greens & berries

Image:  Chest x-ray of pneumonia

#1) Dysphagia -- very thorough discussion of normal swallowing physiology,  pathophysiology, clinical presentation,  diagnosis, treatment; includes videographic images. An excellent article to give to an intern or student.

#2-4) Cochrane Review Abstracts & Plain Language Summaries:

• Interventions for dysphagia in acute stroke

• Non-pharmacological therapies for dysphagia in Parkinson's Disease

• Treatment for swallowing difficulties in chronic muscle disease
  

One dysphagia link leads to another:

1) The Dysphagia Cookbook -- Although I'm not sure when Dr. Elayne Achilles' web site was last updated (it's copyright 2004) it's well worth checking out her cookbook information,  sample recipes,  and helpful dysphagia links.

One of the recommended links is:

2) The Dysphagia Resource Centre blog (last updated March 2008).  I haven't finished exploring the entire site yet, but my favourite find so far is this next resource that I will be sharing with my colleagues as well as every dietetic intern who has a placement with me:

3) Swallowing: An Animated Sequence -- interactive animation and a detailed explanation of a normal swallow.  Please forward this one to your colleagues and students, too!

At work I'm collecting and reading resources for a specific dysphagia team project and today I found this recently published Web feature: Dysphagia.

Even though my dysphagia paper and electronic files are bulging,  I added this link to my library because the article has excellent images,  a very clear, plain-language description of dysphagia, and quotations from dysphagic clients who describe their experiences and feelings.

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Illustration from Bartleby.com's edition of  Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body.

  A view of farm fields and mountains in the Eastern Fraser Valley

Living in Place

Last week in my Web wanderings I discovered the above definition that I thought worth saving and sharing.  I first encountered the concept living in place a few years ago, although I can't quite remember where. Perhaps in this magazine.  No matter the original source, the phrase has stayed in my consciousness, although I confess I  have not practiced it consistently. But my growing concerns about climate change and resource depletion and a desire to help solve rather than add to the crises compel me to question every potential consumption choice.  Do I really need this product or service? And if the answer is yes, where, how and by whom is it made or provided?

Living Local.ca is a growing collection of links and discussions that helps Canadians reduce their carbon footprints by purchasing local goods and services. You can help build the Living Local community by submitting resources and joining the discussions.  Here are sample contributions:

- from Saskatchewan:

"A culinary journey dedicated to fresh local food from the province of Saskatchewan."
Recipes, humour and links to local Saskatchewan producers... a good read. http://homefordinner.blogspot.com/

- from the Yukon: 

"Aurora Mountain Farm is a small farm in the Yukon. The Rudge family (Tom, Simone, Claire and Graham) grow certified organic vegetables, grain for baking and cereal, and feed for the cashmere goats, Belgian horses and laying hens." http://auroramountain.yukonfood.com/

So I'm encouraging all my blog readers  in Canada, but especially fellow dietitians and dietetic students and interns, to contribute to the Living Local Forum.   Share your knowledge of local food resources and activities that support eating closer to home.

     Image credit (left to right): Fresh Corn, Ricefields Bali, Your Daily Bread. You can click on the images to view larger sizes of these excellent photos. 
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Diet for a Hungry Planet:  How Our World Eats is a new series I discovered last night while browsing the CBC Web site. 

Diet for a Hungry Planet - Focus on Food

Diet for a Hungry Planet is a program that takes classic story ingredients from The Current and cooks up a fresh new view of how our world eats. Our host is Anna Maria Tremonti.

Episode 1: Few Staples

From food sold for fuel, to food prices fueling a food crisis. Be it corn or wheat or rice, too few staples cause too much concern over who gets to eat, what gets eaten, and how much it should cost. How cash crops have us going for broke, today, on Diet for a Hungry Planet.

Here's the link to the podcast of the fascinating first episode.  It includes discussions  and divergent perspectives from farmers, industry representatives, academics and food industry critics, including Marion Nestle.  Well worth listening to. 

Episode 2, scheduled for next week,  features Michael Pollan, author of  In Defence of Food.