My first "ask the dietitian" session

Wowee...a new experience from my blog...my bestest friend has personally asked me a question, as opposed to those "questions of the moment." Let's see what kind of answer I come up with:

K--"Ok, dried lizards? I'm sorry I am trying to be understanding, but that just sounds gross. I do not see any nutritional benefit from eating/drinking dried out reptiles. Do you know anyone that has done this and could explain the history behind it? "
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First, off, thank you for your question K...ya know I love you.

While I personally do not know anyone who has eaten or drinkin' the drippings of lizard lollipops, historically, the "Yellow Emporer" of China along with the principles of traditional chinese medicine (TCM), have found that certain animals and herbs have medicinal properties.

Many medicines used today are derivatives of plant extracts. As an example which I'm sure many of you who read this will likely find enjoyable is as follows.

As a dietitian, I frequently see patients who have little appetite in the hsopital. At times it is necessary to give them an appetite stimulant. We often give one called megace. However, this is where it gets interesting.

There is another appetite stimulant called "Marinol." In fact, I was on the phone the other day with a patient's sister and was explaining that marinol is in fact, a derivative of Marijuana. So, case in point, today, yesterday, even hundreds of years ago, even thousands of years ago, people have been using plant and animal extracts as medicines.

Biologically/evolutionarily speaking, these compounds found in these things provided defenses and protected the plants/animals.

Soooo...there ya go!!! Now, doesn't that make you want a lizard lollipop or snake kebab?!


Question of the moment: "How do I eat out?"

Dana's Discourse: Open restaurant door, sit, order, eat. (More nutritional info to come in my next post.)