I’ve collected quite a bit of blog fodder over the summer. Here’s a start at catching up.
FAT SAVES THE WORLD
A dairy nutrition expert from Australia claims to have found a way to reduce the methane output from one source of greenhouse gasses—cows. The secret is to feed them a higher-fat diet. Chris Grainger, of the Department of Primary Industries, said that he and scientists from Canada and New Zealand discovered that they could reduce the greenhouse gas flatulence from cows by feeding them on cottonseed. “It’s high in energy and it’s high in protein levels, it’s about 22 percent crude protein, but the secret ingredient is that it contains about 22 percent oil,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Each cow’s methane emissions could be reduced by up to 30 percent (a typical cow produces a third of a pound of methane a day).
It sounds like a win/win proposition: the cotton farmers could sell a waste product which would become a cheap source of feed for cattle, and everyone could take credit for helping the environment. The downside is that it may not be such a good idea to introduce more cottonseed into the food chain. (Up to nine pounds of cottonseed a day is already used for feeding dairy cows to increase the percentage of cream in their milk.) Unrefined cottonseed oil contains a natural pesticide and the plants are treated with chemicals that are not allowed for use on food crops. I’m generally in favor of more fat, but surely there is a better source for good fat for livestock than garbage from the gin mills.
LOW CARB COMMUNITY NEWS
Regina Wilshire has a new gig: Regina, food science writer extraordinaire (the Weight of the Evidence: http://www.weightoftheevidence.com/), will be writing for the national Low Carb Examiner, an Internet news site similar to about.com, at http://www.examiner.com/x-694-LowCarb-Health-Examiner.
Jamie VanEaton (AKA Cleochatra at http: //www.cleochatra.blogspot.com/) will also be posting at the national Low Carb Examiner.
Amy Dungan (AKA Sparky’s Girl, http://www.lovinglowcarblife.blogspot.com/) is now a columnist for St. Louis Examiner.com: http://www.examiner.com/x-659-St-Louis-LowCarb-Examiner.
Last but not least, yours truly has been invited to be a columnist on Diabetes Health at http://www.diabeteshealth.com. I am working on my first post, which should appear shortly.
Jimmy Moore and Regina Wilshire have new blog addresses. After being locked out at their previous sites as suspected spammers, they both moved from blogger.com to other platforms. Jimmy is here: http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/.
Regina is here: http://www.weightoftheevidence.com/.
INTRODUCING
-I had a message from a special lady named Karen Bell a week or so ago that really brightened my day. Karen learned about my book from a diabetes forum and wrote to tell me how much she is enjoying it. It is so encouraging to get positive feedback. Karen has started her own blog, KB’s Soup Kitchen, at http://www.kbsoupkitchen.blogspot.com . Check it out for some interesting recipes (not just soup) and drop her a note to say hello.
-How did I miss this one? Here’s a great site that is not new, but it is new to me. Jennifer Eloff has written cookbooks using Splenda since 1994. Here is her site: http://www.low-carb-news.blogspot.com/.
Judy, I’m sorry, I got your name wrong in my post (corrected now!). That will teach me to use my reading glasses. Sigh.
I’ve also linked to your blog.
Nice to meet you.
Thanks Amy! I hope to have an article up in the next few days, but luckily I don’t have a deadline. It is wonderful to see all these new venues for low carb info.
Judy BB
Hey Judy! Congrats on your new diabetes gig! I look forward to reading your first post!