I love my Mr. Pea pea sheller. it's this little metal do-hickey with a crank handle and two little rollers like a minature wringer washing machine (does anybody remember those?). You crank the handle and feed the pea pods into the rollers and it squishes the pods and shoots out the peas. It's faster and easier than shelling by hand (no green fingernails), but not all THAT much faster and easier. Which is perfectly fine by me. This is about as far as I like my "mechanization" to go... (You can, they say, hook it up to an electric hand mixer, but I shudder to think what that would mean...I envision crushed digits and eyes blinded by peas ejected from the rollers like miniature cannonballs. *Ping! *Zing! *ow! *Zfattp! *Ow!*)
I should get out there and pick all the rest of the peas, but I think I'll take a break and do a little editing. I'm getting barked at. Also, it's pretty HHH out there today (hazy, hot and humid).
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I read some very new research (not yet published) saying that Omega-3 (the kind of stuff found in Fish Oil) is proving to be useful in treating depression and anxiety. This research is beginning to point to inflammatory substances in the blood as the real culprit in several disease states besides depression. For example, researchers are beginning to suspect (strongly) that it is not cholesterol levels per se that lead to coronary artery disease but INFLAMMATION of the arterial walls. If you can imagine your arteries as a garden hose, imagine that inflammation is like the rubber of the hose suddenly becoming cracked and scaly on the inside (picture a bad rash on your skin). Now, as water runs thru the hose, any particles in it (like cholesterol in blood) will tend to stick to these "irritated" (inflamed) cracks and scales. Sort of like a scab forming. That's exactly what is happening in arteries. Cholesterol sticks to the spots of inflammation in the artery and forms "plaques" that, if they dislodge, can cause stroke or heart attacks. The key seems to be to reduce inflammation. Unfortunately, the American diet is full of inflammatory chemicals that come from processed sugars, artificial ingredients, some preservatives, and worst of all trans-fats. It's important to eliminate those as much as possible from the diet AND to increase the anti-inflammatory substances like Omega-3. (Aspirin is also anti-inflammatory, which may be why it helps in preventing heart disease and stroke).
I've been taking Fish Oil caps every night for about a week now and I have to say, my mild anxiety attacks are better. I'm hoping this will stave off heart disease and other troubles too!
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