Are Freshwater Pearls Less Expensive? - Part 1

Fig 01- Pearls, cultivated from freshwater, sold by Walmart.

A friend of mine from China offered me whether I would like to buy freshwater pearls when she traveled to China for family vacation.

What?

Pearl?

I never imagine to have expensive jewelry let’s say thousands dollar worth, and a pearl is not my favorite.

She said the price less than a dollar only in China, very cheap for a real, not “imitated or plastic” pearl.

Both freshwater and oceanic pearls are real, natural pearls produced by a kind of clams or oysters.

I check to Amazon, yes, the lowest freshwater pearl cost US$ 8 only, very cheap.

The “normal” prices could be ranged from US$ 50 to US$ 2,000. 50 dollar might be reasonable price for everyone.

Fig 02- A freshwater pearl sold by Amazon

Saltwater or Sea water pearls could range from US$ 500 to US$ 100,000, depend very much on many factors.

Then, you might wonder: what are crucial factors to decide a pearl price in the commercial market?

# To be continued to part 2

## Previous posts:

- Wreaths for Mardi Gras in Louisiana
- Local Event Called as “Mardi Gras” In Louisiana, USA
- A chocolate as a Gift for Valentine’s Day

One of Ways to Make Barbeque in the Nature – Food 7

Charcoal grill, illustration only

When camping or hiking in the nature (national parks), sure we could cook over campfire.

We may use wood burner grill to cook everything from sausage to:

- burger
- salmon
- chicken
- red meat.

Woods could be replaced by branches trees close by camping area.

The bottom line that we should choose dry branches to produce clean burning and hot fire.

If our branches burn poorly and smoky, just find another firewood that often provided by public campgrounds.

Some people love to grill with woods due to its aromatic and taste fantastic.

Then?

Meat for barbecue, just for illustration

Yes, aromatic called as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is potentially leads to cancer.

But, some literatures suggested to eliminate probability to get cancer is by mixing the grilled foods with fruit and vegetable.

It is because fruit and vegetable contain highly antioxidant. We could use variety of fruit and vegetable to combine with foods, especially meat and chicken to be grilled.

Few of them are:

- zucchini
- tomatoes
- onions
- mangos
- pineapple.

Do you practice barbecue?

How often?

Lobsters have Good Nutritional Values for Health – Healthy Life 13

Live lobster with a price tag

When I come to ethnic groceries or Asian shops, I always find live lobsters sold in the aquarium with quite expensive price for me.

Include shell and wet body, the grocery sells US$ 9.99 per-pound or more than US$ 20 per-kg with sale tax.

It is mean that there are plenty consumers for these crustaceans.

Since the groceries do business every day, it may have highly market demand for lobster.

The highly demand is main factor why the price so expensive compared to other seafood.

Then, we might have a question: Is lobster good for health?

In respect to nutritional values, yes, lobster contains of:

- mineral
- vitamins (vitamin B12 and vitamin E)
- and omega-3 fatty acids.

Lobsters, ready to cook

Lobster’s minerals include:

- copper
- selenium
- zinc
- phosphorus
- and magnesium.

However, lobster does contain cholesterol. Lobster have 124 mg cholesterol in 85gram meats.

If we have 1.5-pound lobster means that there is around 170-gram meat. Thus, 1.5-pound lobster would have 248 mg cholesterol.

It is allowed to consume 300 mg cholesterol daily for healthy people. Highly healthy for people even to eat 1.5 pound lobster per-day (if they wish to).

In addition to mineral and vitamins, lobster is source of protein. It is good for diet too, since its contain lower fat and lower calories.

# Previous posts:

- Important of Microorganisms in Food Industry – Healthy Life 1
- What is Coronasomnia? - Healthy Life 2
- Can Six Dolar Drug Kill Covid 19 Virus? - Healthy Life 3
- Which One Has Vitamin C more - Red Bell Pepper or Orange? - Healthy Life 4
- First Important Step to Know Mental Illness - Healthy Life 5

Why the Free Meals Program could Attract Kids to Come to Library?

A novel with title Sabrina and Corina

I went to library yesterday, check a couple novel out for weekend reading. One of the novel is Sabrina and Corina.

The novel seems about family and life, specifically about Latina in Denver, Colorado.

The picture in the book is an eye catching. Even some people said the cover is not always revealing the content, but I always excited about seeing the cover.

I know, a visualize is very important in some part. The novel (cover) may be seen at above picture.

Then, when I stepped out from the library building I saw one sign at front door on the right side under a Southern Magnolia tree.

The sign is standing a little lower, the adults will be ignoring the sign. In my thought the sign must be for the kids. When the kids walk through they will read it.

Here is the sign:

The sign for kids

I remember when I met a young college professor brought three of her kids to the library for this event last year. She said they had never missed the meals.

She had four reasons to brought her kids for free summer meals in the library:

- Number one, her kids were picky eater.

- Number two, she was so busy to cook fresh and nutritious meals for kids everyday.

- Number three, the kids got used to library and enjoy reading books.

- Number four is about social life, her kids made new friends, talked each others, and played together with them.

Free summer meals for kids are for every kid with 1-18 years of age. This program is a part of Summer Food Service Program.

The program is one of projects administered by Food and Nutrition Service US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that serves in 9 location of libraries and public schools in Baton Rouge.

Meals service times on first come-first served basis while all foods last.

Do you know about E. coli Bacteria? - part 2 - Healthy Life 12

No Spaghetti with Ground Beef Today.

Please read the previous post (part 1):

- Do you know about E. coli Bacteria? - part 1 - Healthy Life 12

HUS is a disorder that characterized by acute renal failure and thrombocytopenia syndrome.

There are some points from CDC that I can keep in my mind to prevent from E. coli  bacteria:

- Cook ground beef thoroughly
- An internal temperature to cook ground beef is 160˚F
- Avoid to eat raw or under-cooked ground beef
- After cook ground beef do not forget to refrigerate within 2 hours, then can be used within 3 to 4 days
- Wash hand with soapy water after touching ground beef
- Clean utensil, counter-top, and cutting board thoroughly with soap and hot water or using bleach solution.

Wild flowers, just for illustration.

The most important is never eat recalled ground beef.

I am not going to take a risk.

It will be awful to have diarrhea and stomach cramps that cause me back and forth to toilet or restroom.

This infection also leads to hemolytic uremic syndrome which is so painful. I just avoid the ground beef in a while.

So my spaghetti have no sauce today.

It turned into spaghetti with shrimps, and I added some asparagus, lemon juice, and sprinkle Parmesan cheese.

Birds Fly Over Our Backyard – Nature 10

A crow flies away

My kitchen faces backyard, so when I am cooking or just sitting, I could see many wild animals, many are birds, but some are mammals:

- variety of birds
- raccoon
- squirrels
- cats (may be belong to neighbors, but I consider wild, since I don’t know who is the owner).

Birds that always visited my backyard during spring and summer seasons are:

- cardinals
- humming birds
- wood peckers
- Mocking birds
- Crows
- blue birds

A juvenile heron in neighborhood

One day I heard the sound of crow. The sound was “rattle” on my ear, then like “click and bell.”

I approached close and closely to photo taken, but it flies suddenly. Pictures are not good enough.

Actually, crows are abundance birds in my city, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It seems that they able to adapt to the city environment.

We may find crows every where. Birds are reasonable medium size. Wing size when it open wide is around 32 to 40 inches (81 cm to 102 cm).

What do you think about crow?

# Have a great summer

Do you know about E. coli Bacteria? - part 1 - Healthy Life 12

3D Escherichia coli (Photo Credit: (Illustrators) Alissa Eckert

and Jennifer Oosthuizen/CDC.gov)

I was thinking about to cook spaghetti sauce with ground beef, added some button mushrooms and basil for my supper, and I need to go buy those stuffs in grocery store.

A couple minute in my way headed to the closest grocery store in my neighborhood, I remembered that the local radio talked about recalled ground beef that suspected has been contaminated with the E.coli.

E.coli infection occurs in 10 states and there are about 190 cases. Thanks Lord, no one get killed.

So far, the ground beef from two companies have been recalled because laboratory testing of ground beef from these companies spotted the outbreak strain of E. coli O103.

This strain is acquired Shiga-toxin.

Shiga toxin-producing E. coli can cause a person get sick, usually for three to four days after intake the contaminated food.

A cooked food, just for illustration

The symptoms are watery diarrhea that often with:

- blood (hemorrage colitis)
- severe stomach cramps
- little or no fever
- vomitting
- and may lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

# To be continued to part 2