Vaboomer -- Baby Boomer Views & News

Recklessness of Youth: How Otters Resemble Teen-Agers

book review "Zoobiquity:  What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing" - by Kathryn Bowers, Barbara Natterson-Horowitz

review by Nancy Mehegan

This well-researched book is a call to open minds and learn what the animals can teach humans about health, evolution and a deeper understanding of ourselves -- important lessons as the world enters its new era.

When the walls between veterinarians and medical doctors are dismantled, astounding discoveries arise.  Discoveries that will aid human health, psychologically and physically. 

 

Hunters are not Fat

Hunting is a Calorie-Burner. The sedentary modern man should know this. A study of obese grizzly bears in a zoo prompted this stunning insight by the author: 

"No animal evolved to have a plate of food placed in front of him/her.  They ran.  They dug.  They schemed.  They starved.  Eating was the reward for all that work." 

 

Our easy availability of food harvests is somewhat of a curse.  The Copenhagen Zoo was criticized for feeding carcasses to their animals, but devouring fur, bones and crunching on hooves may be more beneficial than the sanitized fare normally  provided by zookeepers.  Obesity, the author declares is a "disease of the environment", far different from a mere coloric approach.

Reckless Otters

Adolescent animals are risk-takers, impulsive, run in gangs and do the same obnoxious antics as human "teen-agers", researchers find.  

Example:   "Teen-age otters" will swim into shark-infested waters that adult otters avoid.  Youthful curiosity persists in all species, not just humans.  "Blending in" or teen-age conformity has evolutionary benefits:  travelling in groups is safer in the wild, etc.  (how interesting...)

The meaning of Fainting

Behaviors such as the fainting of some animals when confronted by a predator was analyzed in a novel way and shown to have true protective usefulness.  It also may explain fainting in humans.

The shakily constructed walls between humans and animals almost prevented the CDC from the recognition of the West Nile Virus.  It took a bird expert/pathologist to convince the CDC to re-examine their findings.

Native americans are documented as knowing that animals were close to humans on many levels and teachers.  It is time that modern day scientists realize  this eternal truth.  This book IS A MUST for animal lovers, scientists, nature lovers and the intellectually curiousl  Fantastic book.

 

note:  this book was provided by the publisher (Knopf) for review

 

 

Medieval Christmas Recipe: Almond Milk

In the Middle Ages, animal milk was, not refrigerated, and fresh milk did not stay fresh for long. Most cooks simply did not use much milk as the short shelf-life of the product made it a difficult ingredient to depend upon. 

Rather than animal milk, Medieval cooks turned to something they could depend upon, and that was the milky liquid produced by grinding almonds or walnuts. 

Almond milk was used extensively in period; all existing cookbooks call for it, and it must have been found in literally every Medieval kitchen. It's the prime ingredient in many, many recipes, and the modern cook recreating Medieval food will have to learn its production in order to prepare the most common of dishes. Fortunately, it's easily made. 

• 1 cup ground almonds
• 2 cups boiling water

Combine almonds and water. Steep for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sieve the mixture to remove coarse grains OR (preferably) blend mixture in electric blender until grains are absorbed. Yield - 2 cups almond milk.

Gruyau - Barley & Almond Gruel

 http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec65.htm

Sauce Sarcenes - Red Almond Milk Sauce

http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec50.htm

U.S. Pizza Goes to Asia? Rising Cost of Cheese

Have you noticed how expensive a slice of Pizza is? Food prices are sky-rocketing.  It's a real crisis.

COST OF CHEESE:  I did some research on the cost of cheese, which has driven cost of pizza high.  I was surprised at the reason.

U.S. Exports Most Cheese to Asia

A major cause is the growing demand for pizza and fast-food in emerging markets in Asian nations.  The U.S. exports huge amounts of cheese overseas!!  Huh?

Asia's growing appetite for pizza and cheeseburgers means the U.S. is exporting the most cheese  ever.  The U.S. shipped more than twice as much to Asia in the first four months of 2011 as a year earlier, U.S. Dairy Export Council data show. 

Yikes.

 

How Israelis Responded to Cheese Crisis

Israelis launched a huge Facebook protest of rising cottage cheese prices.  Read more:   Israeli Cheese Protest 

Question:  Why aren't  there more dairy farms in Asia??