Last week I bought nearly a pound of blueberries from the grocery store. They looked like they were freshly picked and of good quality. The next day I went to wash a bunch of them before eating. As I poured some of them into a large bowl for cleansing, I noticed two of the blueberries had some mold on them, white and fuzzy. That is never a good sign. I picked those blueberries out and threw them away. I also threw away the berries surrounding the moldy ones.
Undeterred, I washed the rest as thoroughly as I could and drained them. A little thing I like to do is to place the freshly washed blueberries into the freezer for about 10-15 minutes to firm them up again and get them nice and cold. It’s quite refreshing on a summer day. After taking them out of the fridge, I ate a fair amount of blueberries. They tasted fine.
That night as I slept, I was awoken with stomach pains. I tried to continue to sleep and that was somewhat successful but the pains continued until early morning. I finally got up and pooped. I felt better after that. I went back to bed and then woke up for realz and then went to work. Apparently, I wasn’t done with the blueberry poops just yet, as I had to poop again at work with some urgency. That seemed to do the trick as most of the blueberries were now out of me.
That evening, after returning home from work, I had a decision to make. I had lots of the blueberries left from the package but it was clear that the ones I ate had made me sick. Should I risk it and continue eating them? I love blueberries but I hate having to poop uncontrollably. What if it was just one rogue blueberry that made me sick? What if the rest were fine? What if there were other poopy blueberries awaiting me though?
I decided it was too risky. I’ve had so many previous experiences with gastrointestinal maladies caused by bad food that I didn’t want to take any chances. I dumped the rest of the blueberries in my compost. It’s never good to waste food but when that food could potentially my life a poopy hell, I’m ok with throwing it out.