Foreign Food? Asian Food?!?! Living in Japan you should know what the "native" food can do do a westerners digestive system. God Bless The U.S.A.! I am staying right here, if i do travel outside the u.s. or Canada, I plan to have enough bottled water with me to last the whole trip, If you've seen Cabin Fever you know about the guy who did not get sick, all he drank was beer, bottled beer.

Dr. Out

My first time in the PI, I ate some barbecued meat in a stick from a street vendor in Olongapo that turned out to be monkey meat. It was OK but the balut was gross. Balut is a duck egg buried in warm sand until the embryo is half developed. None of it gave me the shits though. Not that I would remember anyway.

L Wrong Hubbard went down the cellar
to fetch a pail of water.
Dumped it down to flush the brown,
which ain’t no laughing matter.

Parts is parts... dog, cat, midget, whatever. Just throw some KC Masterpiece on it and call it dinner.

"God Bless The U.S.A.!" "etc re: foreign food"

I want to make a point about "foreign food." Already on this story, and on Pill Pooper's sushi story the other day, people blame "foreign food" for their gastronomic woes. But this is not accurate. It's not that Japanese or Filipino or Mexican or any other food necessarily contain magical diarrhea-inducing ingredients. Rather, the squirts come from the fact that our stomachs are fairly narrow-minded creatures of habit. They don't respond well to new things.

Our stomachs strive to be in equilibrium with our diet. As you know, digestion is aided by millions of symbiotic bacteria working in partnership with your digestive organs. The different species living in different locations along your digestive tract thrive or struggle based on the nutrients they're receiving. A high-fat diet causes growth in the colonies of bacteria that thrive on fat; a low-fat diet causes the opposite. Your digestive system regulates the bacteria and the chemicals it secretes very well when it is familiar with what it is processing.

But unfamiliar foods throw things out of whack. Your stomach overreacts to things it's not familiar with, secreting chemicals in unusual quantities while various bacteria thrive or die off in ways your system is not accustomed to. The result of this is usually diarrhea -- which is your stomach's way of clearing out something it thinks might be dangerous to your system.

The point is: foreign food is not to blame. Foods that are foreign TO YOU are. Someone raised on hamburgers and hot dogs will get the shits the first time they eat Indian food; but if they eat it regularly their stomach will learn to recognize it and process it without issue. Similarly sushi -- the first time I ate it I shat like a fire hose; but I kept on eating it and now it causes no problem.

So don't blame foreign foods for frequently flowing feces. It's not the food's fault -- it is simply your body's reaction to unfamiliar food. A few more regular meals of fish or dog, and you won't have any problems (assuming the fish and dog are unspoiled and uncontaminated -- old fish and bad dog are something else entirely).

Thanks. Dave. Now I am picturing some one who just had a painful poo. He is bent over the bowl, wagging his finger at it, and saying...

"BAD DOG!"

SamDamnit!
Rectum Rector
of
The Church of Poop
http://groups.myspace.com/THECHURCHOFPOOP

Damn it, SamDamnit. You may as well just have Waltzed into my office and knocked my clean off me chair and onto the floor.

Incorrect as an anus from another land i can attest to the fact our food sucks, chefs picking various body parts adding flavor, unhygenic food preperation, and using the parts of animals no body would eat in there right mind as a main course. that Indiana jones movie was spot on with that monkey brains and cat and dog loafs, VIVA USA, down with the turd world.

I'm sure people from foreign lands say the same thing about our food. If you ate a burger in India, people would burn you for sacrelige (sp). To each his own I guess...

Wow, you actually had to exercise to take a dump. That's a new one. You probably lost some extra weight.

Dave-O: your point about foods that are foreign to the system being potentially a source of 'stomach upset' is well-taken. But the water supply in a foreign country or even in certain American cities that is not potable or in some way contaminated can often be a source of unfamiliar bacteria as well.

And you don't necessarily have to drink any of it to get the 'benefits' of the bacteria. Fruits and veggies washed in suspect water may leave traces of bacteria to contend with if not properly dried. In all the time I lived in New Orleans, I never drank anything out of the tap because it was basically chlorinated Mississippi River water at the southernmost end of the cesspool that is the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio River System--and health authorities recommended it only for bathing.

Another source of bacterial contamination is ice cubes. People who wouldn't drink non-potable water will make ice cubes with it and put it their drinks. Result: a literal bacterial melt-down.

One other thought I just had: do you think that it possible that some of the 'reaction' people may have to 'foreign foods,' may be psychological and have nothing to do with bacteria, fat content or anything biological? I know people who gag at the thought of trying squid. Monkey brains on the menu would make them blanch.

Here's an interesting story that sheds yet more light on this subject. Two cousins of mine had just come in from a morning of hunting and were famished. My grandfather's cook had some leftovers in the refrigerator, and she was nowhere around, so the guys helped themselves to it, warming it up in the oven.

After they'd scarfed it down and she had returned from her errands, they told her how much they had enjoyed the pot roast and potatoes she'd left in the fridge. She then said matter of factly: "No. That wudd'n no pot roast and potatoes, that was rutabagas and racoon."

Both my cousins immediately ran outside and threw up.

"Both my cousins immediately ran outside and threw up."

And no wonder. Just the thought of eating rutabagas....

I can't believe you were able to leave a Phillipino sized cockroach squashed dead on the floor, but you were too much of a samaritan to leave the sausage gut bomb floating in the tank until the second and third rounds.....you're a better man than I.

There was a recent article that reports latest scientific evidence that a high fiber diet doesn't have any anti-cancer impact. It's been believed that colon cancer risk is reduced by a high fiber diet. There also have been studies on whether a high fat diet causes greater risk of colon cancer. That hasn't been proved or disproved.

After seeing Dave's comments, I wonder whether the incidence of colon cancer might be connected to fat-eating bacteria. If a person eats a high fat diet, and has a lot of fat-eating bacteria in the large intestine, there may be a connection between their effect on the cells of the intestine, and cancer.

Maybe researchers should read PoopReport every week to get some of their data. It might be useful.

PooperGal
"Searching for the Origin of the Feces"

That sausage would have made you sick if it were in America, too. Just the fact that it was hanging on a clothesline covered in flies did it. E.coli and salmonella city!

Poopergal, the colon cancer you mentioned is definitely more common in the US that asian cultures; however, their stomache cancer percentages are higher. Not by much, but higher.

From everything I've read, which isn't much but something nonetheless, diets high in fat and meat fortified with preserviatives and processed starches have been linked at the culprits much of the time.

In a recent National Geographic article I read about the oldest people on earth and the civilizations that produce the most centarians, (Sardinians, Japanese, and Seventh-day Adventists) one of the only linking familiarity between all 3 groups was a diet high in fiber, vegetables, and grains.

Nothing was mentioned about dog. Ew.

On a personal note, there is no way I could ever eat sausage hanging on a clothes line attracting flies unless I was absolutely starving, and I mean starving. Bony.

.....hugging bunnies since 1969

In mexico I ate various meats that had been hanged outside all day. It actually tasted pretty good after being cooked and prepared. It took about a week to get my body used to it. I think that people over estimate the cleanliness of the grocery store meats. Yea, theres no flies barfing on it... but your still eating an animal that was once alive, who ate flies, and poop, and toxins of all sorts. It all boils down to how well your body can adapt to change.

This is why I buy farm-slaughtered meats for the family or from friends who own animals. I agree with you.

Large-volume slaughterhouses are filthy, more apt to fill their meats with antibiotics and steroids and worse, inhumane. Now, I'm not ranting, I'm just statin'.........hugging bunnies since 1969

Don't get me started on factory farms. Those places are biotic hells. There is even research out suggesting that the antibiotic cocktails the corporate psychos have to feed their factory animals is the cause of some dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria attacking humans today.

daphne,
That is really interesting about the fiber vs. longevity item in National Geographic, as well as stomach vs. colon cancer in China and the West. It was recently descovered that a species of bacteria is responsible for stomach ulcers, and that's why I was wondering whether bacteria might also cause cell damage in the intestines and stomach that can lead to mutations and hence cancer.

It's already been established that viruses such as the human papilloma virus can cause cervical cancer. There must be more to bacteria and viruses than meet the eye in the cancer connection.

Also, I read that in China and Japan it's not just stomach cancer but esophogeal cancer incidences that are higher there than in the West. Some people have hypothesized that it's because of their constantly drinking very hot tea, or certain spices, but I believe that genetic factors and environment are more likely to play a role than hot drinks...

Okay, enough serious discussion on a site dedicated to poop goofiness.

Bring on the dog!
PooperGal
"Searching for the Origin of the Feces"

just like eating at a roach coach- you,re rolling the dice every time ya eat. fly encrusted sausage dont really sound like the cleanest stuff around.

UGH!!! the buffet around hear causes similar problems.

I enjoyed reading your experience in the Philippines, L. Wrong.
Do you have some poop stories from your time in Japan?

Heh.. I was waiting to see what the point of mentioning the cockroach was. I thought you were going to come back at the end and say it was a turd that'd gotten away on the floor that you squished, mistaking it for a bug.

Nonetheless, there is no feeling in the world like FINALLY being able to shit after being blocked up. Here's to the REAL relief!

Wow, I am amazed at the comments my story has drawn. I would like to thank Dave for clearing up the foreign food myth. After living in Japan for 6 years, my guts hate me when I fly back to Western PA. Hamloaf and roast beef sandwiches and peanut butter on everything...oh so delicious, but when you gotta go you gotta go! And it just doesn't wipe clean. Like shitting tar. So yes, our stomachs are narrow-minded.

And while I can say I haven't had any shit stories in Japan worth reporting , I have eaten my fair share of weird stuff (i.e. blowfish sperm) that should have done something weird to me, and didn't.

Happy trails,
L. Wrong
Chairman & CEO, PPK Industries

PS
PooperGal and Daphne,

I think the worst part of JApaense cuisine is that salt. I have also heard that eating white rice, instead of the healthier brown version, was a factor in stomach cancer

Happy trails,
L. Wrong
Chairman & CEO, PPK Industries

Play it safe and eat Mcdonalds.

One hears of Food Horror Stories from Asian countries. But apparently, Norway is pretty bad too. As far as I know, they don't eat dog or rat. But should you order steak, you may well be getting horse. And don't even get me started on Lutefisk. No wonder Norway is home to all those crappy Death Metal bands! Maybe these guys are all pissed off because they have horrible colon trouble due to eating Mystery Meat and fish cured in lye!
There is crappy food around the world waiting to assail your colon--including right here in the USA.
My brother once told me a terrible tale involving the aftermath of Cheese Spam Burritos on a rock climbing trip. He said he crapped his pants 13 times on the way up before they were able to find flat enough ground that he could clean up and change.
Would a Lutefisk and Dog Sausage burrito have produced worse results?
Re: McDonalds. In Australia back in the 1980's, it was discovered that what customers thought was beef was actually Kangaroo.
Gad--is nothing sacred?
Have a crappy day!
La Petomaine

I just googled lutefisk, read the power of lutefisk, it's funny as all hell.

I wonder if fasting and cleansing your system the week before traveling to a different country would help ease the process of digesting unfamliar food. Kind of like restarting your computer...

Well I dont know about fasting, but maybe taking laxitive.

I recommend sticking to the four major food groups: sugar, salt, fat, and alcohol.

It's a miracle that you didn't get sick form that fly laden sausage. Flies carry lots of disease. Cholera, E.Coli, Samonella, Leptospires, Viruses, the list goes on and on.

It might have been divine intervention that made you drink all that prune juice. That mega colon blow might have spared you from falling very very ill.

*shuddering* That Fillipino sized roach would have been enough to have made me spew everything I ever ate in the last ten years.
_______
"If December be changeable and mild, the whole winter will remain a child."

Thank God you drank that prune juice, it probably kept the sausage from doing any further damage. Yuck flies! My grandma has a similiar problem every time she leaves Pennsylvania and comes to NJ. She cant go for days but get her that prune juice and shes good to go LOL!

poopergal:
I remember watching a special on PBS about esophageal cancer in China, that was linked to certain steamed buns...i think persimmon...that had a lot of rough fiber in them, that were eaten moldy. That was the culprit in this region...the mold.
That's not to say that you are wrong. I don't mean that. I just remember the mold correlation.

_______
purveyor of the brown note...