Protecting Your Health: How Not to Crap Your Pants

Being careful about what you eat and drink while traveling in the developing world may seem like a no-brainer, but it can be difficult because you often have little control over where your food is coming from and how it is prepared. And when it comes to clean drinking water, you have to be constantly vigilant.

Besides just straight up diarrhea, some of the funky food and waterborne illnesses you could be exposed to include: typhoid, cholera, hepatitis A, and guinea worm. You can get preventative vaccinations against some of these suckers, but there are also basic precautions you should take to prevent gastrointestinal disaster.

1. Always drink bottled water. Use it to quench your thirst, use it brush your teeth, use to rinse off anything else that you are contemplating putting in your mouth.
2. Do not drink beverages with ice in them—I don’t care how warm that Coca-Cola is. If you are drinking in restaurants/cafes/ bars you may have to request no ice.
3. If you are going to be outside of urban areas, bring a water filter, chemical disinfectants (such as PUR or iodine tablets), or bring your water to a rolling boiling for at least 1 minute before drinking.
4. Only eat raw fruits and vegetables that you can peel. Everything else needs to be well cooked.
5. Avoid eating seafood unless you have a really good idea about where it comes from, how fresh it is, how well it’s been cooked etc.
6. Make sure that all meat you eat is thoroughly cooked. (The downside to this rule is that “well cooked” often means deep-fried to death and occasionally these heavy cooking oils can also do a number on your stomach. So take it easy on the meat).
7. Practice good hand washing and use hand gel with more than 60% alcohol prior to eating.

If you are an adventurous eater, or if you are going to be in a particular place for an extended period of time, there is a strong likelihood that you will eat/drink something that will make you sick. If this is you, here are a couple more things to keep in mind.

1. Imodium, Pepto-Bismol, et al, only delay the inevitable. If you ingested something that is making you sick, you need to get it out, and taking meds that prevent you from going to the bathroom just keeps the bad stuff inside. Only use these if you really, really, really have to (like you’re about to go on a long bus ride with limited access to a bathroom).
2. Consider talking to your doctor about getting an advance prescription for antibiotics (which will help treat bacterial diarrhea, not viral). It is important that if you take antibiotics (for any reason) you finish the full course your clinician has prescribed for you. Even if you feel better, finish those damn pills. Otherwise you risk creating antibiotic resistant strains of whatever nasty bacteria you picked up. Antibiotics in a lot of places in the developing world are available over the counter in a basic pharmacy. But I find this much sketchier than getting an advance Rx from your own doctor in your own country.
3. Pack oral rehydration solutions.
4. If you pick up a little friend (a parasite), you’ll have to seek specialized treatment.

It’s always a good idea to go to a travel clinic for immunizations and medical advice on the country(ies) you are going to visit. A travel clinic that I’ve used that has locations all over the U.S. (which also happens to be woman-owned!) is Passport Health. Please discuss any questions you have about immunizations, antibiotics, and safe eating and drinking with a health care provider. Read Kim's article on Passports, Visas & Vaccinations for more information on when immunizations may be necessary. ■

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 Katy Quissell is Galavanting's Connections Editor and has a master's degree in public health from Columbia University. She is based in London. Her passion is working in reproductive and sexual health and rights, and she has had academic writing published in the Women's Policy Journal of Harvard and Reproductive Health Matters.

Katy has caught the travel bug—and not the kind that makes you incontinent. She aspires to travel and explore as much as is humanly possible. 

Email Katy your travel health-related questions >>