Diner Alert: Nine Thai Foods You Should Avoid In Summer

[Lite Beer]

Diner Alert: Nine Thai foods you should avoid in summer
By Coconuts Bangkok


Larb

BANGKOK: -- The Department of Disease Control has issued a list of nine Thai dishes that could potentially cause diarrhea during the summer.

According to the Department, the number of diarrhea patients between Jan. 1 to Mar. 10 totaled 191,515. One patient reportedly died from complications resulting from the condition. The Department warned restaurants across Thailand to pay more attention to hygiene in the kitchen and warned diners to wash their hands before each meal.

Below is the list of Thai foods that easily go bad in the hot weather, subsequently posing a risk to the health of diners.

1. Larb/Koi or spicy Isaan meat salad: This dish is a combination of ground meat seasoned with fish sauce, limejuice, chili and herbs. Both dishes are similar except that Koi uses raw meat.

Full Story: http://www.coconutsbangkok.com/news/diner-alert-nine-thai-foods-you-should-avoid-in-summer/

-- Coconuts Bangkok 2013-03-22

[retell]

ok thanks for the tip that sums up just about all the tasty stuff they have here

[Redhawk]

Almost nothing left to eat from January to March, thai kitchen wiped out, only clear rice soup and !

[davejones]

What a load of <deleted>. I eat some of these, and I'm fine. I've eaten them every summer.

[Robbie Dye]

Just keep your pork pies in the chiller section

[lomatopo]

Given that many of these dishes are prepared with one's monthly allowances of salt, sugar, MSG, oil and "flavor powder" (more MSG), diarrhea seems like the desirable result?

[SlyAnimal]

Kinda funny, as I went to a wedding yesterday, where they served Larb, Goi (Or Koi as they said in the article lol) and a soup, as the only 3 dishes available to eat lol. I'm usually not a huge fan of Thai soups, so Goi and Larb it was lolz.

Now today, my gf wants to take me to a festival at the temple lol, where they apparently have free Khanom Jin and Som Dum, which came in as numbers 6 and 8 respectively

Lucky I have an iron stomach lol

[raybal5]

Warning Hi-so and westerners. Eating Thai food can give you the shits.

Same same in many other countries too. I know of an Australian pizza place with food that killed a guy.

[h5kaf]

I am sure that the very small bit, in the article, about washing hands is more important than the food content of meals. Even if there is running water in the toilets and soap (whats that?) Thais tend to avoid them in their haste to get back to their very important job of preparing food. You are often safer eating off the street vendors than in some Thai restaurants.

[Suradit69]

Almost nothing left to eat from January to March, thai kitchen wiped out, only clear rice soup and !

The assumption of the OP being that from April to December it's so cold in Thailand that food doesn't go off?

Can't say I've ever had any problem with those foods listed any time of the year, but then I always avoid horsemeat Lasagne and mad cow burgers ... or were they on the list? Anyway when in doubt drink some alcohol with your meal.

Recent studies have found that a little alcohol may help ward off heart disease

and slow dementia. But an old wives' tale suggests another reason to indulge in

a drink or two with dinner: preventing food poisoning.

Research over the years appears to confirm this. In 2002, for example, health

officials in Spain studied an outbreak of salmonella among people who had been

exposed to contaminated potato salad and tuna at a large banquet.

Their findings, which were published in the journal Epidemiology, showed that

the rate of sickness was lowest in those who had consumed large amounts of beer,

wine or spirits

Edited March 22, 2013 by Suradit69

[AhFarangJa]

Just keep the toilet paper in the fridge...

[MagicMax]

Haha this is so funny. Doesn't look like it is advisable to eat so just drink beer

[stoffel45]

What a load of <deleted>. I eat some of these, and I'm fine. I've eaten them every summer.

Me too and my family with no ill-effects.

[wilbur]

They advise the Diners to wash their hands....????

What about the "kitchen" staff....??????!!!!! Aaaargh....

Yes , drink plenty of Whisky or Wine with your meal and no problem will be encountered...

[rbrooks]

That about covers most of the commonly eaten foods on the Thai menu. Better just start eating canned foods and plenty of bottled water.

[Ian Curtis]

No mention of poison from crop spraying in vegetables or whatever is injected into livestock. Maybe insecticides and hormone boosts don't cause a 'pan splatter' because these things stay in your body? Just to add some doom and gloom eh.

[radiochaser]

The only food in Thailand that gave me diarrhea was the sugar used for Lotti (the thin rolled up dough patty) during one of my trips there during the mid early or mid 2000's. Both in Bangkok and Udon Thanii. Nothing else from the 7 months I lived there 1972-1973 or all the other one month visits I have had starting in the late 1988. The reason I believe it was the sugar is because I used to get diarrhea as a kid if I ate anything with a lot of sugar in it.

My wife got sick with fever and vomiting a few years ago, from eating a salad we believe. Everyone else ate everything else ordered except the salad.

I did get sick with fever and vomiting the last time I was there 2 years ago, but both my wife and myself should have known someone would after seeing the dirty knives used to cut the mangoes.

P.S. My wife is Thai.

[radiochaser]

>>

Almost nothing left to eat from January to March, thai kitchen wiped out, only clear rice soup and !

The assumption of the OP being that from April to December it's so cold in Thailand that food doesn't go off?

Can't say I've ever had any problem with those foods listed any time of the year, but then I always avoid horsemeat Lasagne and mad cow burgers ... or were they on the list? Anyway when in doubt drink some alcohol with your meal.

Recent studies have found that a little alcohol may help ward off heart disease

and slow dementia. But an old wives' tale suggests another reason to indulge in

a drink or two with dinner: preventing food poisoning.

Research over the years appears to confirm this. In 2002, for example, health

officials in Spain studied an outbreak of salmonella among people who had been

exposed to contaminated potato salad and tuna at a large banquet.

Their findings, which were published in the journal Epidemiology, showed that

the rate of sickness was lowest in those who had consumed large amounts of beer,

wine or spirits

A couple of decades ago doctors noticed that people some people who traveled to Mexico would get the Mexican Trots, or Galloping Diarrhea and some would not.

What they found was that, the people that ate and drank Mexican food and water, but only smoked marijuana were most susceptible to getting diarrhea and the alcoholic beverage drinkers were not. They did a study and found that the alcohol stimulated acid production in a persons stomach which killed off bacteria, whereas the marijuana suppressed acid production allowing bacteria to thrive and become abundant, leading to diarrhea.

So, drinking a beer or whiskey etc, during or after eating may be good to prevent diarrhea.

Edited March 22, 2013 by radiochaser

[chrisrazz]

The department of disease control trying to look like its doing something. Brilliant. How about warning people about serous diseases and how to prevent the spread of TB (make spitting and hawking an offence) or educate people to cover their mouths when coughing. Every time I travel on public transport there is someone coughing behind me.

[Tropicalevo]

A couple of decades ago doctors noticed that people some people who traveled to Mexico would get the Mexican Trots, or Galloping Diarrhea and some would not.

What they found was that, the people that ate and drank Mexican food and water, but only smoked marijuana were most susceptible to getting diarrhea and the alcoholic beverage drinkers were not. They did a study and found that the alcohol stimulated acid production in a persons stomach which killed off bacteria, whereas the marijuana suppressed acid production allowing bacteria to thrive and become abundant, leading to diarrhea.

So, drinking a beer or whiskey etc, during or after eating may be good to prevent diarrhea.

I do not know if that is true or not - but I for one will follow your advice wholeheartedly.

I cannot wait to tell wifey.

[T_Dog]

My doc told me to avoid sticky rice and mangoes when I got quite ill years ago. (I would eat it whenever I saw it.) Lots of hand contact when the street vendor peels and slices the mango, ensuring any e-coli or other bacteria gets on the nice sweet fruit. If you look around the markets, not many places for the vendors to wash their hands during the day.

[xylophone]

The biggest single cause of "travellers trots" or similar is, believe it or not, rice!!

[wolf5370]

Given that many of these dishes are prepared with one's monthly allowances of salt, sugar, MSG, oil and "flavor powder" (more MSG), diarrhea seems like the desirable result?

I own a café here and we make note on the menu that we do not include MSG - yet we have customers (Thai) actually asking us to add it (and not because the food tasteless without it, proper Thai cooking doesn't require it, it's a recent Chinese import).

I just returned from 3 weeks in the UK, other than 6 days a couple of years ago, is the first visit in half a decade. I had stomach problems there - I think not because of bad cooking practice, but simply because all food has bacteria on it and our bodies acclimatise to that which we consume a lot of (i.e. local food), plus the "richness" difference of the foods. So, tourists get the "Deli-Belly", us expats suffer much less from it, Thais less still. I would also be more concerned with cockroaches and unclean surfaces, cross contamination in the kitchen due to knives and chopping boards etc, than the menu selection.

[naboo]

191000 with the squits in 2.5 months. That is about 1 million a year. So your average person can expect the squits once in a lifetime.

Maybe I need to see a doctor then.

[oldsailor35]

The department of disease control trying to look like its doing something. Brilliant. How about warning people about serous diseases and how to prevent the spread of TB (make spitting and hawking an offence) or educate people to cover their mouths when coughing. Every time I travel on public transport there is someone coughing behind me.

Or stop people 'hooking' the Chicken and Pork about with their bare hands in Makro

[retell]

The department of disease control trying to look like its doing something. Brilliant. How about warning people about serous diseases and how to prevent the spread of TB (make spitting and hawking an offence) or educate people to cover their mouths when coughing. Every time I travel on public transport there is someone coughing behind me.

Or stop people 'hooking' the Chicken and Pork about with their bare hands in Makro

thats a good point ,also have a look in the average ricecooker those are alot of the times very dirty