Food concerns in India

Do you know about standard food and water precations?

wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/default.aspx

Click on safe food and water

Review all of this info first, then you can make informed decisions about when to choose to eat something that has some risk.

Don't hesitate to ask questions, read labels. etc.

A great many harmful bacteria enter a person's system from...their fingers.

Wash your hands as often as you can. Use a hand-cleanser (Purell, for example). Keep your fingers away from your mouth and eyes.

Having traveled widely in India, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and China, my wife and I have had little or no trouble with the food, just by following normal precautions, of which we are sure you are aware.

I just got from my third trip to india. my first two i got really sick. what worked for me was drink bottled water also for brushing teeth. eat in very good restuarants and what i did was eat pasta, pasta, pasta and pizza.Also some soup.I stayed also at the taj and other 4 to 5 star hotels and would of eaten anything cause of the excellent quality. dont forget that sometimes its not the bad water but just spicy food your not used to. .also dont forget , bring antibiotic just in case.

I ate and drank everything at the 5 star hotels, including ice. Also ate at smaller food stalls if they looked busy or were recommended by locals.

For breakfast, yogurt is everywhere and some swear by its probiotic properties. I like indian cereals with nuts and fruits and yogurt, rather than milk, on top.

One Pepto bismol tablet each morning, and keep your hands clean and away from your mouth, nose, and eyes. I take Purell in little bottles and lots of individually wrapped hand cleaner towellettes so that it is easy to keep clean.

After going to India 5 times, i really never got sick once...a few headaches, and mild upset stomach but generally healthy.

I just never drink water out of the tap (not even to brush teeth), i avoid dairy products and ice cream and raw veggies, and eat only fruit that u can peel. I never have ice cubes either, even in upscale hotels.

Also mainly stick to vegetarian...

It is hard to avoid any sickness at all, but if u take all the normal precautions, u will be fine.

I don't drink juice unless it is from a container. And try to stick to cooked foods (no cereal with cold milk).

However, there are times i have eaten off the street at special festivals and did not get sick at all.

Indian food in India is absolutely delicious, u will see!!

Oh and wash your hands frequently and carry antibacterial wipes, and don't worry, just go an have fun!!

Avoid spicy food. It gives me a stomach upset when I go back (and I grew up there).

I'd recommend sticking to bottled water all the time, although I think it's okay to brush your teeth with tap water - but not to drink it (no one else does it in India either).

As for food, after the first few days, you can start venturing out a bit and trying different things slowly since your body will have started adjusting.

shelly---we were even more careful in india than in SEA....we ate mostly in 5* restaurants, which meals primarily hotels....

we ate veggies and meats both...no problems at all....ate at a couple of "local" places suggested by our deiver.....no buffets, except breakfasts....just be careful

Loads of good advise already given, except I would DEFINITELY use bottled water to brush your teeth. And watch where you buy your bottled water. I'm not saying don't buy from small sellers (good to give them the business) but check the bottle and seal carefully.

I've made two lengthy trips to India (months not weeks) and the only time I got really sick was when I decided to have cereal for breakfast. I don't eat cereal at home so this was way out of character - but I really fancied those cornflakes!

The milk was warm so I sent it back, asking for cold. When it came back it was still warm. I wanted COLD - Big mistake! Because, of course, to cool it down further ice was used, and I was out of action for three days.

This was not, I hasten to add, in a five star, or even a three star hotel. And the moral of the story is don't get careless. Street food is fine if it is freshly cooked - like those lovely vegetable pakoras. Yum!

Have a great trip.

In addition to the above suggestions, the CDC recommends a program of 4 or 5 doses of Pepto per day which reduces your chances of tummy trouble by 50%. We have done this successfully without binding ourselves up (continue to eats fruits you peel yourself, etc.) It should still be posted on the CDC website...

Ask if the milk is pasturized before you drink it.

If the juice is fresh squeezed there is a small risk. (darn)

DO brush your teeth with bottled water.

I can't imagine going to India and eating pasta and pizza! And since they're presumably cooked by the same people in the same kitchen as the Indian food, I can't see that it would help avoid illness.

I spent ten weeks in India, and the only time I got even a little sick was from drinking pineapple juice bought at an Indian train station - I knew it was dangerous, but it was bought for me by some charming fellow-passengers and I put politeness first (mistake!). Otherwise, I drank juice that I saw squeezed that had not been cut with water, and also lassi - the yoghurt drink (you can some really good stuff in the markets). I didn't eat in 4 or 5-star hotels and I didn't take Pepto Bismol, but I also didn't drink tap water, or brush my teeth with it, and I avoided ice and salads.

I second the advice to use Purell or equivalent, and I was traveling with Cipro, which fixed the pineapple juice problem. I don't generally eat breakfast, so never tried the cereal, and would avoid milk and ice cream.

I think there is a lot of overkill and extra anxiety on this issue. There is no point in travelling all the way to india and staying in a bubble . Its probably not possible anyway. There is different flora in the water/food there with might upset your stomach a bit - it did with me - but not in any very difficult way, as long as you take the usual advice, discussed by the others below. In my case I travelled in a comfortable fashion with my daughter who had been in country for a year and had her footing. I think we were more conservative than we should have been in our food decisions!!!

(1) we didnt drink tap water, only bottled and filtered (filtered is essentially the same as bottled - most tourist hotels and restuarants have it - it is filtered the same way as bottled and you dont get charged for it - my daughter always insisted on filtered water and we didint get sick from it - this is probably what they are using when they say the cook only with bottled water). If you are at a good hotel and they put a pitcher of water on the table, it will be filtered.

(2) if we were buying the water from a vendor we always checked the seals.
(3) we mostly didnt eat street food til the last two days of the trip. I think this was too conservative - the fact is if the food is cooked in front of you and piping hot, Id go for it if it appeals to you. the issue may be with chutneys etc that accompany that are not cooked.Im so glad we went to the paranthewallagulla in Old Delhi and had fantastic parathas at the end of the trip
(4) we avoided buffets - and hotels requiring buffets - as much as possible, because it is too possible that the food will have been sitting around at room temp for too long. The other reason to avoid buffets is that the food is likely to be VERY bland - that may work for you but it drove us nuts.
In any case, the buffets we had to patronize were served up in a very brief period, were hot and didnt stay around so that was acceptable.
(5) do remember to wash AND DRY your hands. I had a linen tea towel I took along on this trip and even tho it sounds silly I found this very handy since bathrooms tended not to have towels. I never used any of the handwipe stuff I took along - it was wasted baggage for me.
(5) We stayed at places that are used to western travelers. Downside, this meant we sometimes had to fight for delicious local
tasting food.

(6) we pretty much ate everything we were served including bits of raw veg. We ate only indian food - there was no "salad" as such. We ate quite a bit of yogurt and drank lassis and other drinks made with yogurt. We drank milk with our tea (they boil the milk for this purpose) - we did not have cereal - why bother, in India??
We drank fruit juices only in packaged forms except in places where we could have confidence that it was "clean" We drank drinks with ice only in places where we were confident about the water.

(7) we did not eat the prasad (offering food, mostly milk sweets) in temples.

(8) I ate both meat and veg, daughter only veg.

(9) I had a few nights of gastro-intestinal discomfort but it cleared by morning and I never got sick as such (no fever, weakness, etc) - if I had had that kind of a night I would take a peptobismol or immodium in the AM to assure I would get through the day - it worked fine.
(10) I had a couple of doses of antibiotic in my pack as a security blanket but never thought of using.
If you dont have this dont worry - there is no problem getting cipro or other at indian pharmacies wherever you are without a prescription.

you will be fine with these suggestions and most of all your NEW ENGLAND common sense.....we would never conswider using pepto or similar on any trip until it is needed...it masks problems, iop....

bottled water goes without saying...for everything except showers when i keep my mouth closed

Thanks so much to everyone for your thoughtful advice. I have travelled to many other countries without any problems. Hopefully, by following your good advice, using my New England common sense, and having some good luck, I will return with only good memories of our trip to India. Thanks again to all who responded.

I go for work and have been a lettle sick twice (manageable with cipro and just eating toast) and VERY sick. I ate nothing but food from the 4-5 star hotel and got sick...it can happen anywhere. Keep yourself hydrated at all time, buffets...hate them food is out too long so I avoid and order off the menu. If what you eat does not taste right leave it.

If you get VERy ill vomiting and the whole lot. Get the hotel to call a Dr you will get an injection and it will stop very wuickly and it will allow you to recover quicker. I do not reccommend grinning and trying to self medicate if you are that ill. Better safe than sicker!

P.s. always wash teeth as mentioned above with bottled water keep your mouth shut in the shower too Most 4-5 star hotels have a water purification system so ok Ice is fine as they use special water but I still wont brush my teeth with it!

In addition to the water precautions, we took probiotics every day. The brand we used was pearl-something, which do not need to be refrigerated and I found at Whole Foods. The theory is that you keep your gut full of "good" bacteria and that overruns any "bad" bacteria that happens to enter your system. We ate lots of local foods with no problems.

Taking some probiotics along is not a bad idea. Bastyr University here in Seatle has done research on probiotics and TD. They found that while the probiotics did nothing to prevent TD, those people who took probiotics got over it sooner.

OK I agree with all the precautions people have given you, but I took all of these precautions and was still mildly ill every day I was in India. So I thik it is somewhat individual. It wasn't the run to the bathroom kind, but a more moderate diarhea every day. Honestly we only ate at very nice hotel restuarants; I never eat spicy food, and I washed my hands ever 5 minutes using antibiotic washes and wipes, only drank and brushed with bottled water. I did take Cipro with me but did not use it as it was not that serious. I am not sure it was bacteial or if it was it ws not so bad a bug. I think part of it is that they use a lot of oil in their cooking and lots of other even non-spicy condiments that just did not sit well in my stomach. But who knows.. It wasn't horrible, just slowed me down a bit. A nice bonus was that I lost 12 lbs as a result of a 2 week trip. And I am the type that only ahd possibly 15 pounds to lose. Mostly because I ate very small meals to keep things under control and because I got so wary of what I could eat. It was still worth the trip as India is amazing but if you have a stomach like mine you may just set your mind to the fact that you may not be able to avoid it. But go anyway!

An experienced traveler told me many years ago to eat local yogurt to put the "correct" local bacteria in your system. It seems to work, because I've done that and never gotten sick in trips to over 40 countries. Other than that, I follow the suggestions here -- use bottled water, avoid vegetables and fruits washed in water, etc. -- use common sense and think about what you are touching and putting in your mouth.

I just read in my guidebook that in India, one cannot be sure of the food even in high end hotels because unless they have an emergency generator for when the power goes out, the refrigerated food is at risk during power outages. Just another thing to worry about...or not. Anyway, I think the yogurt idea sounds medically sound, so I will try that, as well as take many of the other precautions advised, and hope for the best. We leave for India in 9 days, and I am looking forward to our trip, despite my food concerns. Thanks again to all who responded.

Lot of good advice from everyone. I have been to India many times, and other countries too, and never got sick. Basically, I follow the following 3 rules:
1. Drink bottled water (make sure the seal is opened in front of you for other cold drinks as well...Coke, beer, etc). 5 star hotels in India are very safe for food and water..you can drink the water from the hotel tap. Drink hot tea, hot milk or hot coffee everywhere else. Lassi is a cold drink, wonderful, and I make an exception for that but only at a reputable hotel-restaurant. I would also drink fresh squeezed orange juice with nothing else added..like ice. Avoid ice, generally, except at 5 star hotels.
2. Never eat cut fruit from a street vendor. (It's OK to buy fruit, wash it with tap water or clean water, and cut it yourself with a clean knife). OK to eat fruit at a 5 star hotel-restaurant.
3. Relax and enjoy your trip and the culture you have come to experience. (I have an uncle who worries about travel overseas to no end, and always seems to get sick on every trip.)

Of course, stick to hot food as much as possible. Good hot(temperature)and spicy food in India is great...hope you like spicy!!
Be prepared with your medicines just for insurance..I hope you will never have to use them. I always over eat when I go to India and still lose weight.

Are lassis made with crushed ice?

No, lassis are made with yogurt, and sometimes thinned down with water (if the yogurt is too thick or rich), and either sugar (for sweet lassi) or salt (for salty lassi). Some people like lassi cold and may add ice. But I always ask for lassi without ice and request no water added...I like it thicker. Lassi at a 5 star hotel-restaurant is safe, IMO.

This brings up another point. Never eat crushed ice cones in a foreign country, IMO. Ice cream cones and ice cream bars are OK from a reputable store.

I recently returned from my first trip to India and did not get sick. In addition to not drinking the water and not eating salads, I ate the yogurt at the hotels every morning. A few people had recommended this and it seemed to work for me. I ate everything else, including street food as long as it was hot and cooked. Have fun.

All good advice. I travel to India evry year. You have main medications Cipro and pepto bismol.
Five star or no star places:
1. Drink only bottled water for washing you hands, brushing.
2. Only eat hot food, no cold foods.
No milk, No fruits except banana, No Juices, they are very tempting.
3 Used hand santizer to clean your hands.
4. My trick take a tablet of pepto 15 minutes before you eat and you will be fine.
Street Vendor food is the best because it served hot and kills all bacteria.
I will take my own utensils when I go to eat at a street vendors.
You will have fun