Rebuild from Depression Blog

Stay out of the garden. Stay off of the porch. If you can't find another home, you will soon be dinner. You are a depression buster food, after all.

In early 2006, Michael Moore put out a call for stories about the health care industry for his documentary Sicko. While I didn't have a specular story (thank goodness), the email hit me at the right time and it inspired an email campaign to Michael Moore. I'm sure that wine was involved (not the best thing for a person to be drinking who is rebuilding from depression) but I am not sure how else to explain my willingness to beat on a rabbit.

This one is from some time in early February:

Hi Michael.

I intended to write to you back in the early 90s with a marriage proposal after seeing "Roger and Me." Apparently I was too busy with college to follow through. But we're both married now (and perhaps you were then), so I write to you some 15 years later in response to your request for "Sicko" content.

I have a pretty compelling story about what the health care industry should be providing but it isn't because it is making too much money by not providing it.

Below is a draft of an article I am working on for a magazine and it will give you the flavor of what I am talking about. It begins "My grandmother died at the age of 61 of complications from postpartum depression."

Read it for old-times sake.

The article content comes from a book I am writing about depression. (I'll send you a copy in a few months.) It provides medical research on the link between nutrients and depression. Things like zinc and magnesium are at least as therapeutic for depression as pharmaceutical options, they just take a while to correct.

And if I don't make it into "Sicko" based on this content, perhaps you could squeeze me in for a cameo. I would be happy to color-analyze you incorrectly or beat on a rabbit or two for old-times sake.

Send my best to your wife.

Amanda

All relationships require follow-up. Here's how it went:

Hi Michael.

You need me to butcher a rabbit on Sicko.

I sent you a letter back in February (you know, mine was the letter with concerns about the health care system). I told you that I almost sent you a marriage proposal after seeing Roger and Me back in college. But I bet you get that from all the girls.

The rabbit butchering would be a great Roger and Me tie-in and would highly amuse your long-term fans. It would be a great inside joke for all of us.

Well, it's not really a joke.
Or at least I can play it straight if you want me to.

Here's the science: I've been researching nutrients and depression and have identified six vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids that are most commonly linked to depression. There have been clinical trials using these nutritional supplements with depressed patients and the studies find that the nutrients actually augment anti-depressant medication. The nutrients work without the medication too. It's amazing that the American public doesn't know this.

But here's where the rabbit comes in: I used a USDA database of 7,000 foods and identified foods that I call "depression-busters." Depression-busters are foods with the highest concentration of the six "depression nutrients." And guess what meat made the list? That's where the rabbit comes in. Rabbit is a depression-buster.

Michael, we could hunt some rabbit together. I don't know how to hunt and last time we shot a rooster on our property, I had to call my dad to do the deed, and I ran far away to avoid stray bullets. I would have looked like an 8-year-old school girl if it were not for my 200-pound frame. But I would learn to shoot for you. I could even try to trap a rabbit, much like the bear I tried to trap in college the time when I caught the family dog instead.

And I'm willing to learn how to hang up the rabbit and skin it. I was a Future Farmer of America. This is no kind of challenge at all.

You and your crew could enjoy a rabbit barbecue immediately following the filming and we can all have a slumber party here in my house: www.our-craftsman-home-restoration.com

Or you tell me where to show up, and I'll show up in my best hunting gear, which may still have the shopping tags on it.

In the meantime, I'll be sure to send you the book I'm working on or I'll bring it with my hunting gear.

Sincerely,

Amanda Rose, your long-time fan

"Hey Mandy, I was cleaning the yard and found a depression-buster food. I think you should cook it up and eat it for dinner," said my mom who read my website and responded to the challenge.

Who knows what killed Mr. Tarantula. My mom found him (or her) as she was raking leaves outside. He (or she) has been dead for a while.

The season is coming to an end here where you see tarantula's crossing the road, apparently roaming and looking for mates. My mom suggested that some of its relatives were depression buster road kill.

Things get interesting sometimes when you live with your mother who still calls you by your childhood name.

The day of the tarantula's arrival was also the day when conversation degenerated around here as we played the game "would you rather?" This teenage game takes on a Fear Factor-like quality when you are discussing what might or might not be depression-busting food.

It turns out that everyone in this household would rather eat a tarantula than a housefly. How about you? My choice was a tarantula casserole, perhaps quiche-like. But then I'm inclined to hide just about anything in quiche. So far I haven't hidden anything quite so hairy.

Keep in mind, you would have to eat 100 grams of either, not just one housefly versus one tarantula.

This blog would not be nearly as much fun to maintain without people and events that make me laugh. I admit in advance that some of this isn’t necessarily funny to everyone reading this blog. My apologies.

The Vander Eyk Once-Organic Dairy
This was one of those situations where history was being made before my eyes and it took nine years to realize it. Those black-and-white cattle grazing near my house since about 1998 belonged to the notorious and now defunct Vander Eyk Organic Dairy. When its decertification was made public in June, I was actually planning a flight over the pasture areas. An organic farmer agreed to pilot, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter agreed to cover the story. This “cow census” that never was is perhaps why this blog slowed down in May. If you have managed to miss the video eulogy to the dairy, you should take a look at it now.

Lessons:

• Look around. You never know what might be there.
  
• When you find it, make an event of it.
  
• Get a good video camera if you are going to make a video. (For the record, I intended to rent a very good one for the exposé that never was.)
  

Alex Avery

Be careful what you promise or you could end up with a long list of stories never told. Such is the case on the Rebuild blog where I left many readers hanging by a nail on some very important issues. I am sorry for any sleep lost out there. These are real nail-biters.

The Book

“Where is that thing anyway?” Good question. These things take a ridiculous amount of time to produce well. I will offer a combination digital and print book package soon. You’ll receive the digital copy immediately and the print book as a bonus when it comes back from the printer. Look for details by the end of January.

Mom’s videos

They came out of the gate strong during the summer and just disappeared. We got great feedback on the videos but we got a number of comments about the volume. The volume and picture quality of the food videos plus the video quality on the organic dairy eulogy inspired us to buy a new camera. The problem was that the new camera required using iMovie08 instead of the previous version. iMovie08 is a whole other critter, so the video production got further and further behind. Finally I got the bright idea to outsource the project to a documentarian friend of ours. Expect new food videos this month.

Henny the Huge

Monday was Mercury’s birthday. I apologize for not publicizing the birthday in advance but its birthday was only determined Monday morning.

My son Frederick loves birthdays and is into astronomy lately. We were learning about the sun’s age – when it was born, when it will blow up and turn into a nebula, and all of those details that inspire little boys. I made a big push for celebrating the sun’s birthday.

“No one ever remembers the sun’s birthday,” I pronounced (all the while thinking that pagans are likely a major exception in some way or other). “We should have a birthday party for the sun!”

Frederick paused and said, “Mama, we need to have a birthday party for Mercury.”

I looked at him for just a moment wondering what crazy idea he had. His line of thinking dawned on me and I laughed in big belly laughs.

Back in March I retold the first "annual" celebration of Mercury's birthday. (Yes, that's Mercury the planet and, no, this is not a pagan ritual as far as I know.) My son Frederick, always in search of birthdays since they tend to come with cake and ice cream, decided to celebrate Mercury's birthday. Conveniently, Mercury orbits the sun every 88 days and, thus, requires more birthday celebrations than the rest of us.

Our first celebration of Mercury's birthday found us secretly ribbing Postmaster Dean using the community's "Burma Shave signs," signs usually dedicated to announcing events such as a community dinner. We flew remote control airplanes at the local school and ended our day at a cowboy bar eating dollar tacos and telling the cowboys about our birthday celebration. It may have been the first time I have seen my father embarrassed.

On the schedule for the second annual celebration is an ice cream give-away at the post office at about 11:30 tomorrow (Friday). Everyone in the community picks up their mail and loiters around at that time. It is the perfect opportunity to spread the word about the birthday celebration. Word spreads pretty easily up here, by the way. To let everyone know you're pregnant, you can either post something on the Burma Shave signs (which frankly I hadn't considered and now I find myself a bit disappointed that I missed an opportunity) or just tell someone at a local bar.

All of this is to say that if you don't do something fun and quirky this week in honor of Mercury's birthday, you are missing out.

It appears that surfing the Internet can help keep your brain healthy. A study found that folks can keep their brains sharp by surfing. Surfing provided better brain-building than reading. Getting lost on the Internet may be an effective tool for middle-aged and older folks to keep their brains sharp. Of course, I figure that I am close enough to middle age that these findings apply to me as well. Like I need encouragement.

This result is kind of like buying organic ice cream because the cow may have been eating grass and that ice cream may have a higher content of the body-slimming and health-improving fat conjugated linoleic acid. You might even argue that ice cream fights depression. I am all for this sort of rationalization in appropriate doses.

It does appear, however, that there are probably better ways to sharpen our brains. We could sit down with friends and play games like Parcheesi or Mancala, some of this family's favorite games. They work your brain and you get some social interaction at the same time. If no friends are around, you could play Rush Hour, one that is very effective in keeping my brain focused. These activities require more focused gray matter and may well keep your brain even sharper than it would be surfing the Internet. Furthermore, the games fit my whole goal of keeping my brain focused on something other than life's current anxieties (the Internet doesn't likely do as well in this department). I've mentioned a number of times here that I find it effective in troubled times to engage in an activity that requires brain power so that my brain is focused on the activity, not on the troubled times. Rush Hour is a good one for me, so is my site on data for California public schools.

But before working on graphic displays of school data, I just need to check on one small thing online... I'll be back to data after about two hours of brain sharpening. ;)

Technorati Tags: depression, brain exercises

My son Frederick has a line of "Pollan Paintings" at the Ethicurean and a food safety related painting posted here in honor of the Nebraska Beef E. coli scandal. People have requested more and I would love to provide some.

The problem is that Frederick is six and focused. If he's into something, he's really into it. If it's painting, he'll bust out several in a day, some relevant to food, some not. If it's math, the first question out of his mouth in the morning may be "Mama, tell me some plusses." He's been in a math phase for about two months now. It looked like he was headed out of it because he got focused on board games the other day. But then in the middle of a board game, I illustrated some math issue from the game on his white board. As I said to him, "Let me show you how to do the calculation...," he whipped his head around and became obsessed with the calculation.

I am as ready for the newest craft phase as anybody. As his math teacher, I'm actually getting a bit worn out by math obsessions. It's great, but it's been two months. "How did this child become so obsessive?" I ask. Others in this household laugh at the question because apparently he got it honestly enough. I can't imagine what they mean by that.

Technorati Tags: Pollan paintings, Ethicurean

Not a lot happens here on the the southern edge of the Sequoias National Monument. The local beef cattle population far exceeds the human and the local dairy heifer population is by far more notorious than any human inhabitant. The knotty-pine paneled bar down the road finds itself home to darts, pool, and a good, old-fashioned ass whoopin' on occasion. If the United States still has a frontier, this might be it. If you are looking for a place to grow your own or a culture of rugged individualism, this may be the place for you.

If there is any order or structure at all here on the edge of civilization, it exists at about 11:20 AM every weekday when an assortment of characters gather at the post office waiting for the day's mail. The post office is where we call if we need to know when the electricity will be back on, when the road will be plowed, or who fathered whose child. I guess it should be no surprise that the post office was also the center of the Obama inauguration here this week.

Mail carrier Angela, who drives through a dozen other Podunk towns and services a whole lot of rural mailbox routes, made Obama cupcakes on Tuesday for the big day. Here in the Sequoia National Monument we don't need to compete with Obama gingerbread cookies or the Haphazard Gourmet Girls' "Sarah 'You Can't Blink' Palin Cupcakes." We just like to eat.

Behold the Obama "You can only help us if you can find us" Cupcake wrapped in institutional cupcake paper. The Obama flag uses left-over file folder labels and a toothpick flag pole stolen from a local cowboy restaurant. Asked her budget for the project, someone overheard Angela say, "About what's left in Sacramento."

From the heart of a state whose coffers will have less than mine in about a week (and that's saying something), we're already adapting here in the Sequoia National Monument.

Technorati Tags: dairy, Haphazard Gourmet Girls, Obama, Obamafoodorama, politics, Sarah Palin

My first clue about the importance of the last twenty-four hours was Thursday at a doctor's office in Fresno. I saw the headline:

"Outreach efforts have been used to help region prepare for Friday."

I was reading below the fold, below the main headline, with a picture of a clerk in Best Buy.

"Oh my goodness," was my first thought, "have I missed the news of a massive storm coming to the region? Has Best Buy run out of flashlights? Will I get home on time? Am I ready?"

Add this new life stress to the really important projected crash of all things Twitter.

A major regional storm AND the Twitpocalypse?

How would I survive?

A flood of anxiety rushed over me in that doctors office. I took a breath and turned the newspaper to reveal the headline:

"Are you ready? The move to digital TV."

There would be no tornado, no major earthquake, no tsunami. The world is going digital. How would we get by?

As I lay down to sleep last night I did wonder what this morning would bring: television and twitter-land chaos might leave me out of touch with the world.

I woke this morning and stumbled to the television set, blurry-eyed. I pressed the power button. Blue snow appeared on the screen. Could it be a sign of the Apocalypse? Could it be that we have no reception at all here in the Sequoia National Forest?

I wondered if I should Tweet just to try my luck. With a total of fourteen followers as of this morning, you have to wonder If a tweet falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, would it sound anything like the Twitpocalyse?

In the meantime, I opened Facebook and realized that in my Apocalyptic concerns I forgot about what was really important: the run on Facebook usernames.

Facebook.com/ Amanda.Rose could have been mine, but I missed it. By this morning in my post-Apocalyptic household, I could have been "Amanda.Rose2" or "Amanda.Rose3." I settled for my long-time email handle, amgrose, an anachronistic monument to 8-character email addresses given to me nearly two decades ago.

Technorati Tags: Digital TV, Facebook, Amanda Rose, Twitpocalypse, Twitter

I should venture on to YouTube more. You never know what you are going to find and if it makes you laugh, all the better.

Here is a Chris Rock interview on a natural cure for depression.

Nope, it's not weed. It's hard liquor. There is a classic moment at 2 minutes 5 seconds where Rock says, "But isn't alcohol a depressant?" (Indeed alcohol is a depressant.)

The expert says, 'What's in the measles vaccine, Chris? Measles! It works by introducing a mild form of it in your system."

Guys in white coats cart the expert off at the end of the video.

***

The contest winners for this past week are still pending. I am having trouble getting into my FaceBook profile to add names to the colander. Hopefully I'll announce them tomorrow and we have a new round this week. Check back to see if you won. The ever-active commenter on this blog, Diane, posted her winnings on her own blog.

The book is apparently just about ready.

After writing that last post, I sure do need to laugh. I figure we should work it in this blog one way or another. With the new month coming up, I thought I would change up the supplement giveaway and find more opportunities to laugh.

There may be nothing that helps our brain health quite as much as laughter. For the next couple of weeks you can enter to win by making us laugh out loud or by simply amusing us. Leave a comment on this post with a funny story, a link to your own funny story, or a link to something really funny on the Internet. Alternatively, tell us about something you did that made you laugh.

It really should be family-friendly, though I would sure hate to exclude innuendo. :) If you have a blog and have a funny story there, feel free to link to that. Write a funny story if you have not already done so.

You can leave multiple funnies in multiple comments. I will select a winner at random from the comments on this post late next week (around August 7).

In the coming week we will have two winners, both of whom will receive the fizzy magnesium and a copy of the book.

I'll start by leaving some silly pictures we took this week. I use a Mac and have software called "Photo Booth" which can provide hours of entertainment, as you can see. I actually have a few here that can make children cry. Alastair really did cry after seeing one of them. I'll post the family friendly pictures. :)

Giveaway results
I'm headed to the Sacramento/Davis area tomorrow and so I am going to announce two winners now, the weekly allotment. Both will get the jumbo pack of Omega 3 fatty acids, magnesium, and B vitamins. They simply must contact me within the next ten days with a U.S. mailing address to claim them.

It's just as well I'm re-working the contest rules because Twitter has truly gotten out of control. I wondered if an Internet marketer or diet pill salesman would win the contest after following me on Twitter. But, in fact, no. We do have a winner from Twitter but she is a dyed-in-the-wool real food Tweeter who everyone should follow just to stay up on the news. Our second winner comes from posting a comment on this blog. The lucky winners:

SeasLife on Twitter (who had massive amounts of tickets in the colander)
Carrie who commented with the now-hilarious: "If you're too down and exhausted to read all through this properly, will you still be eligible for the drawing? I'd like to be in the drawing please." Supplementation on the way Carrie!

Congratulations ladies!

Technorati Tags: giveaway, laughter, magnesium, photo, Rebuild from Depression