Is the pomegranate the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of sex?
Pomegranates could be called a “passion fruit,” except when it’s recalled for Hepatitis A.
(1 minute read)
Just when you thought it was safe to eat the pomegranate
Recently, Zoomer magazine (see earlier blog) highlighted a group of five foods that could feed your sex drive (walnuts, bananas, peppers, avocados and pomegranates). Since then, pomegranate sales are not the only thing on the rise. The pomegranate is high in antioxidants, which protect the lining of blood vessels and allows more blood to course through them; thereby, providing increased genital sensitivity and higher blood flow. As your doctor might advise, “Forget the Viagra, get pomegranates in your food diet and your sexual diet will improve.” But is it a Dr. Jekyll remedy?
Is the pomegranate also a Mr. Hyde? In June 2013, frozen berries sold by US retailer Costco, called, “Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend” berry and pomegranate mix, were purchased by around 240,000 people and subject to a recall, after at least 118 people were infected with Hepatitis A. And now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced a recall of “Woodstock Frozen Organic Pomegranate Kernels” for Hepatitis A (click for specific product and regional information).
Zoomers expect warnings about the side effects from Viagra and Cialis, but healthy, good-for-the-libido food like pomegranates … geez, what’s a healthy and sexually active person supposed to eat? Maybe Oprah will do a show on it – as a time filler on OWN – with Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil and Dr. Jekyll.
In the meantime, in fact, all the time, be alert about the pomegranate and everything you eat. Sign up for food health alerts at STOP Foodborne Illness (they cover Canada too).
“People are the worst”
Coming 2027
My personal history is the stuff they write books about. And that's what I am doing. The working title, "Chains of My Father: Marry White."
"The ghostly image of the tragic mulatto trapped between two worlds." - Barack Obama
This perspicacious line from the Prologue of Barack Obama's "Dream from My Father" wrenched my aspiration into action. I started writing, furiously. Unlike Obama's perspective, my pain had been for the opposite reason: I was not seen by whites as a "tragic mulatto," rather I lived every day of my childhood hoping whites were not "searching my eyes for some telltale sign" that I WAS mulatto. This is my story.
It's historical fiction because I cannot find enough records to substantiate all facets of the story. I've combed the genealogy, traveled to my father and grandparents' birthplace, walked the graveyards, searched the churches and ... well, all the facts aren't there. I've written three books based on the genealogy of other families but my ancestors emerged from a journey of too much slavery and too few records.
In Grenada, West Indies, my paternal, 3x great grandmother was a "freed slave" and my grandmother, Amelia, was born to a mixed race slave named Mary (we do not know her last name) and a white, French plantation owner, Fredric de Poullain. Amelia was raised in the "Big House" and in adulthood attempted to escape her black heritage by disowning her mother, telling her, "Get out and never come back." Amelia, the mother of twelve children, enshrined the family in her ancestors' commandment, "Marry white." Many did, including my father marrying mother a lovely, white, Anglo-Saxon protestant born in England. They met in Canada where my dad studied and became a doctor.
It has taken seven generations to be free of the stigma of black heritage but today my children embrace it. Unfortunately, the past 250 years have been a wasteland of bigotry and racism, but, on closer look, we see not only the brutality, fear and violence but the self-respect, dignity, love, perseverance and indomitable spirit.
The depth of historic perspective and the human inspiration has created a trilogy and as of this writing I have only arrived at the beginning of the 20th century. 1900 is the year my father was born and the beginning of Book III, and he's pushing me to make sure our story is published by the summer of 2027.
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