Chipotle E. Coli: Cheap Food Isn’t Good and Good Food Isn’t Cheap

Appealing to emotions of disgust the hypocrisy that is Chipotle

Appealing to emotions of disgust the hypocrisy that is Chipotle

Chipotle has closed 43 restaurants in Oregon and Washington because of an outbreak of Shigella Toxin Producing E. coli (STEC). This is the same bacteria that was linked to the outbreaks from Jack in the Box years ago (in that case it was tainted hamburger meat).

So far, thankfully, no one has died, but 1/3 of the infected customers have been hospitalized.

Chipotle, and other large chains, are easy targets for these bacteria. They obtain large quantities of vegetables, sauces, and meats from distributors. And although Chipotle has sought to tell the world that they serve “food with integrity,” they are still a mass-marketed, mass-distributed chain. I’ve debunked them in my article Chipotles Hipocracy in Pandering to Anti Science.

Probably the most important point: of the food borne illness – Chipotle has had over 300 people being sick and from GMO – the number is zero.

My parents, until they moved to assisted living, would frequent such restaurants as Chipotle, Village Inn, Sheri’s.  Thankfully their food is prepared at a center now, and that has much less risk of food borne illness.

If you want to remain healthy — it is far better to cook your own food than have someone else cook it for you. The fewer people handling the food, the closer the supervision, the less likely you will end up a victim of food poisoning.

Cheap food isn’t good, and good food isn’t cheap.

Just cook!

About the Author
You probably first saw Dr. Simpson on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or Twitter. Dr. Terry Simpson received his undergraduate, graduate, and medical degrees from the University of Chicago, where he spent several years in the Kovler Viral Oncology laboratories doing genetic engineering. Until he found he liked people more than Petri dishes. After a career in surgery, his focus is to make sense of the madness, and bust myths. Dr. Simpson, an advocate of culinary medicine, believes in teaching people to improve their health through their food and in their kitchen. On the other side of the world, he has been a leading advocate of changing health care to make it more "relationship based," and his efforts awarded his team the Malcolm Baldrige award for healthcare in 2018 and 2011 for the NUKA system of care in Alaska and in 2013 Dr Simpson won the National Indian Health Board Area Impact Award. A frequent contributor to media outlets discussing health related topics and advances in medicine, he is also a proud dad, author, cook, and doctor “in that order.” For media inquiries, please visit www.terrysimpson.com.