Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The Revenge of the Geese

Doesn't really sound like a great title for a movie, does it?

Geese force-fed and then slaughtered for their livers may get their final revenge on people who favor the delicacy known as foie gras: It may transmit a little-known disease known as amyloidosis, researchers reported on Monday.

Tests on mice suggest the liver, popular in French cuisine which uses it to make pate de foie gras and other dishes, may cause the condition in animals that have a genetic susceptibility to such diseases, Alan Solomon of the University of Tennessee and colleagues reported.

That would suggest that amyloidosis can be transmitted via food in a way akin to brain diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, which can cause a rare version of mad cow disease in some people who eat affected meat products or brains.

Amyloidosis can affect various organ systems in the body, which accumulate damaging deposits of abnormal proteins known as amyloid. The heart, kidneys, nervous system and gastrointestinal tract are most often affected but amyloidosis can also cause a blood condition.

...

Symptoms are often vague and range from fatigue and weight loss to swelling and kidney damage.

So imagine this as a horror flick. In hte opeing scene our victim has lunch. In the closing one, 30 years later, she loses a few pounds of weight.

Hhhmm. Needs more work, don't you think?


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