Delhi Belly, Montezuma's Revenge or just plain old food poisoning, every expat who has ever spent a significant amount of time on the road is familiar with some form of bacterial infection related to food or water consumption.
It might only happen once every five years or so, or you might be someone who is unlucky enough to have had it happen to you several times in a year, but every traveler out there will experience food poisoning in some way, shape or form while on the road.
However, there are ways you can reduce your chances, and by following a few simple rules of the road you can keep your stomach in a happy place while you enjoy destinations around the world.
Drinking bottled water is the first step you can take to avoiding food poisoning, and this applies in any country in the world, not just developing countries.
The United States is notorious for its water treatment facilities and the amount of chemicals they put into the tap water, so it's not just places in Africa or the Philippines where you want to be drinking bottled, purified water.
There is such a thing as too much chemicals.
And if you are someone who enjoys street food (the only way to truly experience the local delicacies of a country), you have to make sure that the place where you are getting your food is at least has some basic standards of hygiene in place.
If they aren't wearing gloves and they don't have covers on the condiments, allowing flies and dirt to collect, walk away.
Don't panic over little things, however, because if you are a germaphobe you will be missing out on one of the most cultural aspects of living abroad in other countries: the food.
It does pay to be careful, but it can ruin your trip if all you are doing is panicking about the hygiene and the food quality.
Something most people don't think about is the fact that most food vendors start out with fresh meat every single morning, and regardless of where you are in the world, meat will not go bad in a single day.
What this means is that even if you see a bit of meat set aside and it hasn't been covered right away, don't panic.
Likewise, if someone is preparing food and they don't have a hair net, don't panic.
These are little things that don't necessarily detract from the experience of street food, but for many travelers who choose to blow them out of proportion end up being detrimental to the overall enjoyment of the trip.
Another good idea is to make sure that whatever restaurant you are eating at doesn't use tap water to rinse the vegetables for salads.
Instead, they should be using some form of iodine treatment or antibacterial, and you should be purchasing the same solutions to use in your home if you are a culinary nomad who enjoys preparing your own food rather than eating out.
As long as you keep to some basic common-sense protocols you should be able to keep your outbreaks of food poisoning down to a minimum.