As a non-USC, what impact did food & water from the U.S. have on you?

[John+Lourdelie 28]

If your local water treatment plant uses chlorine for the disinfection of their water for human consumption, it will include a small amount of residual free chlorine (breakpoint chlorination) to ensure that micro-organisms can not live in the water that you drink. If your local treatment plant is not properly dosing the water there may be insufficiant chlorine, resulting in the possibility of pathogens in your water, or excessive residual free chlorine which you will taste and smell. Excessive chlorine is not healthy. If you suspect excessive chlorine, tests can be performed to determine the amount of chlorine to see if it meets local codes. You can also contact the municipality that treats your water and/or your state's department of environmental quality and let them know that you suspect an excessive amount of chlorine in your water.

Joh

BTW, most water treatment plants do not process the water to remove all odors. It can be excessively expensive to do so.

Edited August 15, 2010 by John+Lourdelie

[John+Lourdelie 28]

Been a long day. Can't even finish my name.

John

[Prawninator 138]

I'm not a terribly big fan of tap water, from home or here. People say that water is flavourless, but I DISAGREE! It tastes awful, and I don't like it at all. In Singapore, I boiled my water before letting it cool and then sticking it in the fridge. Don't like room temperature beverages either. Can't help it, I'm from a tropical island, it's hot and humid all the time.

As for the food, I think Taco-Bell would give the most hardened stomach a hard time too, haha.

I guess my advice would be to start light; don't do all the greasy, heavy foods yet until a week or so later when he's acclimated to the food quality, as I'm sure it varies from state to state and city to city. I can understand though, I don't think I could live without fried chicken. I mean, I actually dreamt the other night that I was eating some. Imagine my disappointment when I woke up to find that I had none.

[trinket 30]

Water didn't impact me at all. Fast food restaurant food makes my skin break, so I avoid them. What did impact me though was the cold weather out here, gave me a hard time breathing properly because of that.

[FrostyMist 1]

It took me about 3 - 4 weeks before I felt "normal" again after arriving in the US. My stomach was very unsettled over that time, and I suffered frequently from pretty major headaches. I also had an overall sense of tiredness, which was very draining.

I suspect the reason for this affect in my health was due to two things: Not keeping hydrated enough whilst flying, and a sudden and drastic change in diet.

After I'd been here for a week, I began to get very concerned about my health. After one too many days with awful stomach ache, I decided enough was enough and restricted myself to an extremely bland diet for a couple of days. Once my stomach had settled, I started varying the foods I ate--taking care not to overwhelm my system with too much new stuff at once, and now I'm doing fine.

I think it was mostly due to me eating far too much unhealthy food-in those early days of me being in America, we ate out at fast food resturants far too much. My diet consisted of greasy burgers and fried chicken. Not good.

Overall, I've adapted fairly well now to US food. However, I would say that I do have to be a lot more cautious about what I eat here. I have noticed that there are many things that make me feel extremely ill. It does concern me that there seem to be a lot of preservatives in food, and some products (meat, fruit, etc) seem to have a blander taste than I'm used to.

No problems with the drinking water though.

Edited August 21, 2010 by FrostyMist

[spectrrr 14]

1st trip to Venezuela I was a typical smart traveler and VERY careful with my intake. Second time I stayed a month and took the opportunity to get acclimated. I drank bottled water only (and I drink lots of it!), however juices, dishes toothbrush, etc were all done with local water - and by local water I mean mostly potable, coming from a 55gal barrel filled up from the neighbors hose every day or two. I also ate and drank whatever I wanted to when we went out, including ice.

I had maybe one 24 hour period where I hit the toilet a couple times, but that could have been something else entirely that I ate just as much as the water. I'll add the disclaimer that I grew up on a farm out here and have a VERY strong immune system. Combine that with an iron stomach and I don't worry too much about travelers issues, just as long as I try not to overwhlem it (drink bottled when I can, so it gets plenty of pure flush water, and don't even care about the rest). When my friends and I all got food poisoning here, I was slightly sick for 4 hours, they were sick for 4-7 days, and I ate 2x more than any of them

Now her stomach is a bit more sensitive than mine, so I'm expecting it will take her up to a month when she comes here to acclimate to a greasier diet before she can really eat too much fast food. Home cooked meals should be fine though, and I don't think she'll have a problem with the water. (I drink bottled water or distilled at home anyway, simply because I find the excessive chemicals in tap water causes it to NOT be thirst quenching for me. I can drink it, but it doesn't satisfy!)

Edited August 23, 2010 by spectrrr

[spectrrr 14]

To answer your original question however, I would lead him clear of most places until you see what his American grease/spice tolerance is (especially the ones he'll like a lot). It's also a chemical and processing tolerance, because a lot of our food may not be any more greasy than what he's used to, however it's very likely to be more heavily processed and more chemical laden. Once he's had no problems for a few weeks, slowly bring in the good stuff!

Country of Origin has a certain amount to do with it as well. Coming from Venezuela, I don't think he'll have any trouble with the water, although the heavily chlorinated tap water could be rather offensive. They eat some grease, pizza, etc down there.... I'm guessing it will be the level of processing in the food that gets him more so than the grease here.

Edited August 23, 2010 by spectrrr

[RVP10 2]

Bottled water is usually just tap water from local municipalities bottled and resold to the public for about a 7,000% increase. Many times the bottled water is less safe than tap water because no testing is required when not sold across state lines, unlike public water which is tested daily. That means 70% of bottled water is untested. Plus, it's much worse for the environment. The bottled water industry has done an amazing marketing and lobbying job to sell this product to the public and make lots of $$$. Pretty amazing to think about. What will they sell us next, air?

If you are really concerned about the water, just use an activated carbon filter.

Lastly, regarding the packaging...I've worked as a scientist in the polymer/plastics industry for 15 years... I NEVER buy bottled water. I have reusable stainless steel bottles for travel. Food for thought.

Tapped

[Ricky+Vanessa 43]

Bottled water is usually just tap water from local municipalities bottled and resold to the public for about a 7,000% increase. Many times the bottled water is less safe than tap water because no testing is required when not sold across state lines, unlike public water which is tested daily. That means 70% of bottled water is untested. Plus, it's much worse for the environment. The bottled water industry has done an amazing marketing and lobbying job to sell this product to the public and make lots of $$$. Pretty amazing to think about. What will they sell us next, air?

If you are really concerned about the water, just use an activated carbon filter.

Lastly, regarding the packaging...I've worked as a scientist in the polymer/plastics industry for 15 years... I NEVER buy bottled water. I have reusable stainless steel bottles for travel. Food for thought.

Tapped

Thank you for this - very interesting. I'm gonna see where I can get one of those bottles. I'm a bit weird and only like to drink water out of a bottle not a glass (yeah, I know).

Regarding the original subject though I had NO problems at all. Don't know if it's because I'm used to travelling alot or what but the food/water has had no effect on me. I did though, like frosty, suffer from headaches for around the first week but I think that was more the climate than anything else. I hard time with the extreme heat and then extremem artificial air. But it seems to be fine now.

p.s. Cesc - LOVE the name and the avatar!

[RVP10 2]

Thank you for this - very interesting. I'm gonna see where I can get one of those bottles. I'm a bit weird and only like to drink water out of a bottle not a glass (yeah, I know)...

p.s. Cesc - LOVE the name and the avatar!

Klean Kanteen, hope that helps.

Glad Cesc is in London at least one more year.

[Cortr 3]

You will find a huge variation in tap water quality from place to place in the USA. I've been fortunate in that 2 of the 3 cities I've lived in during my life have had excellent, scent-free tap water.

When I was in university, the city got its tap water from the local river, so it was treated heavily and smelled like a swimming pool. It also left this disgusting residue on you after showering.

My current residence and my hometown both pull their water from natural underground reservoirs, and it is as good as any bottled water. Sure, they treat it a little, but the you don't even notice it.

[Gemmie 142]

This isn't about food, but since we're discussing the water...

I've found that every time I come to the US (and since living here for over a year), my hair has gotten extremely greasy. I think it's the water as there are so many chemicals - you can smell the chlorine in it - that the hair just gets weighed down and oily. I've tried all kinds of shampoos and not only is it difficult to find shampoo made for 'greasy hair' as we have in the UK, but the clarifying shampoo (use once a week) doesn't work either, even if I use it daily. I's not my diet - when I went back to the UK to visit, my hair went soft and clean immediately and stayed that way until I happened to wash it. If I want to keep my hair looking clean for 24 hours, I need to take 2 showers. I've found temporarily using baby powder works for soaking up extra oils, but it doesn't last long.

[RVP10 2]

This isn't about food, but since we're discussing the water...

I've found that every time I come to the US (and since living here for over a year), my hair has gotten extremely greasy. I think it's the water as there are so many chemicals - you can smell the chlorine in it - that the hair just gets weighed down and oily. I've tried all kinds of shampoos and not only is it difficult to find shampoo made for 'greasy hair' as we have in the UK, but the clarifying shampoo (use once a week) doesn't work either, even if I use it daily. I's not my diet - when I went back to the UK to visit, my hair went soft and clean immediately and stayed that way until I happened to wash it. If I want to keep my hair looking clean for 24 hours, I need to take 2 showers. I've found temporarily using baby powder works for soaking up extra oils, but it doesn't last long.

Do you have well water, or city water? The UK chlorinates it's public water as well, so that's probably not the difference.

I see that you are coming from Bath and your US abode is in the Boston area? There is a big difference in water hardness between Boston and Bath. I'm usually visiting London, but I noticed that London has very hard water (lot's of calcium and magnesium cations dissolved within the water). There is always a mineral scale left in the kettle or in the shower/sink. Hard water is known to corrode pipes and appliances. This same process probably reacts with the oils in your hair and skin. When you shower in hard water your skin and hair will feel a little tight. Many that are used to hard water associate this with being clean.

The Boston area may have much softer water, so you won't get the same "tight" feeling on your skin. As for the smell, that usually comes from the city pipes, or even your house plumbing. I actually have a softening system in my home to reduce the hardness of the water (remove the calcium and magnesium) and protect my plumbing and appliances from mineral deposit and corrosion. When you shower in soft water, your skin feels slippery like there is still soap on it. When you dry off it's like you have a very slight moisturizer in. It takes a little getting used to, but I now prefer it to the hard water.

The next time you are in the UK, try adding Epsom Salts to your bath as an experiment. Epsom Salts (actually produced from the mineral water in Epsom, England) replaces the magnesium ions in the water, effectively making it "soft" water. See if that reminds you of the water in the US. If it does, then the issue is probably a mineral issue.

[Gemmie 142]

I think it is the water type, but I'm not sure whether it's hard or soft. I've looked online and been getting conflicting information about which water type feels the stickiest/greasiest. I guess it just depends when you're used to. It also explains why I get so many blemishes on my face in the US as well.

[Welshcookie 17]

I was sick for about a month when I first arrived, not really from the food but getting used to air conditioning. I drink bottled here, many states fluoridate the water which I don't wish to ingest, so it's bottled water for me.