The news might be full of stories about horse meat being found in ready meals and processed beef, but according to a new study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chicken is the food most likely to kill you.

The US Home Food Safety program has responded to this study by issuing guidelines on good sanitation practices that can dramatically reduce your risk of food-borne illness without requiring you to cut any foods from your diet.

“Safe food-handling procedures can help protect you from food-borne illnesses while still allowing you to enjoy these tasty and nutritious foods.”

Rachel Begun, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, which along with ConAgra Foods is behind the US Home Food Safety program says:

offered a variety of suggestions on how to prevent the spread of food-borne illness.

“Safe food-handling procedures can help protect you from food-borne illnesses while still allowing you to enjoy these tasty and nutritious foods… One of the most important things you can do to stay healthy is to wash your hands thoroughly for 20 seconds with soap and water, especially when it comes to the particularly nasty norovirus… The norovirus accounted for 46 percent of the illnesses according to this study, and while hand sanitizer is great to reduce the spread of some germs, research shows us that soap and water is best.“

Food-borne illness (known colloquially but inaccurately as “food poisoning”) is caused by eating food contaminated with disease-causing bacteria or viruses. One in six people suffers from food-borne illness in the United States each year, leading to 128,000 hospitalisations and 3,000 deaths. It is estimated that each year in the UK: around a million people suffer a foodborne illness around 20,000 people receive hospital treatment due to foodborne illness there are around 500 deaths caused by foodborne illness it costs us nearly £1.5 billion.

2013 Miles In 2013 – Please Sponsor Me

So after completing a year without all alcohol in 2012 for Cancer Research UK and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust I am now attempting to complete 2013 self powered miles by the end of 2013.

I am doing this challenge in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust as I have been surprised since I started fundraising for the CF Trust just how many people are unaware of this disease and so I hope my efforts will not just raise money, but also awareness of the UK’s most most common life-threatening inherited disease.

The first person to commit to sponsoring my 2013 mile challenge has committed to 1p per mile (£20.13 in total) and this got me thinking. I am hoping that as many as possible of those reading this will commit to do the same and the best thing is, if each person does this on a “pay as you go” type approach all you will need to part with is approx £2 just after each pay day. In January I completed205.9 miles, so if you can please spare £2.06 to help the Cystic Fibrosis Trust it will be greatly appreciated.

The easiest way to give your sponsorship is to visit my Just Giving page: http://www.justgiving.com/2012-AYearWithoutBeer-CF.

2013 Miles in 2013 – The rules

The rules for my 2013 miles in 2013 challenge are quite simple:

1. All miles must be completely self powered (no motors, sails, etc)
2. I must be able to evidence all miles, either via GPS or with a picture of any static gym equipment

To complete my 2013 miles I will be running, cycling, rowing and who knows, I might even try a few other self powered methods along the way.