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Welcome to the Scientific American Podcast Science Talk posted on April 4th, 2012.

I'm Steve Murski. On this episode,

The outbreaks of foodborne illness are less than half of the big picture of foodborne illness.

That's journalist Marin McKenna. Every other month, she writes the Science of Health column

in Scientific American Magazine. Her entry in the April issue is called

Food Poisoning's Hidden Legacy. I called her at her home in Atlanta. Let's begin. I'll just

read the subhead of this article. Most people think of foodborne illness as an unpleasant few

days of fever and diarrhea, but for some there may be lifelong consequences.

I'm sure this is going to be a surprise to many people, and some of these consequences are

really life-changing. This is really striking, and this is something that has really just

kind of begun to be recognized.

And I agree with you.

I think this is going to be a surprise to a lot of people.

Because let's face it, one of the reasons why foodborne illness is such a big deal in this country.

And it really is a big deal, 48 million cases a year, is that for most people, it's just not that important.

You know, you eat something bad and you end up kind of being down for a weekend or a week at most.

...