Avoiding Delhi Belly
Discussion
Henry Fiddleton said:
Also avoid cheese.
I went to Pakistan and was convinced to try a "Mr Burger" cheese burger. I was aware of the possible issue with the cheese, but thought a small case of bad stomache was ok.
How wrong was I.
Fever, weakness, the trotts combined with a 3 hour drive from Kharaci to Hyderabad with a driver who was racing our friends using the public bus - never again. I was out for 3 days, and still had food pass through me for 7 days. Lost good weight though.
FYI: the burger was good, but not amazing.
Kam
I think any kind of local take on Western fast food is best avoided. I went to Pakistan and was convinced to try a "Mr Burger" cheese burger. I was aware of the possible issue with the cheese, but thought a small case of bad stomache was ok.
How wrong was I.
Fever, weakness, the trotts combined with a 3 hour drive from Kharaci to Hyderabad with a driver who was racing our friends using the public bus - never again. I was out for 3 days, and still had food pass through me for 7 days. Lost good weight though.
FYI: the burger was good, but not amazing.
Kam
You don't know how long the thing's been sitting around to fester in the heat.
jas xjr said:
Try to avoid eating street food if you can . Eat some natural yogurt or lassi every day . Drink bottled water when you can , but depending on where you are this may have been refilled several times .
Have a banana or two if you still have problems
Why would you go to India and avoid the street food? Its like saying go to New York but avoid the Empire State, Statue of Liberty and Central Park.Have a banana or two if you still have problems
Avoid the street food stalls that dont have loads of customers and I tend to only eat Veg on the street.
Usual water advice, but I have never seen a tampered bottle in India. In Jaipur they do these really weird "coke" drinks with Mango and Papaya from a post mix machine. It was only after drinking loads of them i realized they were almost certainly made with tap water :P
If you smoke be really careful of fake fags, they are all over, but the pack design is normally slightly incorrect.
Spent three weeks in India a couple of years ago and wasn't ill once. The main things I did was just stick to bottle water for drinking and cleaning teeth and using lots of hand gel before eating or after using a public bathroom when travelling around. The only slightly paranoid thing I did was covering my feet with hand gel after walking barefoot around the Golden Temple
Gareth79 said:
I can't figure out why? The cap has to be removed to pour out the contents - the hard part is making the customer think when the cap is removed they have a brand new bottle. Assuming they don't have a supply of new caps, I think they either dab glue on the ring, or the waiter has a trick to opening the bottle that makes it sound like a new one.
They buy bottled water, drill the bottom and use that for themselves. Then refil with dodgy tap water and re coupe their spend by selling on with seal intact. Only saw it once at the red fort but apparently it's common.
Some colleagues of mine go fairly frequently, as in 2-3 times per year (this is India). They don't take any unusual precautions, just apply a bit of common sense, they say you don't need to be using hand sanitiser every 5 minutes.
However, apparently most people get ill on their first trip, but regular travellers seem to build up a bit of an immunity, and don't suffer particularly from then on. In fact, the people who get all paranoid and stick to 'hotel food' seem to suffer more than people who just go out and try stuff like street cuisine.
On the re-filled bottled water subject, one chap I know observed some local kids with a box of bottles, and a box of new lids with in-tact seals, filling the bottles from a river, fitting the new caps then flogging them to unsuspecting passers' by.
However, apparently most people get ill on their first trip, but regular travellers seem to build up a bit of an immunity, and don't suffer particularly from then on. In fact, the people who get all paranoid and stick to 'hotel food' seem to suffer more than people who just go out and try stuff like street cuisine.
On the re-filled bottled water subject, one chap I know observed some local kids with a box of bottles, and a box of new lids with in-tact seals, filling the bottles from a river, fitting the new caps then flogging them to unsuspecting passers' by.
Yes take it from the day before and all the time when there.All I can say is that it worked for my son and I.
My mate who recommended this is a medic who goes often to invigilate exams, if you have the cipro give it a try. Read the side effects,there is something about tendons or ligaments but we had no problems.
john
My mate who recommended this is a medic who goes often to invigilate exams, if you have the cipro give it a try. Read the side effects,there is something about tendons or ligaments but we had no problems.
john
And the potential sun sensitivity.Thanks Bill and Norbert, but as with any medication there can be problems. I tend to treat adults as adults and advise them as such.
Ciprofloxacin used in India will cause little antibiotic resistance compared to our everyday Amoxicillin usage and Doxycycline(another antibiotic)is now used for malaria prophylaxis, generally in hot sunny climes, even though it can cause skin reactions in the sun.
One pays one money and takes ones choice.
Ciprofloxacin used in India will cause little antibiotic resistance compared to our everyday Amoxicillin usage and Doxycycline(another antibiotic)is now used for malaria prophylaxis, generally in hot sunny climes, even though it can cause skin reactions in the sun.
One pays one money and takes ones choice.
Old Merc said:
I`ve traveled everywhere in the world for years and the last time I had MEGA!Delhi Belly was after eating in a posh restaurant on the French riviera.
Snap. Mind it was a bit stupid of me to order beef tartare in the 36° heat !!!I am visiting india every second month at the moment, staying for two weeks at a time.
Travelling around, I have very few problems eating in hotels and eateries.
Had one short lasting issue after ice cream but otherwise fine.
I have ice in my Gin every time and been OK.
Alcohol is my friend
I'm getting very OCD in my old age. I hate shaking people's hands and always try to wash them as soon as I can afterwards making a mental note not to put them anywhere near my mouth before I can get to a wash basin/antiseptic wash gel.
I open door handles with the palms of my hands and press buttons with the knuckle of my finger.
No! I'm not in India but I really fekin' can't stand catching colds
I know, I'm nuts but since I have been doing the above, colds and coughs have been mercifully rare.
I open door handles with the palms of my hands and press buttons with the knuckle of my finger.
No! I'm not in India but I really fekin' can't stand catching colds
I know, I'm nuts but since I have been doing the above, colds and coughs have been mercifully rare.
just back from two weeks in India and spend the first ten days eating local food for breakfast, lunch and dinner with no ill effects. Spent the last five days in a posh hotel eating high end 'Western' food and have been sick as a dog since arriving home. Not Delhi belly as such but a terrible fever and temperature swings.
Today is the first day I have eaten anything in a week.
I think you can't really avoid DB but take sensible precautions regarding fresh / washed food etc.
Today is the first day I have eaten anything in a week.
I think you can't really avoid DB but take sensible precautions regarding fresh / washed food etc.
There really is some nonsense advice in this thread.
I've lived in India for 3 years & west Africa for 2. Only ever got bad Delhi belly in Portugal!
Use common sense. Avoid western food except in the best hotels. Drink the local beer rather than water. Generally use a bit of common sense & don't get paranoid about, above all enjoy India its a great place.
I've lived in India for 3 years & west Africa for 2. Only ever got bad Delhi belly in Portugal!
Use common sense. Avoid western food except in the best hotels. Drink the local beer rather than water. Generally use a bit of common sense & don't get paranoid about, above all enjoy India its a great place.
jas xjr said:
Eat some natural yogurt or lassi every day .
The last thing I would do is have a lassi, personally. The milk is (at least as I understand) unpasteurised and who knows how long it has been stored for, and at what temperature? I had one pretty much against my will to appease an Indian business associate a few years ago and it gave me the worst food poisoning I've ever had. It resulted in me immediately going to the hospital when I got home to be told that my digestive system wouldn't return to normal for 6 months, which unfortunately turned out to be correct.In subsequent trips to India, I have forgone politeness when suspicious food is offered and gone on the side of caution.
croyde said:
I'm getting very OCD in my old age. I hate shaking people's hands and always try to wash them as soon as I can afterwards making a mental note not to put them anywhere near my mouth before I can get to a wash basin/antiseptic wash gel.
I open door handles with the palms of my hands and press buttons with the knuckle of my finger.
No! I'm not in India but I really fekin' can't stand catching colds
I know, I'm nuts but since I have been doing the above, colds and coughs have been mercifully rare.
I thought you cameramen all wore white gloves? I open door handles with the palms of my hands and press buttons with the knuckle of my finger.
No! I'm not in India but I really fekin' can't stand catching colds
I know, I'm nuts but since I have been doing the above, colds and coughs have been mercifully rare.
Being slightly more serious for a minute, I do the exact opposite, being a bit of a jack-of-all-trades engineer, I end up dragging my own cables around, climbing around in the roof of stadiums, and strapping/bolting/clamping stuff to filthy handrails, bars, or anything else. Generally the water runs brown when I get chance to wash my hands, although often I'll eat with dirty hands.
I've not really been ill, other than a couple of minor occasions, since I started in TV back in '98, while in the years prior to that, I was ill pretty much continuously with colds, flu, tonsilitis, and anything else that was doing the rounds.
15 years of working outside, and in amongst the dirt and detritus that accumulates in the nether regions of our nation's (and the World's) stadia seems to have given me something of a robust immune system,physically at least, it's not done a great deal for my mental state, but that's a different discussion entirely
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