On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 01:58:50 GMT, "Bob Travis" >
wrote:

>Well, Nancy, the reason I asked is because growing up my dad was a
>microbiologist / quality control supervisor at a food plant so we were
>always more germ conscious than most people.

Commercial food production *must* have the most stringent rules and do
its best to reduce the tiniest possibility of food-borne contaminents.
Both by law (now) and from the expense of dealing with lawsuits.

>When my wife's mom grew up her
>dad was a farmer, they had no electricity, and for personal hygiene they
>used an outhouse. In the 12 years we've been married both my wife and her
>mom complain of stomach aches far more often than I do.

Can't comment on MIL's environment, but if you and your wife eat the
same food, her stomach aches may be the result of something other than
food poisoning.

>Her mom even wonders
>why her poor dog is always getting sick too and it never seems to dawn on
>her that maybe it's because she will prepare a meat dish for him early in
>the morning and never even think about refrigerating it until late in the
>day.

This is an entirely different question than the apple crisp. And also
a problem with *many* possible variables. Day-old dog food among them.

>And God forbid I should say anything to her, she'd get all huffy like
>she did tonight and let me know she didn't even have a refrigerator when she
>was growing up. I didn't want to poor vinegar on the wound and ask her how
>much time she spent in the outhouse.

My grandmother said she bathed once a week and felt hot baths were
"weakening." I listened to and enjoyed the stories and old-timey lore.
I didn't stop daily showers or hot baths. Nor did I challange her
notions.

>That is why I thought possibly her "high sugar" explanation might be
>plausible, but I thought I'd better ask someone that knows more about
>cooking and refrigeration than I know.

I've never researched sugar as a preservative and bacterial
preventive. Opened (but not open) jars of jam seem to last a long
time. OTOH, I've seen mold on opened jars that have been refrigerated.
And even on honey, so I'm guessing that sugar isn't a cure.

>All I can tell you for sure is my wife and I lived with her mom the first
>two years we were married and after we moved out and began cooking more of
>our own meals I rarely got stomach aches and associated problems again, but
>when we lived with her mom they were a fairly regular occurrence. Every time
>we sat down to dinner I felt like I was playing Russian Roulette. Will
>tonight be another one of those nights in the john, or is everything going
>to be okay this time. The general rule was if we went shopping together and
>fixed dinner soon after we got home, usually everything was okay. But if we
>were having leftovers the best I could do was say a prayer and hope for the
>best.

Sometimes "let us do the cooking" works. Sometimes not. As the story
unfolds, MIL may indeed be dicing with death in food prep. It's rather
difficult to change another's personal habits of any sort.

>P.S. There is something about elderly people and salt too. Just as they are
>getting to the age where high sodium intake should be a consideration, it
>seems they use about 5x more salt than seems reasonable, so much salt that
>even if you're eating the brown off her fried chicken it tastes more like
>the crumbs at the bottom of a very salty bag of potato chips.

As I understand it, taste sensations degrade with age just like
hearing and eyesight. So if salt can't be readily detected, the answer
for many is more salt. Health advisors say the remedy is to introduce
more flavorings of other sorts -- herbs & spices -- to "ginger up"
foods. You might try some "we'll bring the main dish" situations
rather than suffering salt chicken.