Food poisoning is an illness caused by consuming foods or drinks that contain harmful bacteria, viruses or parasites.
It’s extremely common, affecting an estimated 9.4 million Americans each year.
While many foods contain potentially harmful organisms, they are usually destroyed during cooking.
However, if you don’t practice good hygiene and proper buy edibles canada food storage methods, such as washing your hands and keeping raw meat at the bottom of your fridge, even cooked foods can become contaminated and make you sick.
Eating foods that contain poisonous toxins can also cause food poisoning. These toxins can be naturally present in food, such as some species of mushrooms, or produced by bacteria in food that has spoiled.
Because there are many different types of organisms that can cause food poisoning, its symptoms and severity can vary.
Moreover, the time from when you get food poisoning to when your symptoms start can range from a few hours to a few days, making identifying the offending food quite difficult.
Some foods carry a greater risk of food poisoning than others. These include undercooked meat and chicken, eggs, unpasteurized dairy products, shellfish and unwashed fruits and vegetables.
This article lists symptoms of food poisoning and what you should do if you think you have it.

Abdominal Pain and Cramps
Abdominal pain is felt around the trunk of the body, or the area below your ribs but above your pelvis.
In cases of food poisoning, harmful organisms can produce toxins that irritate the lining of your stomach and intestines. This can result in painful inflammation in your stomach, which may cause pain in your abdomen.
People with food poisoning may also experience cramps, as the abdominal muscles contract to speed up the natural movements of your bowel to get rid of the harmful organisms as quickly as possible.
Nevertheless, abdominal pain and cramps are common and can occur for a number of reasons. Because of this, these symptoms alone may not be a sign of food poisoning (4Trusted Source,5Trusted Source).
Furthermore, not all cases of food poisoning will result in abdominal pain or cramps.
Diarrhea
Diarrhea is characterized by watery, loose stools and defined as three or more of this type of bowel movement in a 24-hour period.
It’s a typical symptom of food poisoning.
It occurs as inflammation makes your bowel less effective at reabsorbing the water and other fluids it secretes during digestion (6Trusted Source).
Diarrhea may also be accompanied by other symptoms, such as a sense of urgency when you need to go to the bathroom, bloating or abdominal cramps.
Because you lose more fluid than normal when you have it, you’re buy edibles canada at risk of dehydration. Therefore, it’s important to keep drinking fluids to stay hydrated.
In addition to water, sipping liquid foods like broths and soups can help combat dehydration and give you a bit of energy if you can’t tolerate solid foods.
To check if you’re dehydrated, monitor the color of your urine, which should be light yellow or clear. If your urine is darker than this, it may indicate dehydration (8Trusted Source).