Corn Fed, Grain Fed Versus Grass Fed American Beef

I thought I post about something I read about corn or grain fed cattle versus grass fed cattle. It is interesting because it tells you that we, including all other living creatures on this planet Earth been designed to eat certain foods only - meaning our digestive system is designed for particular foods. Introducing processed food to our or animal digestive system can actually cause potential problems in the later food chain. I don't know how many of you know, or at least I didn't know, but the conventional American cattle is corn or grain fed, as oppose to grass fed cattle. Note that the cattle is designed to graze, therefore, when fed with corn and grain the cow's stomach becomes very acidic environment attracting bacteria like E.coli. The beef from grass fed cattle is much leaner and has more the omega-3 fatty acids than the today's conventional beef. To conclude, you may want to consider then the grass fed beef, which is also classified as organic beef.

The Great Canadian Invention Series: Mashed Potato Flakes and Other Instant Food Processes

It was Dr. Edward Asselbergs from the Canada Department of Agriculture in Ottawa who in 1961 develop a process for making instant mashed potato flakes that tasted like real homemade version of mashed potatoes. From this idea Dr. Asselbergs moved to make instant meat, chicken, fish and cheese products. If you interested Google Patent search engine is excellent for listing all kinds of patents, and here what I found for mashed potato flakes: PREPARATION OF DEHYDRATED COOKED MASHED POTATO Patent number: 3260607 Issue date: Jul 1966 Inventor: Asselbergs et al.

In addition, it was Dr. W. H. Cook from the Canadian National Research Council, a Director of the Applied Biology Division who came up with several methods to meet the emergency food requirement for troops during World War II. His invention was a special refrigerated storage system used to transport close to 20% of the perishable foods to Britain. He also devised an improved process for drying whole egg powder.

Interesting Video to Watch: The Truth about Pandemics

To follow up on my last post about the swine flu, here are some other interesting findings about current outbreak of swine flu or H1N1 flu.

Video: The Truth about Pandemics from Livescience.com where Dr. Siegel explains why we sometimes panic too much about pandemics, and how media and the government escalates these issues.

On the other hand here is a very interesting claim about the H1N1 flu or swine flu of which I am not surprised about, Claim: Swine Flu Possibly Created in the Lab, Submitted by Robert Roy Britt posted: 13 May 2009 12:58 pm ET, Livescience.com.

In addition, I found this article Pandemics and Pandemic Threats since 1900, an article outlining major pandemics that occurred since 1900 and some major pandemic threats. This article is from PandemicFlu.gov site, another great site to explore and educate yourself:

‘PandemicFlu.gov provides comprehensive government-wide information on pandemic influenza and avian influenza for the general public, health and emergency preparedness professionals, policy makers, government and business leaders, school systems, and local communities.’; Source: About Us, PandemicFlu.gov site.

To conclude this post I want to add one more link, a link to the Canadian site where you can find very useful information about fighting flu, protecting yourself, and the most recent status of the flu in your area or province – FightFlu.ca. Yes, protect yourself, and protect others.

Asparagus Season: Why the White Asparagus is White and the Green Asparagus is Green?

Did you ever wonder why white asparagus is white, or looks really pale from his friend green asparagus? I will then try to provide you with simple answer in here, however, let me start with the green asparagus.

Green asparagus, as any other green plant contains substance called chlorophyll. The pigment in the chlorophyll absorbs all other colors in spectrum and reflects the green light. Whenever the light is reflected, the human eye can see it. Same as for the red apple, or the orange carrot, the red and the orange colors are reflected and transmitted to our eyes.
A side note, a pigment is something that absorbs the certain colors in the light spectrum. Whatever is not absorbed is then reflected into our eyes.

So what happened to the poor white pale asparagus? Nothing really, it is grown in the dark and deprived from the sunlight. The blockage from the sunlight makes the asparagus white. No light to absorb or reflect. The process used to make the white asparagus is called process of etiolation, meaning that the plant is grown in partial light or completely without the light.