Omega oils

[YGB]

As we know, the American diet is severely lackin in obtaining the necessary omega oils needed (these oils really help the eyes natural tear process). One good suggestion is to incorporate salmon into your diet. Salmon is rich in good omega oils. Here's a couple of points regarding salmon ...

Get wild salmon and not farm raised salmon. Wild salmon has less mercury and more omega oils. It is a healthier fish to eat than farm raised salmon. If wild salmon is too pricy at the grocery store (and some do not even carry wild salmon), then you can always go with salmon in a can and make something like salmon salad (like tunafish salad). The salmon in the can is always wild since they tried to use farm raised salmon in a can and it just turns to mush. In fact, farm raised salmon doesn't even have that natural salmon color. They actually use food dye to make it look like wild salmon. Also, don't worry about the environment. The reality is that by eating wild salmon, you are protecting the environment since any fish that is a commodity is regulated much better than the non-commodity fish. If the whole world ate farm-raised salmon, then the fish regulators wouldn't care much about what happens to the population of wild salmon. Therefore, eat the much tastier and healthier wild salmon and have a toast to better eye health. Bon appetit!

That's all today from Chef Hawkeye's kitchen. Remember, just don't eat the hawk. And also, from one of the classic quotes from one of my favorite Cheech and Chong songs of yesteryear ... "save the whales, and if you can't save those whales ... shoot the seals "

[dianat]

My husband prepares salmon in this house. He sears the skin side and removes it. Then he sautes it in crushed garlic and olive oil, a little salt, pepper and some thyme. Yum! My kids love it...and that's really saying something...

D

[YGB]

Diana - that's great! For added benefit, I recommend using wild salmon if you are not doing so already. Thanks.

[huey]

Free salmon

My bro is an expert fly fisherman. He catches salmon and trout. But not too many as he respects their population. We always enjoy fresh wild salmon and trout. We never waste a speck! Must eat more of it.

Huey

[dianat]

Truly fresh wild salmon must be wonderful. We took the kids at my request on a deep sea fishing trip this summer in Florida, and caught a variety of things. We took it back to the condo and I prepared the fish a number of ways. It was really spectacular...no fishy taste at all. We still talk about how great that meal was.

No salmon fisherman in this family, but if someone were to some day offer me some wild salmon one day, I won't pass it up.

[YGB]

Diana - no need for someone to offer you wild salmon one day (unless you have a Schwann's delivery service in your area ... they have wild salmon and they'll bring it right to your door). You just need to go to a semi-higher end grocery store like Harris Teeter or one of those growing health markets. Of course, "catching" the wild salmon on sale at the grocery store helps.

[Rebecca Petris]

Sure is one of the things I'm enjoying about being back in the Pacific Northwest... Copper River salmon without breaking the bank... yummmm.

Truly FRESH fish of any kind is such a treat though. I have never yet had fish that tasted as good as what we used to get when we lived in Greece... in some places pretty much straight from the fishing boat to the grill.

[YGB]

Amen Rebecca. I just had fresh wild haddock and steamed clams for dinner with fresh cranberries. Without question it's been the biggest highlight of my day !

[dianat]

Geez, You Gotta Believe you're gonna have us all over for dinner some night.

[YGB]

If your ever in Raleigh, NC, then the wife and I will be happy to cook up a fine dry eye friendly meal. Actually the wife will do most of the cooking. I do the cleaning, get beverages, take out the trash, etc. But most importantly, I give MANY well deserved compliments in part so that she will hopefully cook a great meal again.

Some folks feel like they need to butter up their dry eye MD. Whatever works is okay, but I say later for that. I am a professional and the MD should be one to. If he/she can't see me in a professional manner, then I need to keep searching. After 6 tries, I have found a true professional Ophthalmologist. He's not a "dry eye expert", but he has common sense and he provides sound clinical care and that's more than half of the battle.

Also, I have noticed that whenever the new Ophthalmologists just out of fellowship are advertised in the paper, they all list dry eye as one of the areas they focus on. Why? Well in my opinion, it is because many senior MD's in practice (including academic medical centers) want to do surgery and see surgical candidates in clinic. They leave the dry eye patient group to the newbie MD's. It's amazing how these "dry eye specialist/expert MD's" in some of these "top centers" look like they're 28-32 years old.

[dianat]

Okay, YGB.

That's all really insightful and everything, but what does it have to do with fish?!

Omigod you're a guy! How did I not know this?! Did everybody else know this?! I feel like I just caught you with your pants down.

[dianat]

Matt?! Is that right? Man, I'm still trying to get over this.

[YGB]

Okay, you caught me with my pants down. Luckily I was wearing my boxer shorts . My only question is "what took you so long". I did leave a few crumbs for any sleuths out there to piece together. Good job Sherlock Diana for cracking the case!

My generic user name left me as an unknown quantity on the BB for a while (I guess I am more like Klinger instead of Hawkeye). I suppose I did drift somewhat off-topic on my salmon rant. I'll attribute this to my self-diagnosed attention deficit disorder (ADD). Starting new threads can seem so difficult at times, but yet it's so simple. I'm glad the Colonel let's these BB nuances go once in a while since I'm sure disorderly posting can drive folks who like things ship shape nuts .

Another humid day in the neighborhood. While global warming may not be good for future generations, I will be a little selfish and say that I am thankful for it this winter so far. Mother nature, please keep the warm/humid air coming please!

Also, Diana, don't worry about the humidity getting over 60% once in a while. Those mites only eat dead cells. Who needs those? The key is to not have 60% be the standard all of the time. The house needs occasional breaks from full moisture. In the summer, I'm sure the house gets humidity over 60% and things seem to work fine. Also, in the cold winter, the humidity can drop into the 20%+ range. In this case, running the humidifier all of the time is likely a good thing since at best, it will only boost the humidity level up to 35% or so. Oops, there I go off topic again.

[dianat]

Yeah, there you go again...but thanks for the tip. Hmmm...self-diagnosed ADD, huh? I'll go easy on you...I mean, now that I've seen you in your boxers and all.

Regarding your weather there...I was just in N Carolina last weekend. It was the same there as it is here: warmish and humid. It's 60 degrees here today, relative humidity 92. That's insane for February. It should be in the 20s and 30s. Don't worry about the global warming thing. Next year January will be sub-zero, the worst one on record.

Our sole purpose for our trip to N Carolina was to take the kids to see the Biltmore Mansion. Cool place. We all really enjoyed ourselves save being squeezed into a tiny hotel room with 4 people and a sleepless toddler.

[Rebecca Petris]

Diana - that's so funny. I always thought he was a guy. Then something he posted recently made me do a doubletake and I thought to myself "Omigosh - he's a SHE!". Guess I musta read it wrong. (Something about Amanda Huggenkiss.... )