This story in the New York Times Magazine might be the tipping point for all of us who are ‘sort of’ vegetarian. It was also discussed on NPR with audio of Stephanie Smith vowing she will dance again some day. Jeeze. This is such a disaster, and so much worse than the average case of food poisoning. This strain of E-coli is much more dangerous than the ubiquitous bug that lives in every mammal’s intestines. It’s killed scores of people.

We read about terrible illnesses and accidents all the time. This story is awful because a healthy young woman has had her health ruined from eating a hamburger, bought at a big-box store.

This story is awful because of what it reveals about business as usual, what’s in your food, and what it takes to sell hamburger so cheap. If you don’t want to give up hamburger, you might consider buying the higher quality kind, but even then there’s no guarantee.

Here’s a link to Stephanie’s story, read the rest to find out what was in that cheap frozen burger…

Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.

Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed.

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007.

And here’s a very un-useful list of the top ten risky foods. Tough to avoid them all, and how do you cook ice cream? Is buying local one answer? Buying small? A kitchen garden and some chickens?

How many cows end up as ingredients of the 4,800 calorie burger? When you read the NYT’s account of how cheap hamburger is mixed from scraps of fat and centrifuged meat particles from all over the hemisphere you’ll think twice about cheap beef.

Of course, you might be eating light. The 1,500 calorie donut burger gives you just about a day’s calories in one breakfast snack, with all the nutrition of 2 donuts, grill grease, hamburger and cheese.

I’m not sure how many calories there are in the Double-Down sandwich- a Kentucky Fried Chicken offering that consists of two fried chicken breasts with a cheese filling. They were supposed to market it in an undisclosed Rhode Island location. Not to my surprise, it’s in my neighborhood, on Cypress St. in Providence. Fortunately the KFC is located on a steep hill, so you can eat the sandwich and walk off the calories if you go up the hill, head East till you hit the Boulevard and circle around it a few times.