Tuesday, September 15, 2009

I've been posting a lot lately! Can you tell that I've been procrastinating studying?

So, I heard an interesting fact today...it was from a study published in the Annals of Diagnostic Pathology. They analyzed the content of 8 brands of fast food hamburgers. This is what they found:

Average water content was 49%
Average meat (skeletal muscle) content was only 12%!!!!

The rest? Well, it varied, but all 8 brands had the following, in order of amount: fibrous connective tissue, blood vessels, and peripheral nervous tissue. Most also had fat tissue. Then the weird stuff? Some had unidentified plant material (could this be stomach contents?), cartilage, and bone fragments.

Yum...that's why I don't eat fast food.

I laughed when Andrea mentioned her clicker and trying to get Anchor to want to work with her...I laughed because I decided something similar with Griffin this weekend. I don't use a clicker, but I do like to use treat rewards. Well, first you have to get the horse to like treats (and take them from your hand). I offered a treat to Griffin, and it took me repeatedly shoving it between his lips before he finally decided to taste in instead of spit it out. He showed me the flehmen response after his first taste...and then chewed very pensively on the next taste. Finally, toward the end of the lesson (where I also trimmed his feet), he finally took it by choice from my hand and ate it! It's a start!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree about fast food - there's a lot of stuff in there besides meat and most of it's not good for us. Industrial agriculture contributes to many of the health problems in the U.S. today.

I've had several horses that didn't know what treats were when I got them - I don't always use them but sometimes they're a good way to get the attention of a horse that is remote or has trouble paying attention.

Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

Anchor doesn't take anything but grass from my hand, I have to toss them and let him find them in the dust. Soon I think he might take a crab apple from me. Bella was a lot like Griffin, I had to practically force them into her mouth before she realized they were good.

That's gross about the hamburgers. Glad I don't do fast food.

Pony Girl said...

Okay I kinda knew this, but something about reading it again makes me never want to eat fast food again, LOL! :)