Yes, there's a reason the 2nd person is used very infrequently. It can be a tricky one to pull off. But you chose the right story for it.

To be honest, in Asia I trusted street food more than restaurants. The reason is that on the street you get to see them making the food, and if it's a popular vendor you know the food must be relatively fresh as they have a high turnover rate. Restaurants, on the other hand, usually do the cooking in a back room, and they have the capacity to store a large quantity of food, so it is not necessarily fresh. McDonalds is different though, as you said, and I can certainly understand being careful after such an experience!

Actually the reason so many people get Montezuma's revenge when traveling is because of the different microorganisms present in different regions. It can even happen at 5 star resorts. India seems to have some nastier than average bugs, though. Africa too. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that, ironically, the best way to protect yourself from getting diarrhea is by getting diarrhea. Once you've had it and recovered, your body has adapted to the new microorganisms and there is much less chance of getting it again (of course it can and does still happen, but the chances are lower).

I agree about the sources of danger. Bad roads especially (and of course the crazy drivers inhabiting them). The thing is that stories of westerners getting kidnapped or killed catch a lot of media interest and go viral, so if it happens once or twice, people think it's a common occurrence. But nobody talks about how many people die from the food or from accidents. It's really a shame that the media operates as it does, but of course it's the people's fault. We love drama.