Food safety in exotic places

[prasantrin]

And don't forget that Immodium is a traveller's friend.

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So true!

But also keep in mind that if you have diarrhea combined with other symptoms, such as fever, Imodium is the last thing you should be taking. It can do you more harm than good.

[MissAmy]

Oh, how very timely!  We leave for Belize this weekend, and I'm not at all worried about malaria, dengue, or feeling ill from eating something weird. MIL has instructed us all to get vaccinations, take malaria meds, never walk or swim barefoot, use hand sanitizer often, and not eat anything not packaged or bottled.  And, of course, to look both ways before we cross the street.

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FFB, my aunts travel to Belize just about every year, and they NEVER take malaria meds! That's silly. Why never swim barefoot? How else are supposed to swim?

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Pan, Malaria is not a problem in Belize, more than anywhere else in the Caribbean/Mexico area, and we've never been warned to take preventives. Mr. FFB's college roommate lived in Belize for a couple of years, on a plantation, and never (Like MissAmy's Aunties) took preventives, nor heard of any problems among his workers, either.

Drinking bottled water, I'll go for. Just *because.* I'll repel mosquitoes because I don't like them -- not simply because of all the diseases they spread.

Heh. We've also been informed that "no one eats outside the resort" because of the threat of illness. Not this Babe!

[Milagai]

I've wondered if simultaneous alcohol imbibing reduces the risk of travelers belly?

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However, going back to the original question, there are also plenty of "local" remedies which you may or may not want to consider, which can have a good prophylactic and remedial effect. Again, I only really know about India, but my parents and brother (who can't handle the food like I can any more!) always rely on a combination of an Ayurvedic medicine called Pudhi Nara (which is mint based, and really "cools" the stomach) and another one called Aqua Ptychotis.

Raj

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errr... that would be Pudin Hara (=mint green).

It's mfd and mrktd by Dabur, one of India's leading herbal

pharmaceutical companies, and is said to be an anti-gas and antacid

type digestive aid, rather than something that protects against

food borne infections...

http://www.dabur.com/en/products/Health_Ca...tive/PudinHara/

Milagai

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Hey -- just got back from Belize, where I drank tap water, ate any fruit I wanted, had ice in my drinks. Also ate at a festival, two local restaurants, one in the forest, and various little sweets that we found in shops ... fine. Those mosquitoes, though, ate right through my Deep Woods Off!, so I guess we've got a couple of weeks until I find out about malaria.

[shelora]

Hey -- just got back from Belize, where I drank tap water, ate any fruit I wanted, had ice in my drinks.  Also ate at a festival, two local restaurants, one in the forest, and various little sweets that we found in shops ... fine. 

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Insert golf claps here! Congratulations!

Those mosquitoes, though, ate right through my Deep Woods Off!, so I guess we've got a couple of weeks until I find out about malaria. 

Here's hoping you don't have malaria.

[joiei]

hey FFB, glad you had a good time. I have been to Belize twice now and have suffered no ill effects. I ate street food, drank the water, had a good time and this was in Belize City and in . I have spend time out in the islands, up in the Cayo and San Ignacio and down in Placencia and Dangriga. We ate off of the resort property, almost always.

The only repercussion is that I could not give blood at the blood bank for 2 years due to the high incendence of 'Aids' in Belize. That is all.

FFB, where all did you go and what all did you eat.