Hmm--we could do the Top Ten Foodie Diseases, starting with diabetes and gout.

Obesity, halatosis,lol

RE: Top Ten Foodie Diseases:

Chapter 19 of "Infections of Leisure, 4th Edition" (ASM Press, 2009):
"Exotic and Trendy Cuisine," Jeffrey K. Griffiths, author

It doesn't feature gout and obesity --- it, uh, well --- you probably don't want to know.

Top Ten Foodie Diseases - now there's a topic I can get into! You could either go the infectious route or the chronic disease route. Personally, I think the infectious route is more fun. Some possibilities:

Vibrio parahaemolyticus
Taenia solium
Listeria monocytogenes (Listeriosis)
Bacillus cereus
Brucellosis
Botulism
variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (human Mad Cow disease)
Giardiasis
Norwalk virus

Having known someone taken down by Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, I can assure you that there's nothing funny about it.

No offense meant, Mr. Laurent. In certain situations, there is nothing funny about any disease. Diabetes, botulism, vCJD, Norwalk - they can all be incredibly devastating. It is a question of the appropriate tone for the appropriate forum.

No offense taken. C-J is particularly ugly even by disease standards, though,

I think we all agree that C-J is horrible.

What I wonder is to what diseases would a foodie in particular be susceptible? Do foodies eat steak tartare or raw seafood more frequently than us pedestrian types? That I could see, but what about home canned vegetables gone bad? Should Campylobacter be on the list, or do foodies cook their chicken really, really well?

And has there been a Top Ten list on dishes that do not exist outside of church suppers?

I'm going to guess that when jl suggested top ten foodie diseases, he was thinking along the lines of, say, berry-berry or chicken finger pox.

I never knew that Cruetzfeld-Jakob disease was mad cow. That's always the last question you answer before donating platelets or whole blood, "have you ever had C-J disease?"

What an odd question to ask. Isn't it always fatal?

All the prion diseases seem to be particularly nasty.

I like the idea of foods that exist only at church suppers, except that I think some of us still cook that stuff.

C-J is why I rarely eat the hamburgers other drool over and seldom cook with any sort of mechanically deboned meat. And hot dogs? Not a chance.

I kind of like the top 10 restaurants that ruin themselves with makeovers. And I nominate Mia Carolina to that list!

I don't enjoy dining with strangers and anyone who gets rid of booths in favor of bench seating with close tables has ruined thier own ambience IMHO!

"I like the idea of foods that exist only at church suppers, except that I think some of us still cook that stuff."

Mom? Is that you?

Foodie hazards - Toxic mushrooms!

My vote for foodie disease is Scombroid.

You get it from eating fish that wasn't properly chilled after being caught. It is more common with dark meat like tuna and mahi-mahi. Usually it's not the restaurant's fault. It's more likely that the chiller on the boat wasn't working right, or the fishermen didn't stow the fish quickly enough, or didn't discard an already dead fish.

What happens is that there is bacteria that grows on the fish which create a chemical known as histadine, which is like a histamine. You eat it, and boom -- hives, itching, redness, headache, even difficulty breathing.

The horrible thing about it is it seems just like an allergic reaction, because when you have an allergic reaction, your body creates the same kind of chemical. So you may think you can never eat fish ever again, when that's not true at all.

It has happened to me two or three times (one time I'm not sure about).

Ask your doctor, of course, if you think this has happened to you. Don't just hit the clambakes.