FOR RELEASE THE WEEK OF JULY 16, 2000:
We love to buy cherries at roadside stands, but we’re often suspicious about whether they’ve really been washed. Should we go ahead and eat them anyway?
Roadside stand produce probably hasn’t been washed, since it lasts longer if the protective waxy layer on its surface has not been disturbed. Sandra McCurdy, University of Idaho extension food safety specialist, says the risks of contracting a food-borne illness from eating unwashed produce are really quite small, because fruits and vegetables don’t usually have harmful bacteria or viruses on their surfaces. "But why take even a small risk when it’s easy to wash the cherries?" she asks.
According to McCurdy, the number of cases of food-borne illnesses from eating fruits and vegetables has actually been increasing over the past decade. Handling by ill farmworkers or irrigating with contaminated water have occasionally prompted food-borne illness in consumers. Recently, health authorities in California have been urging consumers to wash the outsides of melons before cutting into them, after a number of people developed salmonellosis from eating cantaloupes.
"It’s best to wash all produce before eating it," McCurdy says. And by "washing," she means "really rinsing the produce with a generous volume of water to rinse away surface dirt and other possible contamination." Using detergents is neither necessary nor advisable, she says.
We hear a lot about the Food Guide Pyramid, but do we really know whether following its recommendations will make a difference in our health?
Actually, following the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid may decrease your risk of dying prematurely by 30 percent, says Martha Raidl, University of Idaho extension nutrition specialist. A recent study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, surveyed 42,000 women about their diets and then tracked them for six years. During those half-dozen years, the women who had the healthiest diets were 40 percent less likely to die of cancer and 33 percent less likely to die of heart disease than the women who had the worst diets.
Food Guide Pyramid recommendations include eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, six half-cup servings of grains–for example, bread, rice or pasta–and two to three servings of lean meat and low-fat dairy products.
"The researchers speculated that other lifestyle factors–such as education, physical activity and not smoking–also probably played a role in determining risk of dying," Raidl says.
Our teen-age son, who does our lawn work, sometimes strips a little bark off our young tree with the string-trimmer. How much damage can this do to our tree?
"It depends on how young the tree is and how asleep the teen-ager is who is doing the string-trimming," says Michael Colt, University of Idaho extension horticulturist. Prolonged bark damage to a young tree can cause stunting during its early years in the landscape. "You can’t hurt a big, old tree, but you can certainly hurt a young tree that has only been in the ground a couple of years and is only 2 or 3 inches in diameter," Colt says.
To avoid both string-trimmer and lawnmower damage, clear a 3-foot circle for mulch and for annual flowers, perennial flowers and bulbs beneath your landscape trees. Put down a woven weed barrier–never an impenetrable plastic–then pile on 2 or 3 inches of mulch.
We’re always concerned about energy consumption when we buy home appliances. How can we make an educated comparison among products?
Heather Cataldo, program coordinator for Idaho GEMStars, recommends clicking on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s and the U.S. Department of Energy’s "Energy Star" website, www.energystar.gov. You’ll find model-by-model comparisons of energy use by clothes washers, dishwashers, refrigerators, room and central air conditioners, fluorescent light bulbs, furnaces, TVs, VCRs, computers, photocopiers and many more household products. You can also inform yourself about energy-saving roofing, insulation and windows.
According to the EPA, residential energy use represents 20 percent of U.S. energy consumption. "You’ll have a lot of these appliances and materials in your home for a long time," Cataldo says. "By buying energy-efficient products, you can reduce energy use, help the environment and save money in the long run."