Almost all people have experienced indigestion such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. If you don’t have a stomach ulcer, you might suspect you’ve just been food poisoning. However, it seems those who eat the same food are fine. Could it be that you have stomach flu? Rather than guessing, distinguish the symptoms of food poisoning Vs stomach flu in the following easy way.
Read also: How Long Does Food Take To Digest?
Food Poisoning Vs Stomach Flu: Definition
Food Poisoning
Food poisoning is a disease arising from bacterial, viral, or parasitic infections that exist in foods that have been contaminated by these harmful organisms. Not only meat can be caused by food poisoning. Food and beverages such as raw or undercooked eggs, cheeses, vegetables and unwashed fruit, raw fish and shell water, contaminated waters, milk, juices, and rice that has not been prepared until cooked can contain harmful organisms causing poisoning.
Stomach flu
Unlike food poisoning, the stomach flu known as medical gastroenteritis is a viral infection that is transmitted in various ways. For example, by direct touch or sharing food with a virus infected by the cause of gastroenteritis. Viruses that cause stomach flu include rotavirus, Astrovirus, and norovirus.
Food Poisoning Vs Stomach Flu: Transmission Process
Food poisoning and stomach flu are transmitted in different ways:
Food poisoning
Cross-contamination is often the cause of food poisoning, where harmful organisms move from one surface to another.
Raw food and ready to eat, like salads, are very risky to be contaminated. Bacteria can grow rapidly when a number of foods, including meats, dairy products, and sauces, are not stored at the right temperature.
Other harmful bacteria and organisms produce toxic substances that can cause inflammation of the intestine when eaten.
Contamination can also occur at home if raw meat is not handled or cooked properly. And two types of bacteria that are often associated with food poisoning are Salmonella and E. Coli bacteria.
Stomach Flu
The stomach flu is very contagious and can spread rapidly. People infected with abdominal viruses are contagious from the moment they start to feel sick and also for the first few days after recovering. Stomach viruses can spread in several different ways, including,
- Eat food or drink a virus-contaminated liquid
- Direct or indirect mouth contact with an infected person or a surface with a virus on it
- This stomach flu Virus also exists in the vomit and the dirt of the infected person.
Do you experience one of them? Or both at once?
For example, you eat toxic foods and also contain novoviruses, then you can say that you experience both diseases at the same time.
How to distinguish food poisoning Vs Stomach Flu ?
First, you need to recall when the symptom appeared and it was already going on for how long.
Symptoms of stomach flu appear one to three days after exposure to the virus and lasts a day to two days. Food poisoning lasts shorter, about one to two days. Symptoms of poisoning also appear quickly, only a few hours after consumption.
Second, what your diarrhea is like?
Those who are food poisoning can experience bloody diarrhea because bacteria like Shigella are able to injure the intestines.
Thirdly, how are you vomiting?
If you feel cramped and vomiting like in The Exorcist film where your vomit can shoot a few feet away and all your stomach content out, chances are you have a stomach flu.
Read also: How To Dislodge Food Stuck In Esophagus in 13 Ways
How to handle it
First, make sure you are well hydrated. Vomiting and diarrhea cause you can not eat and drink properly so the water content of your body is low. Usually these two diseases will pass without much complications. But if you have diarrhea for more than 3 days, vomiting and bowel movements, prolonged fever, as well as blurred eyes, immediately contact the doctor.
Read also: 15 Mucus In Bowel Movement Causes + Video
Food Poisoning Vs Stomach Flu Video Illustration
Keep it healthy and make sure you eat from a clean place and thoroughly cooked. Both diseases can be avoided by doing so. Hopefully You always healthy,
