Monsters Inside Me : Menu Items Containing Parasites : Animal Planet

Menu Items Most Likely to Contain Parasites

By Robert Lamb, HowStuffWorks.com

INTRODUCTION

Face it: Food-borne parasites are a fact of life. If you leave your wallet on a park bench, someone's going to snatch it. If you drive around town in an airport stair car, you're going to get hop-ons. And if you depend on a complex, multicellular anatomy, then whole armies of parasites are going to evolve to mooch off your resources.

The parasitic life is all about finding niches in the ecosystem and exploiting them for all they're worth. And after billions of years mucking their way through blood vessels and intestines, you better believe they've gotten rather good at it. Untold billions are clamoring for a chance to get inside you — and it just so happens that the best way to do that is to stow away in your next meal.

In this article, we're going to take a look at a few menu items with a high probability for parasites. By no means does this mean you're guaranteed a belly full of worms with each one! It's essential to stress that proper food storage, fresh ingredients and sanitary food preparation conditions vastly decrease the chances for food contamination.

So get ready to tuck in your napkin — and for goodness sake wash your hands — because we're about to take a close look at what's for dinner.

5. Escargot Hungry for hot-buttered snails? Remember that a snail's diet can include parasite-rich fecal matter and carrion.		4. Sushi and Sashimi If you enjoy eating fresh, uncooked fish, just be prepared to eat whatever else has been living inside of it.
3. Steak Tartare What's this, more raw meat? Do you see a pattern forming here? Yes, even classy food can make you sick.		2. Pink Hamburger of Doom The low-rent option of consuming raw meat is, not surprisingly, even more likely to fill you full of parasites.
1. Ham and Pork Sandwiches Interestingly enough, one of the more statistically risky menu items isn't even raw. See what you might be signing up for when you eat pork.

CONTENT

Monsters Inside Me

Menu Items Most Likely to Contain Parasites

Menu Items Most Likely to Contain Parasites

TV Schedule