Foods with added antibiotics: Danger revealed
Foods with added antibiotics: danger revealed (photo: Freepik)
Antibiotics are often used in agriculture, and not just to heal animals. The medication has a unique property: if you add a small dose of antibiotic to the feed, it has an anabolic effect. That is, animals that consume feed with a small amount of the antibiotic grow and gain weight faster.
The Styler project, citing a video on Yevhen Komarovskyi's YouTube channel, explains whether these antibiotics affect people and what foods they can be found in.
Does such use of antibiotics harm people?
According to Komarovskyi, the amount of the drug in the agricultural industry is not too large compared to the amount of antibiotics used to treat people.
However, this is where the biggest risk lies.
The fact is that it is a small amount of antibiotics with frequent consumption that leads to bacterial resistance to the drug. Higher doses are usually prescribed for treatment so that the bacteria do not have time to get used to the new conditions.
Another problem is that meat or eggs with antibiotics may already contain bacteria that are resistant to the drug. After consumption, they can settle in the human body. If a certain disease occurs, it is these bacteria that will be difficult to treat with antibacterial drugs.
Manufacturers are abandoning the use of antibiotics
The world is trying to fight this problem. For example, more and more farms are switching to organic farming using probiotics instead of antibiotics. For producers, this method is more expensive, and the products cost more.
Another way is to stop giving the animal antibiotics a certain time before slaughter. Then its body will have time to cleanse itself of the drug and become safe.
What products can contain antibiotics?
First of all, this applies to products of animal origin: cattle meat, eggs, fish, and dairy products.
This category also includes plant products. Since they grow in the soil, certain antibacterial drugs could also get into it.
How to protect yourself
It is impossible to determine the presence of antibiotics in meat or fish at home. Therefore, first of all, follow the rules of food preparation:
- wash your hands
- do not eat anything raw
- be careful with meat with blood
- control the cooking temperature
- use different cutting boards
Earlier, we found out what illnesses are hardest to treat with antibiotics.
