If you want a real read on where your terrain is at right now, take my free Gut Health Diagnostic before reading. It takes 2 minutes and will make everything below much more personal.
Cases have been reported in 34 states, with Michigan alone reporting over 5,000 confirmed cases of a parasite called cyclospora.
The source has been identified: shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms of Salinas, California, imported from Mexico and served at Taco Bell restaurants in five states.
But, this cluster only accounts for a fraction of the total cases — thousands of others across the country remain unlinked to any single source.
And, standard stool tests miss this parasite entirely.
Your doctor has to specifically request modified acid-fast staining or PCR, which most doctors will not do.
If you have persistent watery diarrhea and were told your tests came back clean, you have not been tested for this.
What Most People Are Not Being Told
In July 2025, the CDC scaled back FoodNet, its primary foodborne illness surveillance system, and made cyclospora monitoring voluntary.
The federal government took two months to identify the source of the largest cluster. Under previous FoodNet surveillance, it would have moved faster.
Meanwhile, cases keep climbing.
What Cyclospora Actually Is
Cyclospora cayetanensis is a microscopic single-celled parasite that spreads through fecal-oral contamination of food and water.
Symptoms include watery diarrhea (often described as “explosive”), abdominal cramping, weeks of exhaustion, weight loss, nausea, and reinfection cycles that can last for months if untreated.
Person-to-person spread is highly unlikely. The parasite requires time outside the human body to mature into its infectious form. That means contamination usually happens before the food ever reaches your kitchen, somewhere along the agricultural supply chain: contaminated irrigation water, produce washing, environmental contamination.
Foods historically linked to cyclospora outbreaks include cilantro, basil, raspberries, mesclun greens, snow peas, salad mixes.
What The Taco Bell News Actually Tells Us
The story is not that Taco Bell is uniquely dangerous.
The story is that the industrial food supply chain, once you scale to a certain point, becomes a terrain-defense-ability test for the person eating it. A single farm in California, importing lettuce from Mexico, distributing to a fast food chain with locations in every state, is a supply chain that concentrates risk in ways no consumer can reasonably audit.
Fast food is not the only supply chain that does this. Grocery-store bagged salad, restaurant produce, catered events, and even much of what is sold at farmers markets moves through consolidation points where contamination can enter and spread far before anyone notices.
You cannot possibly audit every supply chain you eat from.
You can build a body that can defend against exposure when it happens.
The Terrain Reframe
Parasites are not fringe wellness content.
They are real, they are common, and they are showing up in the food supply of every developed country whether you notice them or not.
If you missed Monday’s The Detox Weekly, I went deep on parasites, the many ways you can be exposed, the symptoms most doctors miss, and why parasite testing keeps coming back “clean” even when parasites are present.
The most important thing to understand is this:
The question is not whether you have been exposed.
It is whether your terrain can defend against what you are exposed to.
A functioning gut microbiome, adequate stomach acid, healthy bile flow, open drainage pathways, and an intact mucosal barrier are your actual defense system.
The wellness industry has been selling you gut supplements for years, while the surveillance systems that detect what is actually in your food have been slower and less comprehensive since 2025.
None of the supplements protect you from what your terrain cannot handle on its own.
The Food Washing Protocol I Use With Clients
Now, to the practical work…because the terrain reframe does not mean you should not still take basic precautions.
Here is what I actually do and recommend.
Step 1: Choose your soak. Fill a large clean bowl with cold water and one of the following:
Baking soda soak (my most-recommended): 1 to 2 tablespoons of baking soda per bowl of cold water. Soak leafy greens, berries, and herbs for 12 to 15 minutes. USDA research shows baking soda effectively removes surface pesticide residue and reduces microbial load. Rinse thoroughly under cold running water after.
Salt water soak: 1 to 2 tablespoons of sea salt per bowl of cold water. Soak for 10 to 15 minutes. Traditional method that helps loosen dirt and pull surface pathogens off produce. Rinse thoroughly.
Vinegar soak: 1 part white vinegar or apple cider vinegar to 3 parts water. Soak for 10 minutes. Mild antimicrobial effect. Rinse thoroughly (vinegar can affect delicate berries, so use sparingly on those).
Hydrogen peroxide soak (food-grade, 3%): 1 tablespoon per bowl of cold water for 10 to 15 minutes. Effective antimicrobial. Rinse thoroughly.
Step 2: Scrub firm produce. Melons, cucumbers, peppers, apples. Use a clean vegetable brush under running water. Cyclospora clings tightly to surfaces. A brush matters more than most people realize.
Step 3: Separate herb leaves. Parasites hide in the folds of cilantro, basil, and leafy herb bunches. Separate the leaves individually before washing.
Step 4: Discard outer layers. Buy whole heads of lettuce rather than pre-bagged mixes when possible. Discard the outer two to three layers.
Step 5: Peel when possible. Cucumbers, apples, peaches, pears.
Step 6: Cook when in doubt. Heat to 158°F / 70°C kills cyclospora outright. This is the only guaranteed kill.
A Note On The More Advanced Washing Tools
People ask about ozone machines and grapefruit seed extract for food washing.
Ozone machines: The research on ozonated water for produce washing is real. Ozone does inactivate a range of pathogens including parasites, but effectiveness depends on ozone concentration and contact time. If you invest in one, look for models that produce at least 0.5 to 1 ppm ozone concentration in water and require 5 to 10 minutes of contact time. Not necessary for most households, but a real option if you eat a high volume of raw produce.
Grapefruit seed extract (GSE): Popular in wellness circles, but most commercial GSE products contain synthetic antimicrobial preservatives (benzethonium chloride, methylparaben) that are the actual reason those products show antimicrobial activity. If you use GSE, be aware of what you are actually spraying on your food and make sure that it’s pure.
The baking soda and salt water soaks are the most defensible, most accessible, and most effective for daily household use.
What To Actually Do If You Have Symptoms
If you have had watery diarrhea for more than a few days, especially after eating fresh produce, see a doctor.
Ask specifically for modified acid-fast staining or PCR testing for cyclospora. Standard stool panels miss it.
Cyclospora responds to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim) when caught. This is a case where conventional treatment works well.
If your testing comes back “clean” but symptoms persist for weeks, get a second opinion or work with a functional practitioner who can order comprehensive parasite panels.
The Bigger Picture
Cyclospora is one parasite in one outbreak in one year.
The food supply has been quietly compromised for a long time.
The wellness industry has been quietly selling supplements to a population that increasingly cannot defend itself against basic food exposure because the terrain is compromised.
The interventions that protect you against parasites, cyclospora and otherwise, are not new supplements.
They are:
A functioning gut microbiome
Adequate stomach acid
Healthy bile flow
Open drainage pathways
An intact mucosal barrier
Good hygiene
Clean water
Thoughtful food handling
Your terrain is your defense.
Support your terrain, wash your produce thoroughly, and cook what you can.
And, if you have unresolved gut symptoms that no one has explained, ask about cyclospora specifically, as well as other parasites and pathogens.
If this hit, I would love to know: have you or someone you know had persistent gut symptoms that never got explained? Let me know in the comments. I read and reply to every response.
Take my free Gut Health Diagnostic to see where your terrain is right now.
If you’re ready to address the actual terrain rather than layer more interventions onto a system that hasn’t been cleared, I’m currently taking a very limited number of new 1:1 coaching clients heading into August. The first step is a 45-minute Client Intake call where we map your full picture and figure out together whether the work is the right fit for where you are. Book your free Client Intake call.
And, if you have any other questions or comments, don’t hesitate to ask me any time in my weekly Q&A in my paid subscriber channel. If you’re not a paid subscriber, sign up below.
If you found this helpful, here’s how you can help:
Tap the heart so that I know it resonated
Leave a thoughtful comment—I read and appreciate every one!
Forward to a friend who might need to hear it
Share it with your community on Substack Notes, Instagram (tag @meghanswidler), or LinkedIn (and tag me there too!)
Upgrade to a paid subscription below to support deeper work like this
Your support means more than you know.
The point about the standard stool panel missing it entirely is the part most coverage skips — telling people to "ask specifically for modified acid-fast staining or PCR" is genuinely useful and actionable. And the detail about FoodNet being scaled back to voluntary monitoring in 2025 explains the two-month lag in a way I hadn't seen connected anywhere else. The baking soda soak is the one swap I think most people will actually adopt.
so good thank god for u