 Able to Cook is sponsored in part by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community, Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Able to Cook media sponsors include Park Tester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW This is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International. Welcome to this edition of Able to Cook, the one and only program that focuses on cooking and special needs in Vermont and beyond. I'm Lauren Seiler. I'm Lauren Seiler. Before we begin, in 2018, we started with Able to Cook. Now Able to Cook is back. It will feature food history and teaching people with special needs how to eat properly. Before we begin this show, we would like to say special thanks to Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services and many others, including the help of partners from the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont. Before we get into the kitchen though, today, for this topic and this show, since COVID is a bad virus and disease, we are going to go into food diseases and food-borne illnesses. Now we are going to discuss a very topic for biologists and people in the science world. We are going to talk about Mary Mallon, M-A-L-L-O-N, also known as Typhoid Mary. Typhoid Mary was an Irish-born cook believed to have infected 53 people with typhoid fever, three of whom had died and the first person in the United States to be identified as a symptomatic carrier of the disease, Salmonella typhi. As she persisted in working as a cook, by which she exposed others to the disease, she was forcibly quarantined by authorities. Eventually for the first two decades of her life, Mallon died after a total of nearly 30 years in isolation. I'm going to mention in this show PBS, the public broadcasting system, has a film that they did, a documentary with the program NOVA called The Most Dangerous Woman in America. Let's take a look a little bit at that program, The Most Dangerous Woman in America. Let's take a look at this. Okay, let's get back to Mary Mallon and Typhoid Mary a little bit. In her early life, Mary Mallon was born in 1869 in Cookstown County, Tyrone, which is now Northern Ireland. Presumably she was born with typhoid because her mother was infected during pregnancy. At age 15, she immigrated to the United States and she lived with her uncle for a time and working as a maid eventually became a cook for affluent families. From 1900 to 1907, Mallon worked as a cook in the New York City area for eight families. For whom she contacted Typhoid in 1900s. She worked in the Mallon Neck, New York. Anything you want to say about that, about the different diseases and foodborne stuff? Yeah. Because they don't, the employer has it and they carry it to the food and they get sick. You have to wear your gloves and in this case, that's why, especially in New York now, everybody has to carry a food license or food card. We're going to get to certain tests and food tests in other shelves. From 1900 to 1907, Mary Mallon worked as a cook in New York City for eight families. For whom she contacted Typhoid in 1900s. She worked in the Mallon Neck, New York. Within two weeks of her employment, residents developed Typhoid fever in 1901. She moved to Manhattan where members of the family, she worked for developed fevers and diarrhea and the person that did the laundry died. Mallon went on to work for a lawyer and left after seven to eight people became ill in the household. In 1904, I know this is a lot. This is on Wikipedia for those that want to know, but it's extremely important. She was, and we're going to continue to show pictures of Mary Mallon. In 1904, she was hired by a prosperous lawyer, Henry Gilsey. Within a week, the laundry was affected with Typhoid and soon four to seven servants were ill. No members of the family were infected, but they resided separately and the servants had their own house. So, talking about sanitation and food sanitation, between the late 1800s, and as a matter of fact, the New York City Sanitation Department started within the late 1800s because of all the garbage in the street and horse manure because back then horses carried disease and so on and so forth. So, anything that carries the disease, the most important thing you must clean your kitchen when cooking. You must wear gloves if you are dealing with raw product. As a matter of fact, since we're on the topic and we are going to show a picture, I have here a food thermometer. If you're in another country, it goes to Celsius and here is Fahrenheit. And just to let you know, in terms of food temperatures, I'm going to show a picture, poultry, meaning chicken, turkey, pheasant, any poultry has to be cooked at 165 degrees Fahrenheit and 74 degrees Celsius. Beef or lamb is 165 degrees as well with three minutes rest time. Now, some people personally, that's not my forte, eating raw or too rare is a problem. Which brings me to this, since this summer is extremely hot and people do a lot of grilling. One thing that you should not eat, I'm putting it up here and we can have a picture. And it's considered eating raw meat is very bad. They don't even eat raw sushi. Well, they have sushi, but steak tartar is a very bad thing. Of course. Let me see. It should always cook it. You have to always cook your, as a matter of fact, steak tartar is a meat dish made from raw ground minced beef. Or in this case, horse meat. Horse meat is a bad thing. And getting back to Mary Malin, it's extremely bad to eat anything. And we can go through the kosher laws also in another show. But usually served with onions, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and other seasonings. We can show a picture of steak tartar often presented to the diner separately to be added to taste. And it's served with raw egg yolk on top of the dish. The name tartar comes from generalized other raw fish or meat dishes. The last common version is in France of tartare or aler vitor. A mound of mostly raw ground meat that is likely seared on both sides. There are dangers for eating. Yeah, you can get extremely sick. The health concerns have reduced the popularity of this meat dish in some parts of the world because of the danger of contamination by bacteria and parasites. Such as toxoplasma, gondi, and tina sinata, which is hard to pronounce. The basic hygienic rules are followed by fresh meat is used. The risk of bacterial infection is low. However, I do not recommend you eat raw product or raw stuff. Raw fish is a different thing if you're into sushi. But for those, and I'm going to mention it, for those who we can actually show and just courtesy them. Maybe we can show it at the end of the show to just say no. The old Rocky movie back in the 70s, Sylvester Stallone had a scene in his apartment where he was running and he drank raw eggs. Back then, a lot of joggers and a lot of runners ate raw eggs. I do not, I repeat, for people with special needs, we do not recommend you eat a raw egg. Now, a French omelet, you know, the egg is a little runny. I mean, if you're going to have a sunny side egg, that's a different thing. But I do not recommend you drink or eat raw eggs because if you have a pre-existing condition, it could get you extremely sick. So that's why we do not recommend it. But the foodborne diseases are extremely important, especially between raw product and foodborne. Any else you want to say? I would say that, you know, people should be careful eating in restaurants because they don't cook the food properly. Yeah, there are a lot of people that are supposed to be wearing gloves. Now, food poisoning is another foodborne disease caused by bacterial, parasitic, or viral contamination of the food. Bacterial contaminants such as E. coli, salmonella, singella, or listeria. Parasitic contaminants such as Guardian Intestinal, or I can't pronounce that word. Food poisoning can affect pregnant women, older adults, people with disabilities, persons with weakened immune systems, persons with chronic medical condition. The prevention of food diseases, if you have a foodborne disease, you have common symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, usually lasts only a few days. A small percentage of cases of foodborne pathogens can cause serious acute or lifelong complications. Lifelong complications include kidney failure, paralysis, seizures, hearing or visual impairments, and also mental retardation or MR. And if you have a foodborne disease, you can call poison control over a month. Now, according to the CDC, food poisoning researchers have identified 250 foodborne diseases, most of them infections caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses, and parasites. A parasite is defined as, that can carry parasites and so can food, drink something please. So please wash your hands frequently when dealing and touching raw product, follow proper food handling procedures to reduce the risk of transmission of contaminated food. For people with weakened immune systems, especially people with disabilities, please be, according to the CDC, be especially careful in contact with animals that could commit, could transmit these infections. Now I'm going to say one thing, certain countries, not making fun of anybody eating anything, certain countries eat other animals that you and I don't eat. If you go to any of those countries, please make sure that the food is cooked, that you're eating, and if you need to get a doctor's assistance or doctor's advice when eating those foods. Those food shows that we see, bizarre foods with Andrew Zimmerman, I do not, we do not condone, even though we like those food shows and when we watch them, we do not recommend you eat something that you are not supposed to. If you have a pre-existing condition, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, anything that you have, that is defined as a disability or challenge, please do not eat anything that will make you extremely sick. Scorpions, spiders, charatulers, anything of that nature. Stop, stop, stop. Well, those are the things you eat. Yeah, but don't eat, and don't mention it, it's disgusting. Well, we are not making fun of people around the world, but please, yes. Please watch what you're eating, and as we say in Jewish, always do your research on something that you want to eat before you eat it, as they say you are what you eat. Now, in terms of parasites, years ago, there used to be, and it still is, if you eat pork or bacon or anything like that, there's something called trichonosis, which is known as worms. Please, please cook your food before you eat it. Yeah, you must. Now, certain food can have parasites or diseases, malaria, if you're in Africa or any other country, you must get a shot before you go. Now, in terms of, oh yeah, how a parasite affects people, for example. If you're infected and feel sick, they might not want to donate blood, so if you have been affected by food poisoning, don't donate blood. Anyway, uncooked fish, crabs, mollusks, lobsters, crabs, anything like that is known as a bottom feeder. Undercooked meat, raw plants such as watercress and raw vegetables that have been contaminated by human or animal feces. Now, Mary Mallon, she was hunted down by Dr. George Soaker back then because of her hands not being washed. You must wash your hands because there is a huge thing. We're going to talk about it briefly, even though we might not want to talk about it. And this show is for people with disabilities and special needs and other people who want to learn about special needs. We're going to talk about it. Feces has the most germs. Okay, there's three places in terms of germs. The kitchen has germs, the bathroom has germs. Please, when you are handling raw food, please wash your hands before you go to the bathroom because if you don't, you could pass a virus. Feces or fecal matter is the semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contains relatively large amount of metabolic waste products such as bacterially altered by Rubin and dead cells from the lining of the gut. So we ask that before we end that you use a food thermometer when cooking and you must wash your hands. We cannot say that enough. So many people in years past, including Mary Madeline, who was quarantined and she didn't like being quarantined. So unless you want to be quarantined with a disease that you've never had before, wash your hands when you are cooking. Raw product, raw food, anything. Even if you grow food in a garden, carrots, celery, anything you grow, please wash it. It's most important if you don't want to get any sicker, if you are ill and you can't help being ill because of your disability or challenge, please wash your food so you don't get any sicker. And as a result, Mary Madeline, she lived her life in quarantine mainly before she had passed away because she was really trying to deal with her innocence. So this puts an end to this edition of Able to Cook. Able to Cook, thank you for our sponsors Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services and the partnership with the Division for the Blind and Vision and Impair. Anything you want to say before we end? No. Okay. I'm Lauren Seiler. I'm Lauren Seiler. Happy cooking. See you next time. Able to Cook is sponsored in part by Green Mountain Support Services. Empowering neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community, Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Able to Cook, media sponsors include Park Tester Times, Muslim Community Report, www.thisisthebronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International.