know how to do over medium, so I get them over easy instead. And I go ahead and eat them anyway, just like I did the tomatoes.
I do feel sorry for the tomato growers and the egg ranchers, though. It will take them a while to come back.
