Traveling to America - should I be concerned?

Seriously, the people in the USA eat food from the USA every day. WTH

My thoughts exactly. This ranks pretty high on the list of stupidest threads. We're not all dying from the foods here. Sure...there have been bad things out there. And it sucks that the bad stuff gets through. But generally...we're all surviving, even eating food in America.

Yes, eat fast food for every meal and then come back and tell us why you feel like death and you've gained 40 lbs on a 2 week trip.

What part of the country are you travelling to? Some parts of the country have MUCH better options and availability than others. It's a pretty big country.

:indifferent:

Northern CA. I'll be calorie counting, it should be ok. Maybe I can buy one of those cleanses or GNC products we can't get here?

Oh, you're coming HERE? NorCal? Oh, then you're fine. Seriously, it's RIDICULOUSLY easy to find healthy food in Northern California. Granted, it's pretty easy to find crap food too, but just find a New Leaf market or Whole Foods, or the like. They're everywhere. The coastal areas are even more likely to have what you're looking for. (although you may want to avoid Fresno, just on general principle)

Avoid Fresno?!?

But that would mean no cowboy-hookers! Blasphemy!

It depends on where you go, but most large cities have stores like Whole Foods where you can obtain the foods you are accustomed to. Google where you're going to find them....or eat fast food. If its a vacation, why not splurge a bit?

Please be more specific as to where you are traveling. The continents of North America and South America are quite large, encompase hundreds of countries and all have different ruling bodies of government controlling food safety. Some do a great job, others not so much.

Oh good lord will you people get over it!!!

The rest of the world calls you America. Just like you are Americans.

Deal with it!!!

Goddamn nitpickers on this site... it's unbelievable!

The irony is that I played an uneducated Yahoo (a la Gulliver's Travels) ...

All the junk collected by this thread aside, sounds like one could know all that is necessary about it by reading the first post, the OP's profile, and the OP's last post. Mostly, the first few responders called it... trolling (see quote above). So, garbage in, garbage out. Next, OP has been to the US before... rode in a couple of RAGBRAI, which is a multiday biking event in which one bikes across Iowa. Food here is not a mystery for him, soooooo....

Got a giggle from 2 things. First that raw beef would be on the list of supposed concerns... try donating blood in the US after traveling to (at least parts of) Europe. Blood banks are concerned about exposure to BSE when you tell them about your travels. A co-worker has been permanently deferred as a blood donor because she was born in Germany, from whence OP says he's coming. Second, the tongue-in-cheek reference to eating at Waffle House. I've only been to one a very few times, but I guarantee I got sick VERY soon after each time. Needless to say, I learned and adjusted my behavior.

ETA: Oops, dropped the sentence about BSE.

Dude........... you're Mexican................... Taco Bell

Simples

Dude...that was not cool...

I like taco bell, it's an US thing, we can't get that here. Or in Mexico.

Yo quiero Taco Bell.

Wait. You start this thread about concerns over our food.... but you like Taco Bell. Your argument is invalid.

My boyfriend is from brazil and it annoys him to hear the US referred to as America, so it does bother some.

On the original note, I would avoid eating at all. We have calories in our air and you'll probably gain about ten pounds just by breathing.

I am Australian and I have travelled through parts of the US, so I am happy to give you my opinion based on my experience there (I haven't been to other areas of the Americas). The food is very variable depending where you are. When I travelled through Tennesee, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi I found it very difficult to find the kind of easily accessable, healthy and fresh but fast and cheap options that I am used to in Australia. I am not saying they aren't there, but they certainly didn't seem to be as common or as easy to find. As far as I could tell, cheap and fast = unhealthy. You could get fresher and healthier options in better restaurants, but not so much for a quick bite of lunch. On the otherhand I didn't find the supermarkets to be as bad as I had been led to believe. The produce seemed fine and wasn't outragously expensive (as I'd heard).

Once in New York I found Whole Foods was quite good, though not really any more special or gourmet or fresh than any standard supermarket in Australia. The restaurants were amazing though! I ate raw food of a couple of persuations while there and was really impressed. We also went to cali and vegas, but I can't say I really focussed on the food that much;)

Don't get me wrong, as a tourist and on my honeymoon I indulged in some amazingly tasty food in the US. I had an awesome time, I loved it there so I don't want to offend anyone. However there are major differences between the US and what I would consider 'standard' or 'normal' in Aus particularly when it comes to natural products. So the same is probably true of Europe. I don't understand why so many posters were so quick to completely dismiss the OP, rather than trying to understand?? Don't you want to learn anything about other countries and their differences to the US? Do you just assume that USA = Superior?

But from all the threads here, it seems that the food in America is dangerous and I don't think I can travel with two weeks of food. A lot of threads here talk about bad dairy, bad eggs, bad peanut butter. I'm not sure I should eat at places where I don't know the source.

Or should I stick to fast food places where I understand that the food quality is controlled and tested. I know it's strange to focus on that but I'm concerned about the quality of restaurants and I really won't have a car there nor a place to cook.

Thanks for your advise.

This has got to be the most funniest post/thread I've read so far.:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: HILARIOUS!:sad:

^
You realize this whole thread's a joke right?

I don't think so. Even after the OP admitted to it, people are still taking it so seriously.

LOL. Just LOL....

Dude, even if the OPs post is a joke I have a feeling that a big proprtion of the 'mericans here are laughing for the wrong reason. But hey, carry on it'a not like the rest of the world isn't quite used to your superiority complex....

Last I knew, here in America we have eggs, sushi, and even the famed peanut butter....

This was hilarious! Now I want to get drunk so I can enjoy some waffle house. It's really the only way to eat that stuff.

Please be more specific as to where you are traveling. The continents of North America and South America are quite large, encompase hundreds of countries and all have different ruling bodies of government controlling food safety. Some do a great job, others not so much.

Hundreds of countries? What map are you looking at?

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.

I read this to my husband and he got the hiccups he was laughing so hard.

Our standards and regulations are extremely tight. Ofcourse there's a chance you'll come across a place who didn't follow code, but that's not incredibly common, probably much like where you come from, wherever that may be. If someone gets food poisoning, that restaurant will generally get shut down so fast, if that is in fact what you're worried about. I have never gotten food poisoning in my entire life, not once. If you're worried about the obesity epidemic? We have an obesity eppidemic because of the vast options of unhealthy food, not to mention the ridiculous portion sizes. And also, the bad food is always cheaper, and there are a lot of people on budgets who simply cannot afford to keep buying organic, fresh everything. People who have money don't understand why they can't just "pay the little extra." But for people who are struggling, that "little extra" sometimes means not being able to pay your bills. But anyway, I digress. You're going to be here for two weeks, right? Eating our food for a couple of weeks isn't going to make you gain 100 lbs. We have just as many healthy options, organic, high grade food. You don't HAVE to eat the "processed" stuff if you don't want to. You don't have to get fast food or frozen, microwavable entries. If our "obesity epidemic" is what's worrying you, I don't see why fast food would be a better option. You come here, you go to nice restaurants and you eat the good stuff, that's all. If you do grocery shopping, get the organic stuff and stay away from the freezers. You want raw meat or fish, the restaurants all serve it up to regulation, it won't get you sick. We have an obesity problem because we have such an insane amount of options, and they're cheaper, and they taste good. NOT because the healthy stuff isn't there, because it certainly is. So don't worry, you'll be fine.