They Blamed Taco Bell, Then Lettuce, Now They're Changing Their Story Again?! Cyclospora Parasite

[00:00:00]Cases of a food born illness tied to fresh produce have been climbing across multiple states. Taco Bell uses that supplier.

[00:00:06]>> This diarrhea really sets itself apart in that when they say explosive. It [music] is explosive voluminous diarrhea.

[00:00:14]>> However, it is that bad.

[00:00:15]>> Sprayed it with some Dish soap. I put just a capable of bleach.

[00:00:19]>> Please don't.

[00:00:20]>> Y'all, I'm nervous to even make this video. Before we get into today's video, I just want to let you guys know that this video is for educational purposes only. Please remember to be kind to everybody. everywhere in your everyday life, in your home, in the grocery store, and especially in the comment section down below. Please do not show hate to anybody anywhere. [music] So, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. How is everybody doing today? I hope you all are having an amazing day.

[00:00:51]I hope everybody had a wonderful weekend. I hope y'all's week is getting started off on the right foot. You guys, I know y'all have had to have heard by now about this parasite going around.

[00:01:02]>> Cases of a food born illness tied to fresh produce have been climbing across multiple states. Now, the FDA may be zeroing in on the potential source of the gastrointestinal parasite cycllospora. To give you a sense of how quickly it spread, in Michigan, where health officials say they usually see around 50 cases annually, there have now been more than 4,000 reported cases in less than a month, and 102 people have been hospitalized. And how many of y'all are avoiding fruits and veggies all together until further notice?

[00:01:30]>> So, it's human waste, contaminating water, that water then being used to irrigate the crops or to wash the produce after it's been picked. So, what you need to do is you need to eliminate the exposure to human waste. Now, I'm not going to lie, I keep forgetting about this. As a matter of fact, the other day, one of my good friends text me and she was like, "I cannot believe that my dad is eating blueberries." And I was like, not only am I eating blueberries, I eat blueberries pretty much every single day, but I have a salad for lunch, sweet potato, cucumbers every day, tomatoes. I mean, you guys, I have not slowed down a bit. And just FYI, no, I have not stopped eating fresh fruits and vegetables at all. Now, I don't want to sound cocky cuz Lord knows soon as a person gets cocky, they I don't I don't I don't need to be humbled, Lord. But my friend literally just text me the other day and she was like, "I can't believe my dad's eating blueberries." And I'm thinking, actually, I had blueberries for breakfast. I had a fresh salad for lunch. I had cucumbers with my dinner.

[00:02:32]Like, I haven't slowed down eating fresh fruits and veggies one bit. Like, I just have continued on to live my life.

[00:02:41]So, pray for me. And that's why I feel nervous about making this video because it feels like almost like as soon as you talk about something like, "No, I'm eating everything." and I'm good.

[00:02:50]Something could happen. Stay to the end of this video if you want a little bit of a personal story. But I wanted to get on here and kind of just giggle with y'all because as it sometimes happens when something serious is going on in the USA, some of us can be so unserious and funny about it.

[00:03:08]>> Oh my god. Are you hearing about that new virus going around?

[00:03:10]>> No. Oh my god. What is it?

[00:03:11]>> Well, it's like people are getting super sick from certain foods.

[00:03:15]>> Oh, that's awful.

[00:03:16]>> Yeah. Getting awful diarrhea. Losing 15 lbs in a week.

[00:03:20]>> Oh. Oh.

[00:03:22]>> Yeah. Getting super skinny.

[00:03:23]>> Oh my god. What? That's awful. What kind of food?

[00:03:26]>> Like fresh lettuce. I hear.

[00:03:28]>> Are you serious?

[00:03:29]>> Yeah. I think even if it's wrapped.

[00:03:31]>> Even the wrapped.

[00:03:32]>> Yeah, totally. Like that's not sitting well with people.

[00:03:35]>> Crazy.

[00:03:36]>> Yeah. I mean, they're just like blowing chunks. Hurry up.

[00:04:05]Before we get into it though, I did want to remind you guys I am not a professional. I am not a food scientist or anything. I am just a person that pulls all of my information from very public sources, news sources, social media sources that is already out there.

[00:04:18]I filter it through my own words and opinions. So, please go do your own research and form your own opinions.

[00:04:23]Just don't show hate to anybody anywhere. Before we go any further, I did want to stop and thank today's sponsor, Zach. You guys know what's funny is that I could spend hours researching a case for [music] YouTube, but when it comes to finding a doctor for myself, somehow I will just like put it off for weeks and [music] keep putting it off and keep putting it off.

[00:04:41]Part of it is just not knowing basically where to start or like is this doctor a network? Do they have good reviews? Can they actually get me in anytime soon?

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[00:06:20]Okay, so let's talk about this parasite.

[00:06:23]Now, when the news first started coming out that there was something that was going around, I remember the news kept referring to it as a parasite that caused exploing.

[00:06:38]>> So, I worked all weekend in the emergency department Saturday, Sunday, and yesterday. Saw a ton of diarrhea.

[00:06:45]This diarrhea really sets itself apart in that when they say explosive, it is explosive voluminous diarrhea, intense cramping, you get some fevers as well.

[00:06:56]So, I'm sure we've all had some cases of diarrhea or maybe travelers diarrhea in the past.

[00:07:02]>> Speak for yourself, doctor.

[00:07:03]>> Now, this parasite actually isn't something new. It has always been around and it's called cylopora.

[00:07:10]It's smaller than a little tiny grain of dust and it does not look like a worm.

[00:07:14]And I don't know about any of y'all, but whenever I think of a parasite, I think of like a worm looking bug with little legs crawling around that has teeth. But nope, apparently it is just a single microscopic cell.

[00:07:26]>> Cycllospora is a parasite so tiny you can't see, smell, or taste it. But if you swallow it, you can get an intestinal infection called cycllosporasis.

[00:07:36]You can't get it directly from other people. It comes from contaminated food or water, usually fresh produce like berries, leafy greens, and herbs. The main symptom is watery, sometimes expensive diarrhea with cramps, nausea, and fatigue. It hits about a week after exposure and can come and go.

[00:07:54]>> Now, they say by the time you start feeling symptoms, it has probably already been about a week since you ate whatever has this parasite on it. And that's why it's been so hard to track down whatever's actually causing this outbreak. And I honestly thought that it may have been overblown in the beginning, but then I started seeing so many Tik Toks of people saying that they had it and how miserable it had been. So on my for you page is basically people talking about that new parasite causing the outbreak in the United States, cycllospora. And as someone that has been battling it for 3 weeks, I wanted to come in here and give my two cents.

[00:08:29]People are feel like they're taking this as a joke. Yes, we don't know where this came from and like why it's suddenly a big outbreak when it's something that has existed like forever. However, it is that bad. My symptoms started out of literally out of the blue in the middle of a workday. I started having severe nausea, vomiting, and [music] excessive diarrhea at the same time. All controllable. So, you can imagine that.

[00:08:54]Um, and then I had fatigue. I had chills. I had sweats. I had a low-grade fever. and I had severe abdominal pain.

[00:09:04]This abdominal pain, I don't even know how to how to explain it cuz I've had IBS for years. I've always had like GI issues. So, I'm kind of used to having stomach iss like stomach pain and stuff, but this pain was like nothing I've ever experienced. It was literally a mix of the worst possible period cramps you could ever imagine and then mix that with like food poisoning pains and like I don't even know how to explain it. It was horrible. Like, it was literally incapacitating.

[00:09:30]Um, I've been in treatment for four to 5 days, I believe, now, and I'm still not 100% well. I still have some of my symptoms. So, for the people saying, "Oh, I want to get the parasite. I want to lose weight." No, you don't. You don't. Trust me, you're going to go insane by day four of like not being able to even eat bone broth. Cuz you you're literally going to just like you won't have appetite. And even bone broth is going to cause you such severe pain that you're just not going to want to eat anything.

[00:10:00]Uh it was it it has been horrible. Today is my first day at work after 3 weeks.

[00:10:04]Like this isn't just a typical stomach flu like, "Oh, I'll be sick for 3 days.

[00:10:07]I'll lose weight. I'll go back to my normal life." Nope. It has taken me 3 weeks. So stay safe. And the craziest part, which at least to me, they're saying that this cannot even be washed off. So like if you get your fruits and veggies and you bring them home and wash them off, it's not it's still not safe until it's cooked. Food wash and sprays don't necessarily kill the parasite because it can get into a little cyst and kind of protect [music] itself. But if you have a lot of leaf lettuce, separate the leaves when you're washing them. Make sure everything gets that flowing water to try to wash away as much as possible.

[00:10:40]>> Make sure that you're washing your hands [music] with soap and water as you're preparing your food. Making sure that all of your utensils, cutting boards, all of that are [music] kept clean.

[00:10:50]>> And some people are taking cleaning to an extreme level. And please y'all don't do this.

[00:10:56]>> So this lady's going viral for how she decided to clean her produce following the parasite outbreak in the United States.

[00:11:04]>> So the CDC is saying that all produce is contaminated with parasites and all this other kind of stuff. And I'm just going to make sure I am protecting me and my household. So I'm going to go ahead and wash my lettuce before I eat it. I went ahead and just put my drainer in, sprayed it with some Dawn dish soap. I put just a capsule of bleach and then I went ahead and sprayed it until and I topped it off. Y'all, it was a 10 out of 10. All in all, >> what's interesting about this video is most people with common sense will know that this video is just for clicks and views. But unfortunately, you have some people who scroll on these apps who will come across this video and honestly believe that they are supposed to do exactly what she just did. If you come across her video and believe that you're supposed to use soap and bleach to clean your produce, please don't.

[00:11:52]>> Now, since the beginning of this outbreak, officials have been telling us to avoid the most common foods that it's found in, which they say is salad mixes and lettuce, fresh herbs, snow peas, and berries. But now, in the most recent update, it seems that this outbreak is at least partly being associated with shredded lettuce from Taco Bell. CBS News has learned the FDA's traceback investigation has identified a single supplier of iceberg lettuce from Mexico, Taylor Farms, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Taco Bell uses that supplier in five states where people have gotten sick with cycllosporasis.

[00:12:30]In a statement, Taco Bell said in part that it has taken immediate action to voluntarily remove potentially impacted lettuce from a supplier in select states. Now, if that is the case, which I find it interesting because I did see Tik Toks of people saying that they caught it from strawberries and other things, but if it's lettuce from Taco Bell, like maybe girlfriend that diarrhea is from something else and not exactly this virus or who knows what's going on. But if it is just from the Taco Bell lettuce, imagine how many people have been out there avoiding fresh fruits and veggies because they did not want to catch this parasite. My friend included. me while I'm over here gobbling everything up. But Taco Bell ended up posting this update on their social media. But then later, Taylor Farms, who is allegedly responsible for this outbreak, posted this on their social media. Okay, I got to interrupt the video right here because we have got to talk. After I filmed this video, as of this morning that I'm filming this for y'all right now, which is Monday morning, July 20th, 2026, this has come out and it says, "Oops, we were wrong. Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce was not the culprit." Basically, they're basically saying that it was a false positive. Now, I need to remind y'all, like I said in the beginning of this video, everything that I'm about to say to y'all is alleged. It's all filtered through my own words and opinions. So, please go do your own research, form your own opinions. Take everything what I say, everything that I say with a grain of salt. I said earlier in the video that there were people that were saying that they felt like they got it from strawberries. They got the parasite from strawberries and other things and da da da da. I wasn't going to make any more videos about the cycllospora subject, but I've seen myself in overtime news channels now. And I just want to clarify a few things. First and most importantly, I have not had Taco Bell in over a year. So that is definitely not the cause of like my cycllospora contamination. Two, I don't eat iceberg lettuce, or at least I don't knowingly. And I can't think of any situation where I ate iceberg lettuce in the past 2 or 3 months. I only buy romaine lettuce. And I also don't buy pre-made salad kits. I always buy like the whole romaine hearts. And as far as I'm concerned, they're not Taylor Farms brand. If they're repackaged with something else, then that's a possibility. But I wanted to clarify that in my case it was not Taco Bell and it was not Icebrook lettuce. So there has to be something else that's also causing cycllospora outbreak. But I think the Taylor Farms thing is very interesting. And I'm not going to lie, maybe it's just my distrust with everything nowadays. But my Spidey senses goes up and goes, did Taco Bell lose so much business over this that they got together with Taylor Farms, you know, slipped a little money to the FDA and they put this out.

[00:15:12]Nothing to see here. Was nothing to do with Taylor Farms? Y'all make sure y'all go. I don't know. Or maybe it was a false positive because which time were y'all wrong? Were you wrong the first time or were you wrong now? This is why there's so much distrust in these organizations. I feel like because what do you mean it was a false positive?

[00:15:33]That I mean, I just don't even understand. Now, I also want to say that if you eat at a restaurant, you never know what kind of lettuce is being put on your food or whatever. So, who knows?

[00:15:42]All I know is how did this parasite get out there like this? It is spreading so fast, so bad. And basically now what they're saying is we again have no idea where it's coming from, what it did. It was a false positive. So, uh, good luck to you. I mean, what some people are also pointing out how this is not the first time that Taylor Farms has been accused of something like this.

[00:16:04]According to Google, they had an E.coli coli outbreak in 2024 and even a cycllospora outbreak back in 2013.

[00:16:12]Anyways, I feel like this is where having your own fruits and veggies really comes in handy, even if it's just a single plant in your backyard. I also noticed that the produce stand at my local farmers market this weekend completely sold out within an hour of the market starting. And of course, a lot of people are wondering how these outbreaks just keep happening. Not just the specific parasite, but there seems to be always something going around, right? Like if it ain't hunter virus, it ain't CV19. Now we got the parasite, now we got this. That's a mad cow. All that stuff. I mean, I saw at the same time as this parasite. Frozen blueberries from Publix were completely recalled.

[00:16:50]>> Hey, what's up, doc? Got blueberries in your freezer? I mean, don't panic yet.

[00:16:54]But in the southeast, we got a diarrhea outbreak. It's E. coli 145. Um, it's only in specific stores like Publix and it's Greenwise Blueberries. Uh, the code is 6041. So, if you got those, throw them away. If you get severe, watery, crampy, diarrhea, bloody, you got to go see your doctor. Even fever. That's true for any diarrheal illness that lasts long. Now, you need to ask them for a stool culture, stool studies, because takes about 3 days to get those back.

[00:17:20]Some of them don't need antibiotics.

[00:17:21]Some do. Some antibiotics cure it like that. So, if you get the stool culture, you'll know at least 3 days. Hey, I'm Dr. Clay. Be careful out there. Summer, let's go.

[00:17:29]>> And I actually was trying to get frozen blueberries and there was none in the dagum cabinet and then I saw that and I recently saw that some of Pillsber's dough has been recalled because it potentially has glass in it.

[00:17:41]>> The FDA announced a recall of more than 735,000 packages of Pillsberry bread rolls due to possible glass contamination.

[00:17:49]According to the agency's report, the recall affects two types of Pillsbury bread rolls, [music] hard rolled dough and Kaiser roll dough. The affected products were sold in 19 states across the country and have a best buy date of October 12th or 13th.

[00:18:03]>> And the list goes on and on. And like I said, it seems that there's always something going around or something being recalled. They say that this has always been a problem and they're just catching it more often now. But I don't know what to think. I don't know if our food is just getting more and more toxic or what. That would be what I'm leaning towards. I guess we should be glad that they do eventually tell us about it instead of keeping it a secret. And shout out to all the people that work in this field, the epidemiologists, the infectious disease experts and so on.

[00:18:36]And while the cycllospora parasite isn't super life-threatening, although I mean if you get too dehydrated and da da da, it can definitely cause major problems.

[00:18:44]Those experts are people that help keep us safe from things [snorts] that are.

[00:18:49]And I've just got to tell y'all, I have had two experiences that reminds me of this in my life. And if you don't want to hear it, this is the time to check out the video. [laughter] But one is I was eating at a Chinese food buffet about I was probably 19, no, maybe 17. I don't think I was 18 yet. And I got food poisoning. And I'm telling you what, if you think you've had food poisoning, you haven't. Because when you have food poisoning, you know it. And it looks like a really bad day, okay? A very very very very bad day. You if you've had it, you know.

[00:19:27]I mean bad bad bad bad. Sitting on the toilet with a trash can, if you know what I mean. And the other thing that reminds me of this is when one of our children was a little boy. He was about 2 years old. We were in Sam's and he was sitting in the the little part that you push, right? And we had been, oh my gosh, you guys, we had the cart full of stuff at Sam's and we're standing in the checkout line to check out and I noticed that there was something dripping on the floor and I'm like, what is that dripping on the floor from under the cart? And so I looked into the cart where the lettuce was and I saw a liquid something. And then I looked at the backside of our child and he was sitting there playing just fine and everything had come out the diaper.

[00:20:16]If you're a parent, you know, and it dripped and was dripping on the floor. I had to take him into the bathroom, you guys. And at that time, Sam's, and I still don't think they do, they didn't have any napkins in the bathroom. All they had was the automatic sinks where you have to hold your hand under the sink and the automatic dryers. And I remember just holding him in in the in the sink area and I'm like I don't even I was just like almost like did not know what to do because there was nothing to clean him up with and other moms came into the bathroom and started helping me and I was able to get everything off and get him cleaned out and get a worker to come in and spray everything down. And oh my gosh, thank God for those other moms that I did not know that came into the bathroom and helped me and we got out of there and he actually had the roto virus. So, if y'all ever had any kids with that, what do y'all think? I want to know. Are y'all still eating fruits and veggies?

[00:21:03]Are y'all living life on the edge?

[00:21:04]Listen, I This is how I feel. Every time something goes around, we can't lock ourselves in the house. We can't just not If it's coming from Taco Bell, you don't want to eat Taco Bell. That makes total sense. Taylor Farms, da da da da, but like every single time you turn around, they're saying something. Well, we just not going we just not going to live every time. I mean, I can't live like that. Let me know what y'all think, though. Other than that, thank you'all so much for watching this video. Don't forget to check out Zockd. If you got any tummy issues or anything, y'all better get on ZDOC and find you somebody to talk to. Love you guys. Bye.