Friday was a big day! We had class like usual, but it was a guest speaker who talked about antioxidants. I found it quite interesting. Not everyone in the class was as excited as I was, I guess. I asked a bunch of questions, out of curiosity, and to keep the speaker a little more on track. Unfortunately, he was little scattered. He was rushed time wise and skipped a bunch of probably good information, but it was still interesting. Then we went to an Registered Dieticians Association (RDA) conference on campus and saw a few more lectures. There was close to 40 RD's in attendance, plus my 2 professors and a few other students.
The first one we saw was about fresh water fish vs farm raised fish. Which again, I found quite interesting. There was a point he was making about ocean fish raised in a pen, which I don't really know much about, but he was pointing out the flaws of this based on fecal and ammonia build up. So I asked the question when he was done, about how they deal with those same issues in the farm raised fish. He completely avoided the fecal build up part, and talked about how they add lime to the water to neutralize the ammonia. My follow up question should've been on what chemical by products are produced when these two chemicals combine, and if that affects the fish, but didn't think of that until too late.
He also heralded the idea that they can increase production of farm raised fish to meet demand so we don't over fish the oceans. This was a valid and understandable benefit of farmed fish. But the idea that the fish have water flow pumped through the pond, because there's not enough room to swim, and how they add "miniscule" amount of hormones to the water to affect the sex of the fish, because males grow bigger and are therefore more profitable, doesn't sit as well with me. Along with the genetic manipulation and cross breeding for size, and heartiness has to have some downsides we may not realize yet.
There were several other talks, one on starches, and another on GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) and GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) discussing food safety in developing countries. I actually introduced the speaker about GMP/GAP. I stepped out of my comfort zone and stood up in front of this crowd and welcomed the speaker and briefly described his background. With this, and asking a couple questions of the speakers, at the end of the conference I met with the internship coordinator at VCU, which was great. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up sometime soon and discuss some opportunities.
After completing some homework Friday night, it was the weekend! Saturday was pretty relaxing. We all went for a short "run." Kaz, her two dogs, myself and maddog went to Powhite park and did probably a mile and a half jog through the park. Maddog kept up most of the time pretty well. He was pretty tired at the end and exhausted the rest of the day. He needs more practice. My calves are pretty sore today as well, so I guess we both need more practice.
Sunday I did a bunch of food prep. Made some tomato-garlic butter, and some salsa, as well as some egg "muffins" for breakfast for the week, and some cookies. Then I went for a short ride to meet some friends at Belle Isle, and hung out for a bit before heading out for Sushi dinner with different friends. I'll detail a little more of the food prep in my other blog under recipes, which will be up shortly! Look for that on Facebook and Blogger and Twitter. I'll do a soft launch later this week and let you all give me feedback. Hope everyone had an exciting weekend!
