On Food Health

Pathogens are everywhere, including our own bodies. The most important measure to avoid infection from these organisms is to increase our own healthy eating habits, or so Jeff D. Leach seems to believe in his article "On foodand health: fighting E. Coli the old-fasioned way."

Tis article portrayed much verbal finesse, but seemed more for the author to voice his opinion on the subject rather than supply the reader with much needed information. Jeff Leach expressed the idea that after the outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 associated with spinach and other produce in 2006 the 110th congress would be reintroducing the Food Safety Act that was originally proposed by Senator Dick Durbin in 2005, but did not give any information on the actual bill. When I researched the bill I found it un-touched since the initial proposal, telling me that he was either reporting on unverified information or the bill was simply not retouched.

Mr. Leach also reported that our best defense from these pathoggens is to simply increase our daily intake of "good old dietary fiber." The major "Fiber" he touched on is known as oligosaccharide. If he had in fact done his research though, he would have noted that oligosaccharides are short chains of sugar molecules that are not only found in the fiber of certain vegetablesbut also in milk, soy beans, fruits and synthesized from enzymes of the fungus Apergillus niger acting on sucrose. He was correct: Oligosaccharides are helpfulin increasing the number of friendly bacteria in the human intestine and stimulating the growth of bifidobacterium, but is it really enough?

The idea that increasing fiber consumption alone will defeat this problem with E. coli is ignorant. Yes, it will increase the competitiveness for colonization sites and nutrients in the gut, but it will not completely eliminate the ability of E. coli to form in the epithelial lining of the intestine. The FDA and government are still needed to analyze and fix the problems with contamination of water supplies used in growing produce and meat. We should also be observing safe handling of our produce at home, but as Richard H. Linton, PhD, a professor of food safety and director of the Center for Food Safety Engineering at Perdue University states "Leafy vegetables, just because of the way in which they're structured and configured, makes organisms find spots where they're more difficult to remove, compared to, like