(Plastic surgery chicago) How to Germ Proof Your Kitchen and Other Household Areas Against Bird Flu and Other Diseases
No commentsBy Richard Stooker
Chances are there’re a lot more germs growing in your kitchen and the rest of your house than you think. Your kitchen is a breeding ground for cold, influenza and stomach viruses, as well as the normal microbes that inhabit your skin and digestive tracts.
Even though you think you’re a great housekeeper.
The most dangerous area is the kitchen. Yes, surprising as it seems, your kitchen probably has more germs than your bathroom — where the worst of them are flushed away.
Your kitchen contains a huge number of surfaces. You and your family touch them, and spatter and spill food over counters and the table and onto the floor. You pick up utensils. You cut up and cook food that even if not contaminated also contains nutrition for germ growth.
Yes, you clean your kitchen. But few people practice sanitation as strictly as they could.
One problem is raw meat. Beef can contain E coli 0157 and poultry can contain Salmonella and Campylobacter.
It’s highly unlikely in the U.S. or other developed countries that are watching their poultry flocks very carefully for signs of bird flu, that the chicken you buy in the store has H5N1 virus in it.
But if that should ever happen, these good sanitation habits will help protect you from it.
You should wash your hands WELL at every stage of meal preparation. That means before you start. After you cut up the vegetables. After you put the meat dish into the oven. Before you set the table. And then before you eat.
Every stage of handling and preparing food can possibly spread an infection to your skin. If you wash your hands between the handling of different foods, you reduce the risk that you’ll introduce the new microbes into the next dish you’re cooking.
This washing between foods also applies to utensils and cutting boards.
Never cut up chicken and then use the same surface and knife to cut up vegetables without washing them thoroughly with soap and hot water first.
And don’t wipe food off your hands with your apron or a rag you should throw down, or your apron or rag will have lots of germs from food growing in it and you’ll be transmitting them into what you’re cooking.
And don’t touch your face with your hands until they’re thoroughly washed, or you could be introducing germs from the food into your own body.
Also, all meat and fish should be thoroughly cooked — well done. Never serve any meat with any pink left in it. The heat of cooking kills a lot of microbes and parasites that could otherwise make you ill.
Of course, you need to keep your floor swept and mopped with disinfectant, and all counters and tables cleaned and disinfected. And all dishes and utensils washed well with hot water.
Any throw rugs or curtains in the kitchen should be washed regularly. Any rubber mats should be cleaned with water and bleach. Washclothes and sponges should be kept dry.
c 2006 by Richard Stooker
Richard Stooker is the author of How to Protect Yourself and Your Family From Bird Flu and
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Bad Breath? 4 Easy Steps To Solve Your Problem!
By Martin Haworth
It’s important to recognise the impact that bad breath can have on your life. It can be one of the most embarrassing personal hygiene problems to afflict us, especially when it’s pointed out by someone else. And, for most of us, bad breath is likely to be the result of poor dental hygiene.
Here are four simple actions, you can easily take, to make the difference.
1. Brush Your Teeth Regularly and Well
The first tip to relieve bad breath is a bit of a no-brainer. Regular teeth brushing makes a big difference. It’s vital to brush your teeth at least twice daily to avoid the accumulation of food debris. And plaque, even more of a problem, is avoided as well, which is much more difficult to notice much of the time.
By regularly brushing the teeth, any nasty plaque gets dislodged and fails to build up. But if you only brush once a day, or miss occasionally, you will find that it builds up and is a lot more difficult to shift.
This is a really important message for those who suffer from bad breath. Your teeth may look and even feel clean, but unless you brush your teeth regularly, it’s the plaque build up that will leave your breath unpleasant.
When brushing your teeth, don’t forget your tongue. According to many studies, your tongue harbors bacteria that may cause bad breath.
2. Floss It!
You can do more than brush your teeth! Sometimes it’s difficult to dislodge every bit of food that gets stuck, so getting it out is important, if you want to see the back of bad breath completely.
There are all sorts of weird gizmos and tools out there to do the flossing, yet it need not be that complicated. As a preference, you might find a straightforward non-shredding floss, on a long, long (25 meter - a lot of floss) roll which will last you for ages.
Remember to floss before you brush, so that the newly dislodged bits between your teeth will be finished off by the brushing.
3. Visit Your Dentist Regularly
Dental hygiene, to improve your bad breath, can be maintained easily by ensuring that you see your dentist regularly. It’s usual to have checkups every 6 months or so and dentists being as they are, will often call you or write to remind you. It’s their living, after all!
There’s a whole lot of hot air about the value of seeing a dentist. Suffice to say it’s always good value, because prevention is a lot cheaper than paying for real emergencies.
Bottom line is that many of the issues that cause bad breath will build up and cause significant problems before long. That will put the cost up too, if you don’t make that visit every half year or so and pay the bill. It’s an investment worth making!
Remember, in most countries there are defined dental insurance programs available so that you can spread the cost, or at least keep a lid on it, so that might well be an investment that is worthwhile.
4. Chew Gum
It might have been a gimmick by marketing people to start with, but there have now been a number of studies to show the value of chewing gum in maintaining your dental health during the day.
Apart from the minty freshness that will help to mask bad breath, that’s not the point.
In fact, the capability for chewing gum to keep your mouth clean by stimulating saliva flow, as a natural oral cleanser, as well as dislodging stuck bits of food is now well proven.
So, there you go. there are four easy dental health tips to ensure that any bad breath you might have had in the past is banished forever.
It wasn’t that painful now, was it?
(c) 2007 Best Dental HealthGuide. If you want to find the best information and product ideas to keep your teeth healthy and bright. You can, right here, on Martin Haworth’s fascinating website at http://www.BestDentalHealthGuide.com
Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 12:50 am and is filed under hygiene. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
