TIFU by drinking spoiled cranberry juice every morning for the last four years

Four years ago I decided to start working on my health by exercising more and improving my diet. One of the things that I starting doing was cooking a large breakfast every morning (eggs, quinoa with blueberries, bread, potatoes). To drink, I mix one part cranberry juice with two parts water (it taste better to me if its watered down and cranberry juice is expensive so I save money by mixing it with water).

I've also been meal prepping for the last three years, partly because it saves money and time, and partly because I'm a vegetarian and meal prepping makes it easy to obtain proper nutrition on a plant based diet. Ive noticed in the last year that my stomach has become very sensitive to certain foods. For example, I've recently had to cut tomatoes from my diet because the acid has become too much for my stomach to handle. I also started taking a daily probiotic about six months ago which I think has helped a lot.

So the other day I was meal prepping this bean salad with different types of beans, bell peppers, red onions, cilantro..etc. The recipe said to make the dressing for the meal separately and then pour the dressing on as you're about to eat it. Simple enough. The dressing was a mixture of spices like cumin, garlic powder, chili powder and also some olive oil and some fresh squeezed lime juice. I was weary about the lime juice because of the acid but I added it anyway. The recipe didn't say whether I should keep it in the fridge or keep it at room temperature so I decided to just put in it my cabinet (after all, all the ingredients were at room temperature before I mixed them together so it couldn't hurt, right?).

Well after the second day my stomach started feeling particularly upset and I decided to do some google searching. Apparently lime juice must be refrigerated after being squeezed because at room temperature it very quickly grows harmful microorganisms like mold and bacteria. No problem, ill just throw out the dressing I made a couple days ago and make some more - this time I'll keep it in the fridge.

This is where the fuck up comes in. I hate drinks that are unnecessarily cold (usually if I go to a restaurant ill order a room temperature water), therefore, I keep my cranberry juice in the cabinet instead of the fridge, that way when I mix it, its not too cold. This morning I was eating my breakfast that I eat every morning and as I was mixing my cranberry juice with water I was thinking to myself "hmm.. if lime juice has to be refrigerated due to the rapid growth of harmful bacteria after being opened its funny that cranberry juice doesn't". I was also thinking to myself that if cranberry juice did have to be refrigerated then they would definitely put something like that on the label. I then glanced at the label and it said "must refrigerate after opening". After doing a quick google search I found that after being opened, cranberry juice that is left at room temperature is only safe to drink for a couple hours. One jug of cranberry juice usually lasts me about 10 days, which means that I've been drinking spoiled bacteria infested cranberry juice for about 9 out of every 10 mornings for the last four years. This could be the source of most of my stomach issues and food sensitivities over the last couple years.

TL;DR I didn't know that you were suppose to refrigerate cranberry juice after opening (due to the rapid growth of bacteria) so I've been drinking room temperature bacteria infested cranberry juice every morning for the last four years, which most likely fucked up my gut bacteria and is probably the source of a lot of my stomach issues and food sensitivities.