Food poisoning in Latin America
How to not shit your brains out
You’ve been in Latin America for a couple of weeks now, living the good life. At first you were worried about getting sick, but nothing has happened.
Your stomach must be special.
One night you’re out with some friends crushing alcohol and you leave the club at 3am. You’re starving and craving food like a crackhead craves crack.
Then a golden opportunity arises.
There is a dirty truck in the street in front of the club selling sketchy looking hot dogs.
Since you are wasted, it seems fine. What’s the worst that can happen?
The next morning it feels like a demon is wreaking havoc to your body and an exorcism is being performed.
I’ve spent over 6 years in Latin America and have been through food poisoning at least 15 times between Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, and Brazil, so I’ve been to war and seen some shit.
When it comes to getting food poisoning, you can call me an expert.
While I love street food and these experiences have not stopped me from eating it, I follow a few basic rules to avoid food poisoning in Latin America.
Be careful with street food
Out of all the times I’ve been sick in Latin America, about 90% of the cases have been from eating street food.
In all of these situations, it’s incredibly obvious which thing got me sick.
Eating a hot dog from a dirty food truck at 4am in Mexico City after the club.
Destroying an empanada that had been laying outside for hours in the Andes.
Crushing a juice from a place on the outskirts of Buenos Aires using suspect water.
These are all real situations that left me feeling like shit.
In a few cases, my local friends also got sick, but in most situations I’m the only one.
While the locals are accustomed to the bacteria that is in these foods, you are not.
They may be completely fine while you are shitting your brains out.
How to avoid food poisoning
Eat freshly cooked food. Anything like barbecued meat or tacos is probably fine. If the food looks like it’s just been laying in the sun for hours, I don’t recommend it.
Go to the food stand where all the locals are at. They know what’s up. The food will be better and served fresh if a lot of people are in line. Tons of people aren’t going to line up for shitty food that makes them sick.
Skip the juice and drinks. These drinks are typically mixed with some type of local water. I’m going to be honest, I drink things from the street quite a bit and it’s typically fine, but it’s one of the easier ways to blow up your stomach if your body isn’t prepared for it.
Don’t eat shitty salads. These often get served on the side with your food. They don’t really taste good and are easily contaminated. Many people get the shits from these. Just eat the main food on the plate and ignore the salad.
Don’t eat street food before you travel. Nothing is worse than having stomach issues on an airplane. I dealt with this recently in Brazil. Worst flight ever.
Things like freshly cooked food, fresh fruit, alcoholic drinks, churros, and ice cream are typically fine. There aren’t many bacteria issues with things like these.
Use your common sense. If your observations are telling you something looks questionable, don’t put it in your body.
How to recover from food poisoning
Regardless of how careful you are, shit happens. You either get drunk and make bad decisions or you eat at a normal restaurant and still get sick.
What can you do once it happens?
My first line of defense is Pepto Bismol, which I learned from Mexicans early on in my travels.
Every time I got sick in Mexico, I recovered very quickly, within hours after taking these.
After years in Latin America, this is still the main treatment I follow today with great results.
I take the pills every couple of hours until the disaster is averted.
90% of the time, this will completely resolve your issues.
Pepto Bismol can go by different names, such as BisBacter in places like Colombia and Peru.
It’s not sold in places like Argentina so I recommend to stash some in your bag whenever you have the chance.
To complement the pills, I crush a lot of yogurt or kombucha, something with probiotics.
When I have small stomach aches or indigestion, this stuff usually resolves it.
If it’s a really bad case, I also buy Floratil, which is an anti-diarrheal probiotic you can get from many pharmacies in Latin America.
The way it’s been prescribed to me before was to take it twice per day with food.
It’s helped me in a couple of bad cases where I was having diarrhea for a week.
If you haven’t already done it, make sure you’re vaccinated for Hepatitis A and B.
Those are serious foodborne illnesses that are common in Latin America but can easily be prevented by a simple vaccine.
In the rare case none of this stuff works, go to the doctor. You need help.
I’m going to be honest.
After a 4-hour hike in the middle of nowhere or crushing alcohol for several hours, I’m eating that suspect taco or empanada.
That’s just the way it goes down in those circumstances.
And most of the time it’s completely fine, I don’t get sick. Most questionable decisions don’t bite me in the ass.
However, in normal circumstances where I’m not starving, I try to avoid eating any suspect food.
Worst case scenario, you do get sick.
And you take the stuff I’ve mentioned.
You should be feeling fine within hours to days.
Stay safe out there and safe travels.