I'm often asked my opinion about the cause or treatment of some medical condition,

but the question to instead ask is, what does the science say?

What is the best available balance of evidence published in the peer-reviewed medical

literature you have to say right now?

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

We put a lot of thought into eating what's best for us, so the last thing we need is an

inadvertent pathogen hiding in our alfalfa sprouts. Here's our first story.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we should cook alfalfa sprouts because

eating raw sprouts can lead to salmonella food poisoning. It's especially important not to eat

raw sprouts if you're particularly old or young, immunosuppressed and pregnant. How serious

of an issue is this? Over the last few decades, at least 2,700 Americans have been sickened

by sprouts. That's more than 100 people a year.

Of course, during that same time, more than 100,000 Americans were being food-poisoned by

eggs contaminated with salmonell.

Indeed, samanelle in eggs is a national epidemic in the United States, and samanella is a gift

that can keep on giving trickering arthritis sometimes, which in rare

cases can last a lifetime.

So, no sprouts on that sandwich, but do you hear the CDC saying no eggs, even though

they cause a thousand times more illness?

No, but the CDC does say no raw or running eggs, no soft-boiled eggs, no sunny-side-up.

Even the egg industry itself admits that over-easy-post sunny-side-up where soft-boiled eggs

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