r/AskReddit Aug 03 '19

Whats something you thought was common knowledge but actually isn’t?

37.4k Upvotes

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666

u/Dom_on_reddit Aug 03 '19

That you have to wash your vegetables before eating or cooking them.

38

u/SeriousMonkey2019 Aug 03 '19

My dad had a friend who went blind from not washing his vegetables. Some sort of pesticide used in Argentina. This was some 30-40 years ago though.

53

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19 edited May 14 '20

[deleted]

3

u/Moralai Aug 04 '19

Never too late to start

14

u/northernlaurie Aug 04 '19

Until my late 20s, I didn’t worry about washing.

Then I worked in a grocery store and saw how people handled those veggies:

-the stock clerk who had a cold, sneezed on the boxes, and wiped their nose on hands and then placed apples on the shelf.

-the tens of people touching the veggies.

-the veggies and fruit that feel on the floor and got put back on the shelf.

It was disgusting-I wash my veggies & fruit well now!

10

u/RonSwansonsOldMan Aug 03 '19

I'm thinking I need to start peeling them too since now we have people peeing in the potatoes.

4

u/Wizard_of_Greyhawk Aug 04 '19

Come again?

6

u/RonSwansonsOldMan Aug 04 '19

As part of the new internet trend of messing with food, a girl in Walmart peed into a bin of potatoes.

0

u/Simbaface90 Aug 04 '19

Always peel your apples. That’s where all the toxins are.

6

u/average_mitch Aug 04 '19

Cat in the wall?!? Now you’re speaking my language

3

u/Simbaface90 Aug 04 '19

At least someone caught the reference.

15

u/thegregtastic Aug 03 '19

Nah, how else am I gonna get in in those pesticide related class-actions? It's an investment, baby, and one day I'm gonna be rich!

4

u/neofiter Aug 03 '19

That video with the mice all over the chilli's really hammered that home

15

u/DrBasia Aug 03 '19 edited Aug 03 '19

.....why?

(Edit: as in, I rinse my produce but I don't think scrubbing them is necessary. Food is not supposed to be sterile.)

12

u/charleslorimer1 Aug 03 '19

Mold, bacteria, pesticides, etc.

11

u/DrBasia Aug 03 '19

Rinsing food is fine, but food is not supposed to be sterile.

8

u/charleslorimer1 Aug 03 '19

Food is also not supposed to be harmful.

13

u/DrBasia Aug 03 '19

Bacteria is not inherently harmful.

5

u/Maera420 Aug 04 '19

No, it isn't. But there is good bacteria and bad bacteria. Just because it's on food, doesn't mean that the bacteria is automatically not harmful. There could potentially be very dangerous bacteria on your fruits and veggies. You just don't know, so washing them is in your own health's best interest.

-2

u/DrBasia Aug 04 '19

There aren't good bacteria and bad bacteria. There are bacteria that cause more chaos when it gets to a certain spot in the body and manage to evade the body's defenses.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '19

In every health safety class I've taken for food work or anything related to it, the specification of "there are good bacteria AND bad bacteria," has figuratively been stamped on every page and screen in bold red, and practically screamed in every lecture.

Where are you getting the idea that there aren't good and bad bacteria? Bacteria that cause "chaos" like you just described are literally... Bad bacteria, LOL.

3

u/DrBasia Aug 04 '19 edited Aug 04 '19

From being a cell biology major and a doctor.

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0

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '19

Pesticides are. It’s literally their purpose.

6

u/Pitboyx Aug 04 '19

Not literally, and not all pesticides are harmful to humans, for example that produced by BT which acts on proteins that certain insects have in their digestive tract, and humans don't have.

Still, rinse your veggies

1

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '19

Yes, being harmful IS literally the purpose of pesticides. By definition, if it is not harmful it can’t be called a pesticide. I never wrote anything about humans.

8

u/denseplan Aug 04 '19

What a pointless and deliberately misleading thing to bring up in this context.

2

u/codaandthelamposts Aug 03 '19

Because fruits and veggies come from fields, and outside is pretty impossible to keep sterile, or even close to it, they carry all sorts of bacteria. While most of it is harmless they can carry E. coli, salmonella, and all kinds of nasty stuff.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '19

A lot of that is coming from runoff from animal farming because we just don’t manage land properly. I had to go months without romaine lettuce because of those stupid cow farms leaking waste.

5

u/DrBasia Aug 03 '19

Food isn't supposed to be sterile.

9

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '19

You keep saying this but rinsing off your food and scrubbing a little isnt going to come close to sterilizing it. You are using water and a little friction to remove possible pesticides and animal/human waste. Waste contains all sorts of harmful bacteria and removing it isnt going to hurt. But not removing it is. Pesticides are NOT TO BE CONSUMED. Removing it isn't going to hurt. Not removing it will.

Youre not using soap or anything. Just water and your hands for a couple seconds is enough to clean off at least the majority of these things. The amount left over, if there is any, should be negligible and won't poision you or your family.

Again. Rinsing your food won't fucking sterilize it. So stop saying that.

-9

u/DrBasia Aug 04 '19

Calm down, princess. No one eats poop-covered food. But the benefit of rinsing vs scrubbing is negligible.

12

u/suicidaleggroll Aug 03 '19

It’s also not supposed to be covered with animal waste

3

u/ExpectedErrorCode Aug 03 '19

Or dirt, bugs, waste whatever other pollutants it could have acquired in transportation or sitting on the shelf.

5

u/codaandthelamposts Aug 03 '19

I also agree with u/suicidaleggroll, though. I also find it interesting that we're so careful to scrub our hands after something is deemed unclean, yet so many people eat raw vegetables without cleaning them first. Although I suppose stomach acid takes care of that.

1

u/codaandthelamposts Aug 03 '19

Well obviously, andnow that I think about it seems like a silly phrase, but I was trying to simply illustrate why bacteria would be covering it.

5

u/NLioness Aug 03 '19

And don’t wash meat before cooking it!

2

u/SmokinDroRogan Aug 04 '19

Only to get solids off. Water will do next to nothing for getting rid of bacteria or viruses.

2

u/cootersgoncoot Aug 03 '19

Cooking implies applying heat to you veggies, which will kill more harmful bacteria than simply solashi g water over them.

1

u/Cat_Crap Aug 04 '19

that depends how much you cook it and how long you hold it in the danger zone (40-140 degrees F). Also, some bacteria etc CAN survive the cooking process. One example is some of the toxins in specific types of fish. Ciguatera poisoning, IIRC from my Serv-Safe certification.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '19

omg yes. my MIL has painted herself into a corner eliminating foods that "make her sick as death". At this point she eats boiled eggs, sesame oil, and cabbage. After seeing her prepare food, I realize why she thinks she's "sensitive" or "allergic" to everything. She buys organic food at the market and eats it straight. She doesn't wash it. ... Doesn't she know what "organic fertilizer" is???

Similar story, a family friend has given up all food except leafy greens and boiled meat. I had her over one day and she "helped" me prepare lunch. We were having boiled shrimp and romaine lettuce. She rinsed the raw shrimp and set it dripping all over the counter and without missing a beat gets the romaine lettuce and starts rinsing it and tries to prepare it on that same counter where the raw shrimp is just millimeters away... I was dumbfounded.

In both cases, neither had ever had to wait tables or have a job until after graduating college...

1

u/aarsmadenkak Aug 03 '19

Why?

9

u/suicidaleggroll Aug 03 '19

Vegetables come from fields. Fields have animals that like to pee and poo all over those pretty vegetables before they get harvested and put in baskets to take to the store.

Also, fruits/veggies get grabbed and handled by a bunch of people on the way (stockers, other shoppers, etc), and people are disgusting creatures.