Man chopping vegetables and cooking food in his kitchen - practicing proper food handling to avoid foodborne illnesses.

Holiday Cooking 101: How to Keep Yourself Healthy When Cooking for the Holidays

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Man chopping vegetables and cooking food in his kitchen - practicing proper food handling to avoid foodborne illnesses.

When preparing food throughout the year, and especially during the holidays, it’s easy to forget about food preparation and food safety. Food poisoning and foodborne illnesses are common, but easily preventable, if you take the right steps beforehand. Learning how to properly thaw, wash, cut, cook, and store foods can mean the difference between enjoying a delicious meal and spending the night in the emergency room.

Although there are many types of foodborne illnesses, the four most common are listeria, e. Coli, salmonella, and norovirus. Here are 10 easy ways to avoid coming in contact with these and other germs by practicing proper food handling.

Tips on How to Avoid Foodborne Illnesses When Cooking

1. Practice Good Hand-Washing

Surprisingly, the most common source of foodborne illnesses is a cook’s own hands. Whether you need to take a bathroom break in the middle of food preparation or you’ll be moving from raw meats to fresh veggies, take a minute to soap up like you’re preparing for surgery. Use warm water, antibacterial soap, and plenty of friction.

Contrary to popular thought, excessively hot water isn’t what kills germs in hand-washing; it’s the friction that comes from rubbing your hands together. To make sure that you’re applying adequate friction, adopt a hand-washing song that keeps you scrubbing for at least 20 seconds.

2. Copy Your Recipes

Another common and incredibly surprising source of foodborne illnesses are mobile phones. How many people source their recipes online using mobile devices? How many of these same individuals use their mobile devices while on the commode? If you use your smartphone in the bathroom, don’t let it double as a cooking tool. Use hand sanitizer or another disinfecting agent to clean your mobile phone before calling recipes up. In fact, take the time to write out recipes by hand before you start handling food. If you ever have to touch your phone while cooking, head back to the sink and thoroughly wash your hands again.

3. Don’t Make Your Utensils Do Double Duty

It’s no secret that raw meat is a major source of food poisoning. Wash your hands after handling raw meat and before you start chopping salads, setting the table, or engaging in any other activities. More importantly, don’t make your utensils do double duty. Keep cutting boards and knives for meat separate from cutting boards and utensils used for fruits and vegetables. 

4. Wash Ready-to-Serve Vegetables 

Ready-to-serve salads and leafy greens often indicate that they’ve already been washed on their packages. What many consumers don’t know is that these vegetables are often washed and packed directly in the fields in which they’ve been picked. Not only does this mean that they’ve been treated with dubious water sources, but they’ve also been handled by hands that could use a good washing themselves. Always wash all of your fruits and vegetables before cooking with or serving them. For added safety, rinse your fresh produce in a mild white vinegar and water solution.

5.  Defrost Frozen Meat in the Refrigerator

Don’t leave your meat out on the counter to defrost for hours at a time. Plan in advance by placing frozen meat in the refrigerator in a leak-safe container or pan. Keep in mind that as meats defrost, their packaging will leak blood and spread bacteria. Place them on a shelf where spills aren’t likely to come in contact with produce or other items that will be served raw.

6. Pay Attention to Sell-by and Use-by Dates

There is definitely some flexibility in sell-by dates. However, you should never consume foods like milk, meat, and eggs after their use-by dates. Even though these things may smell and taste fresh, the risks of eating them are simply too high.

7. Cook Meat Thoroughly

One of the easiest ways to avoid foodborne illnesses caused by raw or uncooked meat is by purchasing a meat thermometer. Find out how hot the inner temperature of your meat should be based upon its thickness and type. Meat thermometers are low in cost and they’ll give you a quick and accurate reading of core temperatures so that you can avoid burning meals and avoid making everyone ill.

8. Cool Leftovers Right Away

Kicking back to relax while dishes simmer or gradually cool on a warm stove is a recipe for disaster. After serving everyone, package the remaining food right away and cool it down quickly. Bacteria is far less likely to grow in your remaining dishes when they’re stored properly.

9. Clean Your Cleaning Implements

You might be spreading harmful bacteria from surface to surface with your kitchen towel or sponge. Kitchen towels and sponges harbor harmful bacteria that can lead to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and more. Wash and dry linens and replace sponges once every one to two weeks.

10. Make Every Cook Aware of Your Prevention Strategies

If you’ve got helpers in the kitchen, be sure that they know the rules and follow them. It makes no sense to constantly wash your own hands if there’s someone else mopping up beef blood with your dish towel or regularly swiping at a filthy mobile phone. 

Limiting all the ways in which bacteria can be introduced into your foods is only one part of the process. Proper heating and proper food storage help ensure that existing organisms are killed off and that their populations don’t spiral out of control. To find out more about food safety, consider attending one of our classes at Avidity Medical Design Academy, or check out our other blogs on the subject.

African-American woman smiling during her rush hour daily commute

4 Tips for Limiting Stress During a Long Daily Commute

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African-American woman smiling during her rush hour daily commute

For many people, the most stressful and emotionally draining part of the workday is not work itself. Instead, it’s the cumulative time they spend battling their way through traffic or riding on city buses and commuter trains while packed shoulder-to-shoulder with others. Surprisingly, not only are these trips mentally taxing, but they can also have a significant impact on your physical health. Learning how to effectively mitigate the health risks of a long daily commute is now a critical part of maintaining an acceptably high quality of life. The four tips that follow will show you how.

1. Catch the Train and Get Creative

Riding the train or taking the bus to work will help you avoid the stress and frustration of driving through stop-and-go traffic, and dealing with frantic, frustrated, or all-out inconsiderate motorists. Best of all, you won’t have to keep your hands on the steering wheel or your eyes on the road. You can use your early-morning and evening commute to read a good book, learn how to knit or crochet, or simply meditate and practice mindfulness. Your time spent getting to and from work won’t be wasted. Instead, you’ll be actively improving yourself and expanding your knowledge base.

2. Give Yourself Several In-Car Ways to Stay Entertained

Having ways to while away the minutes or hours that you spend in bumper-to-bumper traffic is a creative dance between keeping yourself entertained and avoiding distracted driving. Use in-vehicle technologies such as mobile phone integration to make hands-free phone calls. This is a great time to ask your kids or spouse how their days are going or to catch up with your friends, parents, or adult siblings. You can also listen to audiobooks, or spend your commute moving through your favorite playlist of relaxing or uplifting tunes.

3. Time Your Commute Smartly

Sometimes delaying a daily commute can significantly shorten its duration. If you hop on the freeway or train at the same time as everyone else, you may be subjecting yourself to unnecessary frustration. Instead, consider hitting a local gym after quitting time to work out your stress on the treadmill. By the time your evening workout session is done, the buses will be emptier and the roads will be less crowded. Sometimes, heading to work just a half-hour earlier can make all the difference as well. If leaving home before the streets are congested proves far less stressful, consider bringing your breakfast to work, putting in time at the gym before your shift starts, or taking a relaxing early-morning walk before heading to your desk.

4. Don’t Move From Stress to Stress

One of the worst things about having a stressful daily commute is the fact that you’ve likely got pressing responsibilities waiting for you the moment you walk in the door. Even before your shoes are off and you’ve had a chance to unwind, you may be worried about cooking dinner, helping small children with their homework, or coming to the aid of teenagers with social angst. Make a point of claiming 15 minutes for yourself from the minute you arrive. This necessary period of de-stressing will make you more focused and responsive when engaging with others. Take a hot shower and change into comfortable clothes. Light a therapeutic candle and soothe yourself into a calm and relaxed state with aromatherapy. 

What Are the Health Risks of a Long Daily Commute?

Super-commuters who ride on the freeway breathe in massive amounts of exhaust and other fumes. People who spend long stretches of time commuting each day are more likely to lead sedentary lifestyles, and to grab fast food on their way home rather than cooking. Driving and riding passenger buses and trains takes a daily toll. Fortunately, you can limit this toll by planning your commute smartly, and by proactively de-stressing with the tips above. For additional help in maintaining mood balance, peace of mind, and an optimally high quality of life, follow the Avidity Medical Design Blog, take a course offered by Avidity Medical Design Academy, or purchase candles and soaps offered by Avidity Medical Scentations.