As a keto carnivore, I mostly eat meat, seafood, and eggs. So food poisoning shouldn’t happen that easily to me, but it did from contaminated pork ribs.
If you wake up in the middle of the night with severe nausea and have to vomit, that’s the good old “food poisoning friend” paying you a visit. Especially if you ate out that night, and you and your partner hit the toilet simultaneously!
Over time, I’ve suffered around 10 bouts, maybe more of this horrible feeling. I used to travel for work in China and India frequently — that’s where food poisoning hit me first, and several times — surprise, surprise.
I ate out quite often while living in Bali and picked it up a few more times there.
The first 24 hours are awful, and then it takes a good 3 to 4 days to get your energy back and feel close to normal.
Interestingly, I’ve never had food poisoning when cooking and eating at home.
The questions about food poisoning:
1 — Is eating out in restaurants worth the risk?
2 — Why can you easily pick up food poisoning from restaurant food?
3 — Is there a way to avoid it?
My answers about food poisoning:
1 — Restaurant food mostly isn’t worth the cost or the risk, but sometimes eating out is social fun, or you don’t have a choice if you’re traveling.
2 — A restaurant kitchen makes a lot of food for many guests and has several cooks and helpers handling and preparing your food. You have no idea what’s going on behind those closed doors.
That’s also why most places don’t let guests see their kitchens.
Do all the staff thoroughly wash their hands after using the bathroom and then handle your food? I doubt it.
How long has the meat, fish, seafood, or fish been sitting in the fridge or on a countertop before it’s cooked? We don’t know.
Do the cooks check or care about expiry dates? Food wastage is the worst profit killer for restaurants, so they probably turn a blind eye to the date and hope for the best.
3 — You’ve got a 99.9% chance of avoiding food poisoning from eating out if you follow the guidelines I recently created for myself.
Taking a 4-day business trip forced me to eat out again — here’s what I did
First, a friend and colleague recommended I rent an apartment to cook my own meat. As a Carnivore, you don’t need much other than butter, eggs, and meat, so that’s easy enough to do.
However, as so often is the case, the apartment wasn’t as nice in reality as it looked in the photos, and the kitchen was equipped with old, dirty, and scratched Teflon-coated pans.
I had to go out again to eat. But, I found a simple solution to my dilemma.
I searched for a grill or steakhouse with an open kitchen. You know, the ones completely open where you can see everything that’s going on or even a behind a glass window is fine.
Then I asked to speak with the manager and told him about my recent food poisoning plight and that I did not want it to happen again.
I asked if their steaks were fresh or frozen.
His reply was clear:
“The meat arrives fresh every day from our butcher, Sir.”
That was good to hear.
Next, I requested that only one person handle my rib-eye steak and sweet potato mash order, cooked in a stainless steel pan in butter — no seed oils.
He confirmed, and all was clear. The meal arrived — it was perfectly cooked and delicious.
I then returned to the same restaurant 3 days in a row and ate almost the same meat and a small side every day.
That was that — problem solved, and no more food poisoning.
Please read my related story:
The Three Major Risks To Our Health and Life
Final Thoughts
The trick is to make things as simple as possible when eating out, even if that makes things more expensive. Your health is worth the extra money!
- Choose a quality restaurant, get to know the manager or owner, and build trust
- Make sure their meats are always fresh
- Find a place with an open kitchen
- Always have them cook your order in a stainless steal pan in butter
- Limit your restaurant choices to 1 or 2
If you follow those rules, you’ll enjoy every meal, be treated like a VIP, and you won’t fall sick.
Good luck with your next dinner out!
Rob
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