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.

"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.

In the book Rebuild from Depression, I highlight about seventy-five foods that I call "depression busters." These are foods high in our depression fighting nutrients and fats: B-12, B-6, folate, iron, magnesium, zinc, and Omega-3 fatty acids.

Seventy-five foods sounds like an awful lot of food, but I can assure you that some are so obscure and exotic that you have never eaten them. There are a number of foods (or perhaps a whole lot) that you would probably choose not to eat even under duress.

As a person recovering from depression, I look for opportunities to laugh everyday. Sometimes I make opportunities. This is one of those times.

Your task is to submit entries to the contest "Depression Buster: Pest or Dinner?"

Here are the rules:

• The entry must be a food of some kind, or at least theoretically digestible.
• The food must also be considered a pest, at least by you.
• You must give some reason why you think it is a depression buster and a pest (if it's not obvious).
• You must submit a picture or video clip of the food or would-be food (not pirated, please).

I have already received one entry for this contest for a hamster. I will post that entry soon so you can check out your competition. We have a number of potential foods living in our walls and under our deck that might also be depression buster foods.

A skunk scratched on our sliding glass door a few weeks ago and I ran for the camera. As I returned I thought "Are you crazy? You're going to use a camera flash at night on a skunk at your front door?"

So this contest may carry some risk. Please use your judgment.

If you have a blog, you are welcome to post your entry there and I will link to it from here.

There will be at least three winners chosen based on your comments for the most amusing entry. All winners will receive a copy of the book Rebuild from Depression and, of course, internet glory.

Deadline: Midnight March 31, PST.
Enter via email on our contact page or via a track back to this blog entry.

Enter early and often.

*****

To assist in your planning, future contests will include:

Rock Group or Depression Buster?
Rock won't be an absolute requirement, but you get the idea. There are at least three rock bands or personalities that are also depression buster foods. At least one is vegetarian.

Depression Buster or Roadkill?
Would that roadkill also qualify as a depression buster food? Anything that has run across the road or fallen off a truck would count. Start working on pictures.

For the first official contest on the Rebuild website "Pest or Dinner?," we are looking for nutrient-dense foods that are also known to be pests. The unpublished list of depression buster foods contains a number of meats that many of us would consider "exotic" at best. There are definitely some animals on the list that are nutrient dense and considered "pesky" in their live state. It's your task to nominate pests that may also be depression buster foods. See the contest rules for details.

Keep in mind, we are searching for foods high in depression-fighting nutrients and fats: Omega-3 fatty acids, B-vitamins, iron, magnesium, and zinc.

Carey nominates her hamster as a depression buster food. She writes:

I am not sure of how nutrient dense hamsters are but I do know that he is only grain fed, not grass fed. He might have some omega 3s if I added some flax seed to his food or added some cod liver oil to his water every day.

And he fits the pest category:

I know they say that pets help reduce stress, but not Hammy. We think of him more as a pest because he tends to run on his wheel all night long. Our lack of sleep may lead to more depression. However Hammy is a smart little guy and running in the wheel is just not challenging enough for him. He finds it more fun to run on top of the wheel ( like in the video attached) We find this very funny, especially since he gets going so fast he sometimes flies off the wheel onto the side of the cage. Hope you enjoy!

I did a quick internet search for the nutrient profile of a hamster and of its relatives the rat and mouse. While there are a lot of rodent studies looking at changes in rodents under different diets, it is unclear whether Hammy is a depression buster food. Certainly feeding him flax or cod liver oil would help improve his Omega-3 profile.

I asked my mom, "Mom, hamster could be a depression buster food. How would you prepare it if you had to feed the family hamster?"

She had some thoughts:

Well, it depends on whether said hamster had been your pet or not.

If a pet, you certainly wouldn't want to roast the little darling whole like a game bird.
The kids would have a fit and no one would eat.

On the other hand, how would you cook this itty bitty critter? You wouldn't want to cut it in pieces like cutting up a chicken.

OK, let's go for roast the whole hamster with poultry herbs and whole garlic cloves in the cavity, oil, salt and pepper all over the outside. This usually insures good flavor and moist meat (untried on this particular species, but be adventuresome).

Bake at 350 degrees for who knows how long?

Watch Mr Hamster closely, because he could turn into jerky quickly given his size.

Now before the kids can see it, strip the meat off the bones. Or, slice the jerky into thin strips.

Use the meat in a nice thick soup that will disguise whatever color this meat might be.

If you end up with jerky, just stick it in the kids' lunches and don't say a word.

Personally, I hope hamsters are not on the list. What will you tell the kids when they ask where Fluffy is?

Here in this house, we've challenged ourselves to eat anything that turns out to be a depression buster food. Considering the "us" includes my mom, there are other reasons she is hoping that the hamster is not a depression buster food.

Carey gets a free book for being the first out of the gate with this entry, but to determine the top three entries, I need some feedback.

How would eating a hamster help or hurt your depression?

Do you happen to have the nutrient profile of a hamster handy?

For the first official contest on the Rebuild website "Pest or Dinner?," we are looking for nutrient-dense foods that are also known to be pests. The unpublished list of depression buster foods contains a number of meats that many of us would consider "exotic" at best. There are definitely some animals on the list that are nutrient dense and considered "pesky" in their live state. It's your task to nominate pests that may also be depression buster foods. See the contest rules for details.

Missy nominates the triops, a tadpole shrimp which has survived since the days of the dinosaur. Missy writes:

My kids have a Triops, which is a crustacean that was also around during the dinosaur days. I'm thinking that since crustaceans are a good source of Omega-3s that this would probably be a good depression buster food. We probably would need to get a few more to
make a meal out of them though.

So Missy thinks they are a nutrient dense food. A nutrient profile for a triops is not available at this time, but I am sure that it is on the top of the list at the USDA for updates to their database. In the meantime, here is a possible profile based on the profile of another crustacean.

But do they meet the pest requirement? Missy reports that they do:

Three little Triops hatched a few days after we put the eggs in the water. They swam around looking cute for a day or so, but suddenly there were two. After a while we noticed that of the the two remaining, one grew faster and bigger than the other. Then we
woke up one morning to discover that the big one had EATEN the smaller one!

Hmmmm.... Maybe I'll eat just eat it and get the whole thing over with! I could use some extra omega 3's!

Thoughts or comments anyone? Pest or Dinner?

How would you prepare this possibly nutrient-dense food?

Margaret has nominated the squirrel as both a pest and a depression buster. She writes:

As you can see below, Sadie (right) and Karina (left) have found a great depression buster food. Is it the their thoughts of being able to capture and consume a squirrel that breaks the winter depression in this household or would actually eating the lil varmint deliver the nutrients necessary to fight those winter blahs?

Squirrels can be a lot of fun to watch but also serious pests when they decide to nest in someones attic or pilfer through a beloved garden. As wild game go I know that some people do eat these creatively pesty lil creatures. Considering the fact that their own diet consists of nuts, fruits, seeds and grasses plus some will even raid the nestlings of birds and eat their eggs and babies. All those goodies!! I think they surely must be quite qualified as a depression buster food suitable for human consumption. Although,.......for myself,.......I don't think I'll be setting up any traps or looking up recipes.

Margaret's right. Squirrels are a good source of depression-fighting nutrients. They are an excellent source of B-12 and iron in particular. They are abundant in nature and could also be a good post-Apocalyptic food. (I am quite sure that our tree squirrels will survive the Apocalypse along with the carpenter ants.)

So have you ever eaten this depression buster food? What did you think?
Or is this just a pest at your house?

If you've landed in our contest from cyberspace and wonder why we are fighting depression with a squirrel dinner, read more about our contest.

With all of this madness on the website about eating family pets, a couple of people have sent me alternatives.

Dona writes:

The picture that is attached to this email is one of my favorite "depression busters" It is a picture of our own driveway, shortly after a quick Oklahoma thunderstorm. It reminds me not only of spring, but also of His MANY promises. I frequently post this as my desktop on my computer.

And Deb recommends the following movies for when your stuck inside and can't be a rugged woman (or man :) in the outdoors:

• The Secret
• Kinky Boots
• Chocolat

What do you recommend?

Missy, who offered up the triops as a depression buster (which has garned some interesting comments), has also suggested the pillbug for our contest Pest or Dinner?. She points out that they are also crustaceans which tend to be rich in the depression-fighting Omega-3 fatty acid.

Taking advantage of our new "Ask Mom" feature, I asked my mom for a pill bug recipe. She has obliged:

****

Hmmm, they are very small, but that doesn't mean they have no food value.

PS: This has made me wonder about those cultures that serve chocolate-covered beetles and the like. How do they get those bugs to stand still while they get covered in chocolate? The answer to this question would greatly simplify the pill bug recipe, which I think has potential.

*****

That's a good question, Mom. How exactly do the manage the insects, especially if the recipe calls for them "whole"?

They certainly are pests, but there doesn't seem to be a nutrient profile of the pillbug on the internet. Does anyone happen to have one?

And while looking for pillbug information, I found a site with great insect pictures. Check out What's That Bug?

In my search for a pillbug recipe for our contest "Pest or Dinner?" I contacted David George Gordon, author of Eat-A-Bug. Not only does he have an entry to the contest I will be posting soon, he has recommended that if we are going to eat insects to fight depression, that we look for the organic variety.

He states:

A word of caution about collecting and eating pest bugs from one's kitchen. There is always the risk of unintentionally eating minute doses of poison in the process, as man of us use some form of over-the-counter pesticide in our homes. Over time, those small doses can add up- a process known as bioaccumulation- and pose a serious health risk

And I'll add that it's not just our kitchens we should be concerned about. Be sure to harvest your pillbugs from an organic garden. Collect the carpenter ants from an organic tree or from an attic that has not been sprayed.

Our bodies use nutrients to remove toxins from our organs and tissues, so it would defeat the purpose to use pillbugs as salad toppers if those pillbugs came from a lawn or garden that is sprayed heavily with pesticides and herbicides.

I'm always on the look-out for an inexpensive nutrient-dense food to fight depression. In our Pest or Dinner? Contest we are looking for nutrient-dense foods that might also be considered pests. We've have nominations for the hamster, triops, squirrel, and pillbug. Of all four choices, the triops is the least frugal choice.

High Cost of Triops

I had no idea what it would cost to eat a triops dinner, so I asked Stuart Halliday at MyTriops. He reports that you can purchase 20 eggs for about $8. He warns:

But they need to be kept apart as they eat anything that doesn't move out of their way. (Their mouth is only 1mm wide, so it's not dangerous!)

This explains Missy's observation that they even eat one another.

That $8 worth of triops might feed my husband and I one dinner. It seems easier to buy some shrimp at Trader Joe's.

But in case you are interested in a triops dinner, my mom has provided a recipe:

Triops Du Jour

Up to this point, every crustacean I've met has been a good candidate for garlic/wine sauce. You could even pour this sauce over those Styrofoam packing noodles and most people would find it a fairly tasty dish. Tasty, not sure about nutritious!

So here are your directions.

1. Choose 3 or 4 triops that are not your family members. No pets! If they are pets, your kids could be getting therapy when they are in their late 20's to recover from this event.

2. Wash them well (the triops, that is) and cut them into long slivers.

3. Make your sauce of minced garlic and butter sautéed together. When the garlic is soft, add several splashes of white wine. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

4. Then add the triops. Toss to coat with the sauce.

5. Cook for how long? Who knows! You're going to have to experiment on this one. But, as a rule crustaceans cook in just a few minutes.

I love garlic/wine sauce, but somehow I think I would prefer the pill bugs to this dish.

Would You?

Triops expert, Stuart Halliday, however, tends to use the triops in the aquarium. I asked him:

Have you ever eaten a triops? How would you cook it?

His response:

Hello Amanda, I was seriously thinking you were winding me up. Of course I've never eaten a Triop. Why on earth would I? :-)))

So if you are looking for a frugal dinner, the best choice on the list so far is probably the squirrel, at least here at our house. The adventuresome can go for the triops. Be sure to report back. :)

In our search for depression buster foods for the Pest or Dinner? contest, bug-eating expert David George Gordon (author of The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook), provides us with a recipe for the pillbug for our pillbug entry.

I'm honored that you sought me out for advice on pillbug recipes. However, the definitive word on this topic can be traced back to Britain in 1885, where a gent named Vincent M. Holt published the now-classic "Why Not Eat Insects?"-- a small but persuasive book about the benefits of bug-eating. In it, Holt offered a wholesome recipe for a wood-louse (another name for the pillbug) white sauce:

Collect a quantity of the finest wood-lice to be found... and drop them in boiling water, which will kill them instantly but not turn them red, as might be expected. At the same time, put into a saucepan a quarter pound of fresh butter, a teaspoonful of flour, a small glass of water, a little milk, some pepper and salt, and place it on the stove. As soon as the sauce is thick, take it off and put in the wood-lice. This is an excellent sauce for fish. Try it.

This recipe also answers a question we had on the original pillbug entry: when and how do you kill them? Just "boil them alive" appears to be the answer.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone!

We have a special entry in the depression buster contest "Pest or Dinner?" We are looking for foods high in depression-fighting nutrients that also may be considered pests. Entries must be edible or at least digestible. They also must be pests or pesky in some way.

Husbands do not count. Someone has already attempted to enter her husband. And while nearly nothing is sacred on this blog with a dead steer hanging from a truck in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and some poor souls finding this blog via a search for "halibut in white sauce" and probably not finding what they expect, I draw the line at cannibalism. No husbands, wives, or mother-in-laws.

St Patty's Day Entry

My very own mother submits the caterpillar in honor of Saint Patrick's Day. Her primary rationale is that some caterpillars are green. She writes:

Dear Mandy,

I nominate the caterpillar for the contest "Pest or Dinner." I have held back my nomination because I thought it would be a perfect dinner for St. Patrick's Day. So while you were taking Frederick to preschool, I collected caterpillars from the garden, flash boiled them, and then fried them in a tempura batter. I ate them with scalloped potatoes and green beans as you can see in the picture below.

Most insects have a high nutrient content. My guess is that caterpillar is full of depression-fighting nutrients. And some of them are actually green and make a good St Patty's Day meal. Cook them with scalloped potatoes to feel a little more Irish.

So do I win a book?

Mom

Dear Mom,

You have read the book about four times. Surely you would rather read just about anything else. But since you are my mother, I will see to it that you receive a courtesy copy.

Nice picture, by the way. Are those french fries to the right? I didn't think so.

Mandy

Pests and Dinner

Any gardener knows that caterpillars are pests when they take over the garden. Anyone who has spent time in China knows that they are also dinner. Fried caterpillar is a common appetizer in China.

To be honest, they would likely qualify as a depression-buster food. A full nutrient profile of the caterpillar is not available as far as I know, but an Ohio State website lists the iron content of caterpillar (100 grams) as nearly two times the recommended daily allowance of iron for younger (premenopausal) women. Caterpillars are an iron superfood. I must report this to the readers of the Rebuild Your Iron e-book.

Thanks, Mom, for the entry on this holiday. Green caterpillars and a whole lot of green beer may become the next new fad in Saint Patrick's Day celebrations.

As an entry in our Pest or Dinner Contest, Kathryn submits the supposedly nutrient-dense cockroach. Oh, make that a palmetto bug.

Kathryn writes:

For your dining pleasure I submit the "palmetto bug" also known as super-large, not afraid of the light and able to fly cockroaches. I believe the term "palmetto bug" was developed by a marketing team in the southern US, where palmetto bugs can commonly be found.

As a depression buster food, you could get a lot from these beasts as they can grow up to three inches in size. To prepare, refrigerate your live bugs to slow them down. I think washing them off before cooking would be a nice touch. Perhaps removing legs and antennae would also be beneficial. I would suggest dry roasting them in your oven at 200 degrees F for 1-2 hours. Season how you please.

You could then crush them and use them in any recipe that calls for nuts. (Perhaps your son would prefer them in his sandwiches?) They are quite crunchy, due to their armored shells, and might make a great snack mix as well.

I will eat almost anything that is covered in a good chocolate -- perhaps that's another avenue for introducing this valuable depression busting food (I mean pest) into your diet.

No doubt about it, these guys are a great source of crude protein, vitamins and minerals, all good for helping to bust depression. Maybe not as good as liver.

Additionally, as you know, laughter is great for busting depression. And, laugh you will, when you see me (or anyone else) jump from the floor onto the coffee table to avoid said pest (but they, can fly and that's the really funny part.)

I do not currently have a photo to submit, but will attempt to obtain one while I am perched on my coffee table. If you have a hard time locating a source of palmetto bugs, you are welcome to visit my garage.

Best wishes,
Kathryn

And Kathryn added a relevant postscript:

I do want to assure you that the palmetto bugs in my garage are free-range and are eating their traditional diet, which adds to their nutritional value as a depression busting food. I'm sure they could be considered organic as we practice "catch and release" bug control around here, although we are not a certified organic palmetto bug farm!

OK, I can't stop laughing. I try to sneak nutrients into my son's lunches all the time. I haven't tried Kathryn's idea yet.

Our friend Dick came up this weekend to take a look at our infamous washing machine, implicated in the poison oak outbreak and in the rugged mountain woman story.

While he was removing the offending do-hickey from the washer, I said,

"Dick, you're a strange guy. You need to enter the contest on my website."

I explained to him that we are searching for nutrient dense foods, packed with depression fighting nutrients such as vitamin B-12, zinc, and iron. In the case of the contest, however, the food also must be considered a pest.

Dick is an Okie from Delano, just north of Bakersfield, California. It seems impossible to outsiders that an Okie could be from the Bakersfield area and not from Oklahoma, but it actually makes perfect sense. During the Dustbowl, many people migrated from southern states to California looking for work.

Migrants from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and just about everywhere else hit by the drought, found themselves in labor camps and working in California agriculture. They were all considered "Okies" and Bakersfield became Okie headquarters. Any country music fan knows as much from the work of locals Buck Owens and Merle Haggard of what is known in country music as "Bakersfield Sound." Half of my gene pool is this kind of Okie.

And back to the story.

Dick, as a good ole Okie boy, would surely nominate a squirrel, possum, or raccoon. He might even sabotage Postmaster Dean's possible skunk entry.

Not Dick.

"I've got one for you. Fried Grasshopper. Them things taste like chips."

"Potato chips?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Back in 1958 my cousin found a can of fried grasshoppers and offered me two bits for every one I ate. I ate about ten. That was a lot of money."

(Dick actually said "25 cents" but I thought I'd take editorial license and write "two bits" since his Okie seems to be wearing off.)

"Did he pay up?"

"You bet he did. My parents were there. He had no choice."

"Did it help your depression?"

"Come on, Mandy, it's ice cream that helps your depression. I keep trying to tell you." My dad interrupted. They laughed and kept working.

So with a grasshopper nutrient profile illusive, I'll throw on the blog Dick's nomination for "Pest or Dinner." Let's make this one dedicated to good old Buck Owens who passed away one year ago this month.

David George Gordon, author of the Eat-A-Bug Cookbook, nominates the larval honey bee as a depression buster food in our contest "Pest or Dinner?".

...baby bees, which can be extracted from the honeycomb, are excellent sources of vitamins A and D. One nutritional study has confirmed that a larval honeybee contains fifteen times the recommended daily allowance of these vitamins.

Vitamins A and D are very important in optimal wellness. Low vitamin D is often associated with seasonal affective disorder (wintertime depression) because it is through sunlight that our bodies get much of their vitamin D. But the clinical trial evidence of vitamin D and depression is mixed and there really are not studies to speak of on vitamin A and depression. But even so, any nutrient you are deficient in can aggravate your depression.

So if you need some extra vitamin D coming out of this long winter or some extra vitamin A, you might consider the larval honey bee.

I've been searching for an image I can post here without success, but if you take a peek at this site, you'll see larval honeybees that look a little bit like insects sleeping in their own little sleeping bags. It reminds me a bit of church camp back in the 1970s.

I expect these larval bees are best deep fried, though you can order them in a powder form from China Bees. Put the fried bees on the list for preschool lunch as well and simply call them "chips." Tell me how it goes. :)

[Note: I light of some reflective blog posts on grief, penance, and more penance, I need you to submit more entries to our Pest or Dinner? contest. Besides, you are running out of time. The deadline is Saturday.]

Last weekend Sander and I attended the St. Patrick's Day Dinner hosted by the Hot Springs Capineros. You never know who you're going to meet at these cozy community dinners. Last week we met Char.

Char overheard me talking to Postmaster Dean. I was discussing his possible entry of a "skunk" in the "Pest or Dinner?" contest.

"Is she serious?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Dean replied.

We squeezed in between them and ate sauerkraut as we discussed hunting, jury duty, and fibromyalgia. The hunting was a much more likely topic of discussion than was fibromyalgia, up here on the edge of the Sequoia National Forest. Char was quite conversant and it turns out she's a moderator on this fibromyalgia website.

Pest

But the conversation meandered and we found ourselves back on the topic of hunting.

"I have a bear on the property that is driving me crazy!"

"Char! That's it! That's your pest entry!" and I began to take dictations.

"The bear is definitely a pest. It drags the garbage around and poops in the yard."

Char described the bear as reddish, 350 pounds, and six years old. Apparently, someone is a bear expert because I wouldn't be able to begin determining the age of a bear. Perhaps it has been pesky since its younger days.

"There are two black bears up there that raise hell too."

Dinner

We had already determined that her husband was a hunter, so I asked the obvious question: "Are you going to barbecue it?"

"I hadn't thought of that."

We began to map a strategy. I recommended they call Dave, a local hunter so rugged that he's in a category to himself.

I emphasized that they should call me when the hunt is on. I hear that bear tastes a lot like beef, just a bit sweeter. It is also officially on the list of depression buster foods because of its vitamin and mineral content.

As a result of the depression buster food list, it has become a little fantasy of mine that I go bear hunting in the forest one of these winters. I keep it to myself for the most part these days because last time I mentioned it, my husband Sander said "absolutely not!"

My plan is to get into a bit better shape so that I can convince Sander that I can outrun rugged man Dave. That might just do it.

Here in California Hot Springs (population of about three), on the edge of Sequoia National Forest, you get to know your postmaster. We happen to be lucky with ours - he's a character and involved in a lot of local mischief. It is natural that he make a nomination to the Pest or Dinner? contest.

I thought he would nominate a skunk, but perhaps he didn't because that would lead me to tell an amusing skunk story about Dean. And because of an incident with a squirrel I documented back in the summer of 2005, I thought he would be good for a squirrel nomination, but Margaret beat him to it.

Dean nominates Bambi as the pest and "The Bambi Burger" as dinner. He reports that the Bambi Burger is much like a regular hamburger, but perhaps a little more dry. And actually, venison (the meat from the deer) is full of depression-fighting vitamins and minerals. It is a depression buster food.

Dean says to me "you know where to find some venison," with a twinkle in his eye.

The alleged location of the venison is the sand pile outside my bedroom window. The sand pile is a monument to a job I've been working on for two years and haven't completed. Dean claims there are two dead deer buried beneath the sand.

The first deer would have come from the main road, hit by a passing car. The second had a heart attack when jumping a fence.

Both the car and the fence belong to me.

In both cases, Dean helped Deputy Scott move the dead deer to locations unknown and, to this day, Dean claims the location is that sand pile outside of my bedroom window. The deer in the picture above is walking right toward the sand pile, by the way.

But I certainly don't believe him. I expect Dean and Scott put the deer where they bury the other dead bodies around here.

If you found this blog via the Pest or Dinner? contest posts, welcome. It's been good for me to have something to laugh about during what's been a bad couple of months around here.

Winning Entries

You all are sick and twisted. Choosing a winner is like choosing whether to eat a palmetto bug or pillbug for dinner. Well actually, I got a big kick out of all of these and next time I think we'll need to do a poll so that I don't have to choose.

Hammy. Carey nominated Hammy way back in January, worthy of a prize in itself. The video trick was a very nice touch and the discussion of Hammy's level of Omega-3 fatty acids made me laugh out loud. Yesterday Carey also managed to find a nutrient profile of a hamster. It never occurred to me that zoos would need this information. Thanks Carey! (Though I hate to calculate whether Hammy actually is a depression buster.) And for those who have emailed me about poor Hammy's fate, you can see from the comments on the Hammy post that Hammy is still among us.

Margaret's Cats. The cats are not the pests, the squirrel is. But those cats make the picture. You know that they are dreaming of dinner in any case.

The Cockroach. Kathryn entered the "palmetto bug" and her emails had me laughing until I cried. The idea of sneaking cockroaches into a child's lunch was beyond even my imagination.

Missy. Missy entered both the pillbug and the triops, both of which spun off their own little series of posts. Who knew they would be so content-rich.

Ladies, send me your mailing address and I'll put you on the free book list. It's still a few months out.

Strange Searches

March brought about 1,500 people more to this site than usual, partly due to a series of "strange" internet searches. If you came via one of these searches, you are likely long gone. But if you've stuck around, it's good to have you here.

What kind of a blog would get such strange traffic? (Who's in charge here anyway?)

Seven people got some advice on making a white sauce with pillbugs when they searched in Google for the phrases:

halibut and white sauce recipe
halibut with white sauce recipe

I don't think they found what they were looking for.

Quite a few people found their way here looking for information on pillbugs. Not one appeared to be trying to eat a pillbug themselves. Some wanted natural pest control treatments and one person was looking for information on pillbug compost. Another sought information on feeding pillbugs to a tarantula. All landed on the pillbug nomination page. Perhaps they will use the white sauce recipe.

Three people landed on the fried grasshopper nomination actually looking for information on fried grasshoppers. One landed on the fried grasshopper page looking for information on "bakersfield okie." (If that was you dad, I can just give you a business card to find the site.)

Someone landed on this site, likely very confused, looking for information on:

stuart halliday 1970s rock band

Perhaps they will enter the contest Rock Group or Depression Buster?

And I'm always glad to be of assistance in providing unusual information. The person seeking

palmetto roaches as dinner

found what he or she was looking for, thanks to Kathryn who entered the palmetto bug.

And the person searching for ground squirrel recipes at least found out the nutrient profile of squirrel.

More on Pests

Send in a pest any time. I'll throw it on the blog. Whether you laugh, are disgusted, or use one of the recipes, it's all good. Send recipes if you have them.

Future Contests

We'll have at least two more contests on this blog before the summer is over, again looking for foods with depression-fighting nutrients.

-->Rock Group or Depression Buster. In this contest, it's not so important that your nomination be a rock band, just some type of music. I have received the first entry for this contest for the performer "Captain Beefheart." No pictures are necessary but you need to provide some comment to me on why the entry may be a depression buster. The Captain Beefheart entry talks about the nutrient density of the organ meat. But frankly, if the entry is funny, you can talk about anything at all. I am not particular.
This contest will probably begin in a month or so.

-->Roadkill or Depression Buster: Just when you thought the contests on this site couldn't get more demented, it will. I am not sure where this contest idea came from, but I already have one entry, so we'll go for it. I believe that the first entry pictures a squirrel and Cynthia who has made the entry even provided a "caption" for the picture. This contest will require a picture. It will likely take place in the summer, so you have plenty of time to plan.

Pest Expert David George Gordon who nominated the larval honey bee in our own Pest or Dinner Contest will be one of the highlights this weekend of the annual Bug Fair at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

You too can learn to cook caterpillars, pillbugs, grasshoppers, larval bees, and other pests that may or may not make an appearance on this blog.

Why spray them with pesticide when you can eat them for dinner?

I've got two other events competing for my drive time this weekend, but I am tempted to get buggy nonetheless. With a free pass to just about every science museum in the country and a couple of hours in the car, Frederick and I would have a blast. We'll see which event wins out.

And while we're on the topic, I'll be starting the second contest "Rock Group or Depression Buster?" some time in May. Read the concept at the end of this post. And sorry, but others have already beaten you to "Captain Beefheart" and "Meatloaf" which I will post when the contest opens. Send in your entry at anytime.

"I ate tarantula legs."

"And crickets," Frederick added.

We shocked the preschool staff with our account of the Bug Festival.

The Bug Festival had many hands-on exhibits - silk worms, giant millipedes, and butterflies. But Frederick kept saying, "I want to see the man who eats bugs."

So did I.

In the book Rebuild from Depression, I highlight about seventy-five foods that I call "depression busters." These are foods high in our depression fighting nutrients and fats: B-12, B-6, folate, iron, magnesium, zinc, and Omega-3 fatty acids.

While that may seem like a lot of different foods to make a "best of" list, you may already know from the "Pest or Dinner?" Contest that not all foods on the list are considered "food" by all people. Some people, somewhere, eat the foods on the list, but most of middle America has never tasted a majority of the foods.

Donna nominates the 1970s/80s performer Meat Loaf as the first official entry in our Rock Group and Depression Buster? Contest.

Taking me back to high school, Michael Lee Aday aka "Meatloaf," was probably best known in this country for the song "Bat out of Hell" and his role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I attempted to join the online fan club yesterday, but due to technical difficulties, I am still just a member of the general public.

Meatloaf also happens to be a depression buster food.

"Black Eyed Peas," she said.

"First of all, the band is pretty popular right now. Second, didn't Grandma Emery used to cook those all the time? And you know, all of her kids, nephews, and nieces smoked, drank, and fought like wild animals. The black eyed peas might have been part of how they did it."

My sister Kimberly is my go-to expert on all things related to hair styles and rock-and-roll. She would laugh because she really isn't a rock-and-roll expert, but she was always my opinion leader back in the 1970s and she continues to be today. I know nothing about music, except that Ella Fitzgerald is the best that ever was and ever will be (and it is amazing that I discovered that fact without Kimberly).

I called her the other day about the Rock Group and Depression Buster Contest.

You would think that when Ruth nominated "The Beastie Boys" as both a rock group and a potential depression fighting food in the current contest, that she would have in mind a beast such as this:

Smokey the Bear is, in fact, a depression-fighting food and a beast to some of us.

But I laughed when I got Ruth's email because Ruth probably suffered from some problems with thrush (or other yeast-related ailments) as I did postpartum.

Samantha should be in marketing because she has made a great pitch for Hall and Oates in the Rock Group and Depression Buster? Contest.

She writes:

Not only are *Oates* low in phytic acid so they don't have to be soaked, they are chock full of protein and a few B vitamins! Start your morning off right with a bowl of Hall and Oates!

Jennifer nominates The Beatles in our Rock Group and Depression Buster? Contest. We are looking for foods high in depression-fighting nutrients that are also rock groups. Jennifer says:

What about Beetles, as in The Beatles, and beetles as in bugs? They have got to be loaded with vitamins, like all insects. I was thinking specifically of real beetles, like Japanese beetles.

I really dropped the ball on this contest over the summer. It has just been a ridiculously busy season around here. We had some great contest entries and we had a super funny one I still haven't posted and will post in the next day.

It's not that I need laughs because I am deep in a depressive hole. Thank goodness that is not the case.

Our business has a seasonality to it and when I am knee deep in the contract research, my life becomes very focused and serious. In the last six weeks I am getting so much done that I can hardly believe it myself but, honestly, I cannot remember when I last laughed and I certainly have not had a big belly laugh in the past six weeks. Working ten to twelve hours every single day of the week doesn't leave a lot of time to find amusement.

Angela nominates the rock group "Bowling for Soup" as a rock group and depression buster. She says:

This is sorta a two in one punch: bowling gets the physical activity going and soup is always good for the body and soul (as long as it is all natural). So, you get your healthy eats and a good amount of exercise along with it. :)

I asked Angela about her favorite soup. She says:

I prefer Beef Stew or Chicken N Dumplings...I've gotta experiment with fermented sourdough for my dumplings to make it a little more healthy.

Way back in August when I was drowning in contract work, I received a link from YouTube's Healthy Herbalist, Allan, to his chili pepper video and thought “Maybe this is a contest entry.” Watch Allan eat peppers.

Frankly, eating peppers like that seems a bit crazy but the men in my family seem to “get it.” My Uncle Fred and cousin Andy, for instance, have been known to grow their own peppers in a window box to ensure a source of good, hot peppers. Andy is way over the top with his pepper-eating. He’s one of those guys who eats them whole like they are any other sort of snack. When we have had a really hot, inedible batch, someone always says “Mail those to Andy.”

The topic came up again as I was working on the book. When I made the list of depression buster foods, I did a little reality check on each of the foods. Spirulina, for instance, made the list. But the measure was 100 grams – a mountain of green powder. The amount of spirulina that would have made the list was really unreasonable for anyone to eat, even though it has some really good health properties.

Red chili peppers are actually on the list as well. I considered cutting the peppers from the list. Who would eat seven peppers after all? “Andy would,” I said to myself.

Here in the Sequoia National Forest all you need is a good shot and some desire to clean an animal to end up with a healthy dinner. Foods are depression buster foods if they are high in combination of our depression-fighting nutrients. We have also spotted deer, raccoons, rabbits, and squirrels in the yard.

This is the sole blog entry for this contest, a contest that was a very bad idea.

In a moment of bad judgment about one year ago, I pitched the contest to some of my twisted friends. It was only when receiving Cynthia’s nominations that I realized what a bad idea this contest was in the first place. Here I am just hours away from turning 39 years old for the first time and it seems somehow appropriate to get this over with. (And besides, who really reads blogs on Saturday night of President's Day weekend?)

Cynthia: You win a free book. You will disqualify yourself if you send me more pictures of dead animals.

“Hey Amanda. Dead Milkmen or how about “Cream”? ‘Liven’ that milk. Make it raw.”

Tom nominates Dead Milkmen or Cream as both rock groups and depression buster foods. Apparently he likes it unprocessed, just as it comes out of the cow.

Dead Milkmen is an interesting choice because raw milk advocate and Organic Pastures Dairy owner Mark McAfee often talks about the “Got Dead Milk?” people: the regular old dairy industry. Many raw milk drinkers talk about “dead milk” – pasteurized milk. Most probably don’t know about the punk band “Dead Milkmen.”

I met the "Dead Milk" people this week at the World Ag Expo and their talk about raw milk was about recent news here in California (you can see that I do extra curricular writing over at The Ethicurean which is one reason this poor blog suffers).

Milk is a great source of protein and calcium. Feed the cows grass and they will have higher levels of Omega 3 fatty acids. The same goes for the cream.

But as much as I like milk and cream, they did not make the depression buster cut. When you are doing an index based on the weight of food, milk is at a bit of a disadvantage because of its high water content, but neither cream nor cheese made the cut even with their lower water content. Milk is a high fat food but it is actually not a great source of Omega 3s even when the cows are pastured. Milk is basically a non-source of Omega 3s when cows are confined.

So don’t get me wrong, I am drinking as I write this (and what I am drinking may even be milk), but neither milk nor cream made the list. Sorry Tom.

Send in your contest entries.

Keeping my promise to write about a depression buster food every single day until the book is available, I wanted to point out that lamb is a depression buster food. Lamb comes from sheep and sheep have been a topic of amusement between my mom and I. :)

We were traveling to Bakersfield together for my six month dental check-up and I announced to her that I was giving up my E. coli obsession ways. I did my best to recount to her the “health building” list I posted.

1) Sleep a lot more. If I count sheep, I will try not to think about the bacteria colonies in their rumen.

2) Cut the coffee. A friend of mine recommends Tylenol for this task. I usually put myself through some sort of obsessive weaning program.

3) Move around a little bit. For numb shoulders and for general health, a wise person once told me that exercise can be healthy. Finger movement at the keyboard is not the best source of exercise.

4) Eat real food. Coffee is not a food group. Salads are a nutritious and easy option. I will keep my fingers crossed that the lettuce was not watered with dairy run-off. (See, there I go again.)

5) Consume foods with beneficial bacteria. When I became ill in a norovirus outbreak I wrote about consuming raw milk in my recovery. I do have some raw milk around and I think I’ll get some ferments lined up on the kitchen countertop.

In recounting the list, I did manage to remember the bit about counting sheep.

“Good for you. Admitting that you have a problem is the first step to recovery.”

Not minutes later she exclaimed, “There are the sheep! Get a picture so you can count them!”

for all of you fellow sheep-counters out there, if they help you sleep, they will help you fight depression. Cooked up as a lamb roast is a pretty good idea too.

Update: I've done well on my health recovery list, I am happy to report. However, the extra sleep and lack of coffee could be affecting the lack of a book.

In my daily penance-like obligation to post about depression buster foods in the run-up to actually having the book available, I would like to take a moment to reflect on one of my favorites: beef.

Apparently you shouldn’t buy it from Chino and you probably want to make sure any surface area is cooked real good, but those issues aside, there is nothing like a good serving of beef. ;)

It is a good source of B vitamins and minerals. If it has been grass finished it even has a bit of Omega 3 as well. It still doesn’t come anywhere near salmon in the Omega-3 department but, last I checked, there is no such thing as a salmon hamburger. (I’ve had salmon burgers mind you and they just aren’t the same.) Mom's Moroccan beef recipe is also a winner around here.

But the real reason for posting about beef in addition to meeting my daily obligation, is to post this picture. I have tried to get a picture of this bad boy for four years but have never had the camera at the right moment. Last year, he was right near the fence as I drove by with my camera. I stopped the car, found a great position for the photo, and the camera failed. For the last year I have talked about him as my “nemesis.” It should always be this easy to win against your adversaries. In this case it just took a working camera and some new grass.

And just as an aside, maybe it’s because I am not really into showy types, but seeing a bull like this makes me wonder how this particular herd manages to reproduce itself year after year. For me, those horns would be enough to inspire chastity.

I do try to bring you the most burning questions here on this blog, particularly as I do penance for a very late book and post about depression buster foods each and every day until the book is available to you.

Frederick made a snail out of Play-Doh the other day and it does beg the question: is snail a depression buster? Is a Play-Doh snail a depression buster?

I looked up Play-Doh in the USDA nutrient database and found no nutrient profile whatsoever. I looked up “clay” as well. My thinking was that Play-Doh may very well be clay and some people do eat clay (of course, when those people eat clay it is in response to a deficiency state and not seen as a particularly healthy sign). In any case, people eat clay and yet, “clay” did not make the nutrient database either. The status of the Play-Doh snail may remain a mystery.

However, should you decide to eat an actual snail (in fact a pile of them totaling about 3.5 ounces), those snails would be a pretty good source of iron at 3.5 mg and a very good source of magnesium at 250 mg. You cannot get that much of iron out of a steak or that much magnesium out of a chocolate bar, so snails may very well be our answer.

My mom and I are at the Expo West right now, a natural products trade show with upwards of 5,000 vendors and 70,000 people in attendance. Our feet are sore and we have bags under our eyes. The good news is that we can return to Expo this morning and probably find orthodics for our shoes or, minimally, get a foot massage. We have our choice in eye cream to help treat the bags or in mineral makeup to cover them up. Though we have not actually had a formal meal since sometime Thursday, we are easily meeting our intake requirement with the truckloads of fortified nut bars, oatmeal cookies, peanut butter, orange juice, animal crackers, and soybeans dressed up like chicken nuggets.

The real hunt, of course, is for interesting depression buster foods (not to mention that I am writing about them every day as penance). We have seen some fascinating food items here making various mood claims, but we have seen only a few products that got my attention as “different.” It strikes me that here at this alternative health trade show that the products are fairly typical for places like Whole Foods. I did find a great beef jerky that damage my gums and that tasted great too. You can also find salmon and tuna jerkified here, both on the list of depression buster foods. A California-based producer has developed a tasty pumpkin seed snack. Vendors from the mountain states have gotten our attention with some buffalo products. We may sell one of them right here very soon. If no one buys it, I suppose we will be forced to eat it ourselves.

We head back in this morning to do some follow-ups. I may grab some more eye cream samples if I see them.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone! This post is an oldie but goodie from the archives of last year's St. Patrick's Day. Conveniently, it helps me in my penance to post every day about a depression-fighting food until the book is available to you. Read on to see that you may very well be able to fight depression by eating caterpillars.

****From the archives****

We have a special entry in the depression buster contest "Pest or Dinner?" We are looking for foods high in depression-fighting nutrients that also may be considered pests. Entries must be edible or at least digestible. They also must be pests or pesky in some way.

Husbands do not count. Someone has already attempted to enter her husband. And while nearly nothing is sacred on this blog with a dead steer hanging from a truck in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and some poor souls finding this blog via a search for "halibut in white sauce" and probably not finding what they expect, I draw the line at cannibalism. No husbands, wives, or mother-in-laws.

St Patty's Day Entry

My very own mother submits the caterpillar in honor of Saint Patrick's Day. Her primary rationale is that some caterpillars are green. She writes:

Dear Mandy,

I nominate the caterpillar for the contest "Pest or Dinner." I have held back my nomination because I thought it would be a perfect dinner for St. Patrick's Day. So while you were taking Frederick to preschool, I collected caterpillars from the garden, flash boiled them, and then fried them in a tempura batter. I ate them with scalloped potatoes and green beans as you can see in the picture below.

Most insects have a high nutrient content. My guess is that caterpillar is full of depression-fighting nutrients. And some of them are actually green and make a good St Patty's Day meal. Cook them with scalloped potatoes to feel a little more Irish.

So do I win a book?

Mom

This wins the "Bumper Stick of the Day" award on our return trip home down California's Highway 99.

I don't know if "monkey" is a depression buster food. It did not make the USDA's database on the nutrient content of food. Without an independent lab test, we may never know the answer to this burning question. Apparently, however, people do eat money. I found a recipe that requires monkey meat online which informed me that people in the Philippines eat monkey. I will have to ask some of my friends if they have ever tried it. Have you ever tried it?

In the meantime, I must get one of those bumper stickers.

"Depression buster" foods are foods high in the nutrients that depression folks tend to be deficient in. The list of foods is pretty wild and crazy. There is a lot of wild game on the list. I used to run around here saying "That animal in the tree is a depression buster. Let's eat it for dinner." Here in the Sequoia National Forest, there is an abundance of options for dinner if you keep an open mind, even at night in your chicken coop. But I've realized that I've lost a bit of spunk being tired and pregnant.

A few nights ago I found myself still awake at midnight and heard a lot of cackling in the hen house. My husband was just turning in so we both grabbed flashlights and headed out. At night you don't think to take a camera, but I really should have because as I carried up the rear by about thirty feet, I could see a shadow of a large rodent against our fence. The chicken coop is a building with chicken wire screen on the upper portion of two walls. One screen wall faces the fence with the rodent silhouette. My husband was in the coop with a flashlight strapped to his head like a miner, shining right on the possum, and casting a large shadow on the fence. It reminded me of the scene in "Lady and the Tramp" where a large rat shadow is cast on a wall and Lady and Tramp scramble to save the new baby from a rat attack. In any case, the only picture is in my mind.

"It's a possum."

"Shoot it and throw it into the canyon."

"First, I don't have a gun and, second, isn't this a nutrient dense food that fights depression?"

He grabbed a stick and tried to usher the possum out of the coop. The problem is that possums freeze rather than move. Faced with bludgeoning it to death or heading back to bed, we let the chickens fend for themselves. Since that night, chickens have disappeared rather strangely, so there is obviously more than possums around here. I guess it is time to load the gun and have a camp out.

Technorati Tags: depression, depression busters, foods that fight depression, Rebuild from Depression

Beef liver is my "food of recovery," a food that replenishes me of nutrients when I have been through a rough patch. It is absolutely loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fats and, by chance, loaded with the nutrients that help keep our brains healthy.

Depression is complex with many causes, but some folks (like me) have had diet deficiencies that have aggregated their depression. We need good food to be healthy. Our brain needs good food for it to be healthy. It might catch up to us in our older years in the form of Alzheimer's or we might get some early warning signs (as I did) that things like low-fat diets are a real bad idea. We need healthy fats, particularly Omega 3 fatty acids, but some of the foods we shunned in the low-fat diet crazes of the 80s and 90s are foods that have other key nutrients: beef, for instance, is an exceptional source of iron. Most plant-based foods and low-fat foods in general are not. Low iron has been linked to postpartum depression.

It is worth a try if you want a boost. I wrote about my liver regimen in liver and vitamins and minerals and describe its Omega 3 content in Liver and Omega 3s, particularly liver from cattle on a grass-based diet (see figure below).

If you are stumped on how to cook it, check out Mom's recipe for flash-cooked liver. She descibes her process in our own kitchen via a YouTube video. I've got another interesting liver recipe video waiting in the wings.

Technorati Tags: B vitamins, beef, depression, fat, foods that fight depression, grass fed beef, liver, Omega 3, postpartum depression

In the book Rebuild from Depression, I identify the foods highest in some combination of the seven depression-fighting nutrients (deficiencies of which are most associated with depression in the medical literature.) I use data provided by the USDA. Read more about the philosophy of this site on depression-fighting foods.

Clam makes the list.

Clam is a fantastic source of vitamin B-12, iron, and zinc.

Clam is a timely topic here since we are on the road this week and clam dip with vegetables happens to be one of our favorite road foods. When we are headed west to the ocean, we also eat clam surrounded by about a half a million calories in Splash Cafe's clam chowder in Pismo, California.

I also love steamed clams like these guys describe in the video. I would tend to put the clams over a soaked grain like quinoa but, don't get me wrong, I'd gobble up that cheese bread in the video without hesitation.

Last week the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published "The Ten Riskiest Foods Regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration." All foods on the list are healthy foods, seven or eight of the ten are quite healthy if, of course, they don't kill you. Eggs are #2 on the list primarily because they can harbor Salmonella. Something on the order of 1 in 10,000 eggs have the bad bug in them and can make you sick if you eat them raw. Yet generally, they will help keep you healthy. They are a great source of protein. Eggs from hens eating weeds and bugs are high in Omega 3 fatty acids, making them a good depression fighting food. In fact, pastured eggs make the list of "depression buster" foods here at the Rebuild website. (Read more about the Rebuild philosophy that foods can fight depression.)

A whole lot of healthy foods appear to be trying to kill us these days and it seems prudent to approach the menu with a bit of education. In the case of eggs, you cannot always wash that Salmonella off. It can be contained inside the egg shell. The graphic picture I posted this spring here tells the story. The poor gecko apparently violated the privacy of that chicken in a major way and it received the sort of punishment only a hen can give. It was found later inside the egg shell of that hen.

Eggs can certainly be contaminated with Salmonella, regardless of how the hens are raised. Your chances of exposure are pretty slim at 1 in 10,000 eggs. On top of that fairly low chance of illness, we have a bit of a unique case as well in our household since we raise our own laying hens. My exposure to Salmonella must be orders of magnitude higher when I am cleaning the hen house than when I am eating a runny egg. In addition, I have probably developed some level of immunity to the Salmonella strains we are growing on the property. My son has his own technique for building immunity. When eating at home, I do not worry about Salmonella in our eggs. On the road or at a restaurant, I do not eat undercooked eggs.

An undercooked or raw egg will have a slightly higher nutrient value, but you should consider the risk when making your food selection. Either cooked or raw, the Omega-3 rich yolk from a hen eating bugs and weeds (or even on a flax or fish diet) will help you fight depression.

To add eggs to your diet, I offer Mom's "Sweet Omelet" recipe, a great option for brunch. Mom writes:

This reminds me of our depression buster search a couple of years ago on this blog. A smart elick recently asked me if eating rat fights depression.

I said, "You joke but I bet I can find the nutrient profile of a rat, or at least get pretty close."

Behold the nutrient profile of a muskrat. Add it to stew and cook it really well.

For the smart elicks of the world, there are things that scare me a lot more than rats.