Local: Here’s something else you can pick up from Whole Foods: Boody diarrhea (UPDATED)

Massachusetts health authorities are warning consumers not to eat ground beef bought from Whole Foods Markets over the last two months after seven infections have been linked to meat bought there, some after a national recall.

The state Department of Public Health today confirmed the seventh E. coli case linked to ground beef. The people who fell ill — five of whom were hospitalized — had all eaten ground beef from Whole Foods last month. Preliminary results indicate that the ground beef products were part of a nationwide recall of meat produced by Nebraska Beef Ltd. because of possible E. coli contamination.

And:

E. coli can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and in the most severe cases, kidney failure. The very young, the elderly and persons with weakened immune systems are the most susceptible to foodborne illness.

Yeah, you might be bleeding from the anus, but at least you’ll that smug sense of superiority you get from shopping at a trendy store.

This reminds me of what people say about trendy, expensive restaurants. They are supposed to have the filthiest kitchens.

UPDATE: Here’s some new information that might stick in the craw of snooty, trend-sucking Hy-Vee bashers:

As the European Union seems to be tightening up its laws on food irradiation, in the US more and more supermarkets are starting to stock irradiated meats. Hy-Vee Supermarkets has just become the latest US retailer to stock SureBeam irradiated meats.

Hy-Vee, with 188 stores in seven states, is the first major food retailer in the Midwest region to offer case-ready fresh ground beef processed with SureBeam Corporation’s electron beam technology, a process that uses ordinary electricity to safely eliminate the threat of dangerous bacteria from food products.

I kinda doubt Whole Foods would ever irradiate their food. Sure, every bit of legitimate science says it’s healthier because it kills bacteria that can kill people (or make them bleed out of their anus), but they would prefer to pander to the irrational fears of health-food nuts. At least e.coli is natural, while everyone knows radiation can cause mutations, like Godzilla.

But who am I to argue with free market forces? Let the consumers decide.