Posts Tagged ‘meat’

The American Veterinary Medical Association has released a statement saying that human exposure to pigs and consumption of pork products will not increase your risk of infection with swine flu. Thus far, the swine flu has only been identified and transmitted among humans. There have been no reports of outbreaks among swine herds. In fact, the term “swine flu” is a misnomer since this strain is actually composed of a combination of viruses that include swine, poultry and human influenza viruses. And today, the World Health Organization announced that they will no longer be using the term “swine flu” to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs. Instead the proper, scientific name H1N1 influenza A will be used. With that being said, the AVMA is also reminding us to follow proper cooking guidelines for all meat products to reduce the incidence of food borne illnesses such as salmonella.

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Does America have a sociocultural obsession with food? You be the judge. On a recent trip to the mall I happened upon a myriad of food scented products, mostly in the form of moisturizers. Some of the flavors included pumpkin pie, strawberry shortcake, vanilla bean, cinnamon bun, and hot chocolate. And now Burger King is marketing their very own fragrance – with the scent of meat. Called “Flame” the spray is, according to the company, “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat”. Why would anyone want to smell like charbroiled meat? I will not place judgment until I’ve sniffed it myself. But, I do wonder why anyone would want to eat a cinnamon bun, then turn around and lather themselves with cinnamon bun-flavored cream. Perhaps it just appeals to us on a gustatory level. I can’t complain, I love to eat. But, I also can’t help but wonder if this is a healthy obsession.

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Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) was widely pulicized in the 1990s as the human form of the cow disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which is contracted from eating contaminated beef. However, there are sporadic forms of CJD that can occur for unknown reasons – unrelated to eating meat. Now, researchers have found a new variant of this fatal disease that appears to advance faster, causing dementia and even the loss of ability to speak and move. It is yet unclear what the cause is, but scientists speculate that an interaction with a genetic component may be likely.

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