I was recently forwarded this short article on the benefits of copper, and was asked if there was any truth to the claims. The author of the article is a noted superfoods guru, and suggests that to improve our health we should be eating and drinking from copper dishware. Specifically, the author makes several claims in support of this assertion, that copper "stimulates the brain” and "balances the thyroid". A quick search on google, and I easily found other websites making the same types of conjectures. Normally I wouldn’t care what someone says, but when there is a health risk involved, I have a duty to respond if asked. Copper is one among 14 different trace minerals required by the body. Although we require it in relatively tiny amounts, it plays a number of key roles, and like all oxygen-dependent (aerobic) organisms on earth, we can’t live without it. As a constituent of the enzyme cytochrome c oxidase, copper plays a critical role in cellular energy production, catalyzing the … [Read more...]
On what to feed your puppy
Some of you who follow my Facebook page may have seen updates about the birth of five puppies to my female dog, Sophie, in late April. For those who haven’t, I’ve compiled an online photo album that documents their growth and development over the past few months. If I had to choose one word to describe the whole process of being surrogate grandparents to these pups, it would be epic. Every day since their birth has been filled with interest, excitement, and wonder. From a neurochemical perspective, snuggling with puppies has done a lot to raise the collective oxytocin levels in our home. Over the summer, our front garden—with its jumble of humans and puppies lying together in the grass—often resembled something like an opium den, attracting a steady stream of “customers” from far and wide. Of course, this bliss was sometimes interrupted. I underestimated their collective destructive power. Up until about six weeks old, the fencing I had around my backyard pots, garden boxes, … [Read more...]
