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Now is not the time to be
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eating bagged lettuce.
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Whether we like it or not,
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vegetables, while nutritious,
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have a nasty reputation
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for caring for illness.
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It makes sense.
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We eat them raw,
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we don't cook them, and often
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they bring things from farms
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that we just don't
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want on our table.
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It might sound
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kind of paranoid,
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but the unfortunate fact
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is that lettuce,
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especially precut,
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often gets us sick.
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Lettuce,
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whether we like it
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or not,
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is often
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the cause of multistate
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foodborne illness outbreaks.
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We seem to have a big one
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pretty much every fall.
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The issue is
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it's really an odd game:
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With bagged lettuce.
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what essentially is happening
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is all the crops
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that are being farmed
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are being thrown
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into basically
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an industrial woodchipper,
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and they're being
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put into bags.
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You don't know
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how many different crops
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are going into each bag.
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And if there's even
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one little bit
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of contaminated lettuce
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in that machine, you likely
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could be bringing home
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that illness with you.
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Now, I would never suggest
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to just give up
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lettuce entirely.
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But there is an
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easy option here,
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and it is just buying
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your own lettuce
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and chopping it yourself.
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That will dramatically reduce
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your risk of
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foodborne illness.
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And you will still get
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to enjoy a Caesar salad.
