For example: Buying meat in India may make you violently ill. Drinking tap water in Mexico is guaranteed to do the trick. While for a colleague of mine (who is used to it): no problem at all.

That said, I generally agree with the fact that health hysteria is totally over the top.

I just returned from Peru where I ate at places, which would be shut down in a heartbeat here (no ginnypigs running through the kitchen allowed, let alone cooking on open fire) with not even a stomach upset whatsoever.

I think the key is just plain old common sense.