Street Food And Pollution

[Ijustwannateach]

I was recently warned by a Thai fitness instructor at my gym to be careful about street food. He agrees that it's tasty, cheap, and even fairly nutritious, but he warns that if it's being cooked right out on the street a lot of pollutants are falling on the food. He connected this with rising rates of cancer in a lot of very healthy Thais who don't even drink or smoke (he's in a community of fitness freaks, remember) and recommends eating in markets or food courts rather than on the street.

"Steven"

[rak sa_ngop]

I was recently warned by a Thai fitness instructor at my gym to be careful about street food. He agrees that it's tasty, cheap, and even fairly nutritious, but he warns that if it's being cooked right out on the street a lot of pollutants are falling on the food. He connected this with rising rates of cancer in a lot of very healthy Thais who don't even drink or smoke (he's in a community of fitness freaks, remember) and recommends eating in markets or food courts rather than on the street.

"Steven"

I have always wondered where most of the street food is prepared. I am referring to the stalls that have the large array of pre-cooked dishes where you select 2 or 3 varieties to go on top of your rice. The thing that I notice is that this food always appears and tastes the same compared to other stalls in the area. Obviously the stalls cannot cook all these varieties themselves, or do they?

Is there a central cooking area that produces large vats of food that is distributed to numerous stalls?

Is much of this food in Bangkok produced in the shanty-type squat areas that you see from the train when you pull into Hualamphong station?

Is this type of food from a food court any different to street food?

Are any vegetables and fruit in Thailand relatively safe from pesticides etc?

Anybody really know?

[Orion76]

but he warns that if it's being cooked right out on the street a lot of pollutants are falling on the food.

Can't be good for your health, but they are the same pollutants you breathe 24 hours a day if you live in Bangkok.

Parasites, salmonella, e.coli and general hygiene are of much bigger concern to me when it comes to street food.

[Firefan]

I am with Orion. Pollutants are one thing (ok - I would not pick the stall by the expressway -but you get the point), but watch the going ons for a while and wonder more about; how they wash their hands/plates/tools, where do they go to the toilet Etc.

Another huge issue (maybe bigger when comes to cancer and other serious stuff) might be MSG (monosodiumglutamate) where they use handfulls "for good taste".

Cheers!

[Sporting Dog]

....but watch the going ons for a while and wonder more about; how they wash their hands/plates/tools, where do they go to the toilet Etc.

A bit like sporting superstars and sausages, you should never look too closely, you won't like what you find.

[visionary]

I was once part of a disaster relief team that had a micro biologist on it. As participants we were all shocked when she recommended street vendors over major restaurants,hotels and retailers. Her recommendations were based on the idea that with the small street vendors you can easily evaluate their personal sanitary practices, food storage effectiveness and cleanliness, food preparation and cooking practices. With major restaurants, hotels and stores all of these practices occur , to at least some extent , outside of your range of observation. Pre cooked food was to be avoided at all times because she wanted us to observe the whole food prep process from the raw product in the cooler to the finished product. As we proceeded through our field trip we received numerous reports of members of other teams suffering from a variety of local illnesses while none of our street vendor dependant members became ill.

Edited September 28, 2007 by visionary

[paulsmithson]

Street food is fine but buy it made to order not precooked.

[lazeeboy]

Street food is fine but buy it made to order not precooked.

eat a lot of street food ,never been sick ,yes only eat stuff made to order never precooked ,also off the same 3/4 stalls

[visionary]

Slightly off topic here but I felt it important to post our micro biologists major recommendations regarding washrooms. Public washrooms can be major desease sources via contaminated door handles, tap handles and seats We were required to wash our hands with alcohol saturated napkins before and immediately after entering washrooms.Prior to using the washrooms we were instructed to disinfect all surfaces we would come in contact with using alcohol saturated naplins. The down side of our sanitary practices was that angry locals who observed them considered us to be unduly paranoid. We learned to be cautious about offending locals by beiing seen engaged in our clean up.

[pumpuiman]

Fitness nuts should shut the fukc up.

Then the rest of us can enjoy our lives as we wish and die happy.

Street food is nectar from the gods.....fitness guru's are Satan's minions.

[lazeeboy]

Fitness nuts should shut the fukc up.

Then the rest of us can enjoy our lives as we wish and die happy.

Street food is nectar from the gods.....fitness guru's are Satan's minions.

well said fatso .. were all happy eating s*IT.........

[pumpuiman]

well said fatso .. were all happy eating s*IT.........

I'll take mine with cheese and gravy please

[Grover]

I was recently warned by a Thai fitness instructor at my gym to be careful about street food. He agrees that it's tasty, cheap, and even fairly nutritious, but he warns that if it's being cooked right out on the street a lot of pollutants are falling on the food. He connected this with rising rates of cancer in a lot of very healthy Thais who don't even drink or smoke (he's in a community of fitness freaks, remember) and recommends eating in markets or food courts rather than on the street.

"Steven"

it sounds like the guy is more interested in impressing others in a one upmanship of "im more healthy than you" than in actual health.

[dee123]

In Chaiyaphum where my wife comes from their seems to me a horrifying amount of premature cancer deaths amongst my wifes friends aquaintences etc.....seems everytime we phone another has died,........I have been thinking of why this might be and I reckon the theory of polluted ground water supply might have something to do with it.

[solo siam]

I am with Orion. Pollutants are one thing (ok - I would not pick the stall by the expressway -but you get the point), but watch the going ons for a while and wonder more about; how they wash their hands/plates/tools, where do they go to the toilet Etc.

Another huge issue (maybe bigger when comes to cancer and other serious stuff) might be MSG (monosodiumglutamate) where they use handfulls "for good taste".

Cheers!

When has any link to any adverse effects of MSG been proven.

Its a naturally occuring substance (you have it in your body right now - regardless of what you have eaten).

Marmite has the highest amount of MSG in any food product in the world, its also abundant in human breast milk. The other foods that have extremely high levels of MSG in are tomatoes and cheese.

The FDA ranks MSG alongside pepper, sugar, vinegar and baking powder.

[PhilHarries]

One day in the future all these health nuts are going to be lying around in hospital dying of absolutely nothing.

I eat street food both in Thailand and here in VN and apart from an odd dose of the Dehli belly am in fine health. I am a firm believer in the theory that isolating yourself from all the bad stuff only increases your vulnerability to illness.