I don't understand why Bryan closed that topic, no-one can avoid eating bugs by mistake so it is a very valid question which I would like to reply to.

Any bugs you do eat will either be killed by you chewing them or by the acid in your stomach.

Also the kind of bugs that live on produce are not the parasitic kind that could live inside you. You generally get parasites from eating meat - if they can live in meat they can live inside you.

I never wash any of my produce, but I buy mostly organic and pick my own wild food. I think everything I buy non-organic is stuff which needs pealing like bananas and mangos.

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

it comes up a lot here, i think he didn't really read it first just nipped it in the bud. better that than the crap storm that usually ensues when we debate vegan principles here.

so, i'll tell you the story of my sister and her parasite again. she is a very healthy girl, she lives in rural BC in the mountains and her next door neighbour has land that used to have pigs on it many years ago. anyhoo, she shat an earthworm sized parasite one xmas and that was how she discovered that she was infected with Ascaris lumbricoides
[www.path.cam.ac.uk]
after a round of very aggressive antibiotics to kill it and nearly two years in recovery (she is still not back to 100%) she is very careful to wash her hands and to wash everything that comes out of her organic garden. this isn't a bug, you can't see the eggs with your eyes and it's worth it not to eat any of them. they are very common too and can make it into your garden in many ways.

Yes, I agree, contamination from animal sources is quite common and should be kept in mind. From what I've read, I think parasitic infections are a lot more prevalent than people realise.

The somewhat recent massive contamination of spinach with E-coli from neighbouring animal farms residues is one example, parasitic contamination works in exactly the same way.

Cheers,
J

coco Wrote:
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> you can't see the eggs with your eyes

So does washing with water remove the eggs?

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

Coco - that is so scary. How often do you think people get infected - could one live with parasites for years without knowing? I really don't want to feel anxious about this but could do with some reassurance and info.

I was under the impression that a lot of raw fooders wont wash their organically-grown veg to get B12 (if any) from the soil traces on there?

So it's a game of potential B12 versus potential parasite?

On the accidental eating of bugs issue, isn't there some urban legend that says that on average we accidently eat X amount of spiders during our sleep in our lifetime?

A few months back a little fly flew straight into my mouth. I didn't swallow it though, LOL.

I gave up washing any produce about 10 years ago and I've never had a problem. At one place I lived at in Spain we used to use animal manure on the land and I still picked wild greens and didn't wash them. I think the chances of getting anything like that from a vegetarian diet are very, very small, and if you are raw then also your body has a very good chance of fighting it.

I really wouldn't worry.

Worrying is bad for your health anyway.

love Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

read that link, the eggs of that parasite are very hardy. you would think that a parasite would thrive in a healthy host too, kwim?
sure, lots of people can have parasites and not know it, she didn't know she had this one! and they are quite common. some can't be tested in stool samples too, they don't show up there. no need to be crazy paranoid about it though, fasting and a good parasite cleanse now and then can't hurt you and might help.

thank you so much for replying to this topic. i am always all to wash or not to wash? I suppose i am still feeling that way now though...

i'm going to do a little research on that parasite..

was your sister raw vegan coco?

lots of raw veggie, vegan for a time as well. sure, you have to satisfy your own self about whether to wash or not, i do. certainly washing will remove things from the surface of produce. if i want to eat dirt i take a little primal defense, seems the smart route to go. i only take one a day too, not the huge dose they recommend unless i feel like i really need it.

coco what is "primal defense?"

after this post i decided i was going to wash my veggies, but wash them lightly to try to get rid of the bad stuff, but keep the good stuff....

so i just ran them through water in a big bowl.

i was eating, and guess what happened? there was this pincher bug crawling out of my hand when i was eating my salad. i don't mind the little guys, but it kind of freaked me out. I do not want to eat the poor guys. i guess that's why he was crawling out he wanted to be free.

i think i have a lot of those guys in my garden. i wonder what they like so much about it?

I mostly wash my produce, but don't get too uopset about it if I don't.

The thing is, although washing makes us feel a lot better, I'd put myself out on a limb and say it doesn't do that much.

Sure, visible dirt is washed away (mostly), and you'll wash away some of the bugs and even some of the parasite eggs if they are present.

But anything that is not water soluble (i.e any oil based herbicides and pesticides if it isn't organic, any bugs eggs attached to the produce as the stuff used to connect it to the leaves etc. would mostly be waterproof..) will simply stay on, now matter how thoroughly you wash it.

And anything under the layer of dirt you don't get off as well, and some things you'd have to scrub for a long time to remove all the dirt.

Short of using an off the shelf vegetable cleaning solution, you aren't going to remove all or sometimes even most of the 'yucky' stuff.

But aside from synthetic chemicals and the like, we have evolved alongside these things for millions of years and have consumed them for just as long.

Rather than worrying about them, we should probably think about all the many and wonderful mechanisms the body has come up with the combat and negative effects, and what some of the benefits might be from this interaction!

Having said that, I gag so much if I ever find a bug in my salad, yick! It happens even if I wash stuff...

I think once your intestinal environment is in the proper balance, you are unlikey to get parasites. Parasites often feed of the old decaying waste on the intestinal walls. A colon cleanse, herbal parasite cleanse, fasting and probiotics in the diet should help attain the proper health (with proper guidance). A general level of good health should prevent infestation causing parasites to pass through the bowels and be eliminated.

i just don't believe that eating raw foods is going to somehow give my body super powers to destroy parasitic cysts that are resistant to boiling, freezing, crushing and years dormant. i don't know how a carrot is going to combat that. i'd rather just wash my food.