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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Make Sure You Boil the Milk

So, since being back in Uganda I've again lost quite a bit of weight. I eat constantly but perhaps all the walking makes the pounds just drop off. Who knows? Anyway, I was told if I eat/drink a lot of milk products that I would add some weight back and maintain it better. So, for about the last week I've been trying to do just that. Cheese and yogurt is expensive but the drinking yogurt (not real sure what the difference is) and milk are affordable. I don't particularly like milk unless it's in tea or coffee or chocolate milk so I've been buying the drinking yogurt every day in the evenings on my way home.
On Monday, I found some cheap cereal (a luxury here) and decided to buy some chocolate powder (another luxury) to make chocolate milk. This meant I also had to buy milk. Now, usually if I want milk I buy the local milk from the man that milks his cow and then walks around selling the milk. It's much cheaper that way. This means that the milk is not pasteurized and has to be boiled before drinking. Not a problem since I'm usually drinking it with a nice cup of hot tea or coffee. But, when I found the cheap cereal, I didn't want to have to eat it with hot milk.
Every once in a while when I decide to treat myself to chocolate milk, I will buy packaged milk that is already pasteurized. It is somehow packed so that it doesn't need refrigeration and will keep for some time. It seems that the supermarket was having quite a few specials on Monday and I found milk that was marked down. This should have been a warning sign to me but being that I'm always looking for ways to cut spending, I decided to buy it rather than the trusted brand that I usually buy.
Big mistake. I went home and enjoyed my cereal and chocolate milk. Around 2 in the morning I woke up with severe stomach pains and I'll spare you the rest of the details of the remainder of that sleepless night. It seems my plan to add a few pounds has resulted in my losing an additional few since I've not been able to eat the rest of this week.
Lessons learned: It's probably better to spend a few extra shillings on the milk you know and trust and IF you happen to buy the cheaper milk, ALWAYS, ALWAYS BOIL it before drinking.

1 comment:

Ramón said...

That's an important lesson! I remember they sold milk in little bags in China too, and I wondered what they did to it to make it keep...