 What about the quintessential health food, alfalfa sprouts? According to the American Dietetics Association, Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Disease Control, no sprouts. There have been a number of serious outbreaks of food poisoning tied to sprouts. Take Salmonella, for example. Last year, linked to sprouts— there were not one, not two, but about 100 cases of Salmonella food poisoning, which is a gift that can keep on giving. You get Salmonella once, and you may suffer from chronic arthritis for the rest of your life, and so the CDC has decreed no sprouts. We should put this in context, though. Last year, sprout consumption led to 100 cases of Salmonella poisoning. Remember that to eggs, though, which caused 118,000, 118,000 cases of Salmonella poisoning last year. Do we hear the CDC saying, don't eat eggs? No, but they do say not to eat raw or runny eggs. Even sunny side up or scrambled does not eliminate the Salmonella threat. Eggs have to be cooked hard to kill off the bacteria. Similarly, if we boiled our sprouts, they'd be safe, too, but I don't know how appetizing that would be. Disturbing data keeps coming in. How much of the potentially deadly jack-in-the-boxy-coli-0157 is found in retail beef, sprouts, and mushrooms? Well, none were found in any mushrooms, but one out of every 91 burgers is contaminated, and one out of just 67 alfalfa sprout containers. So no burgers, no alfalfa sprouts, even homegrown. The bacteria can get into the nooks and crannies of the alfalfa seed itself that you may buy at the store.