By Chef Tanya Petrovna
Native Foods Cafe
I know you haven’t heard about this in the media... and I only read it from reading “Think!” by Lisa Bloom, the Attorney and National TV Legal Analyst Vegan. I added the word “vegan” to her title because now you know she's REALLY cool... the word “attorney” can scare people. Plus she likes the Peanut Butter Parfait, so COOL x 2!
So I’ll tell you what I learned from the book about Jimmy Carter the worm killer... but to preface, Lisa was really writing about how our media makes some of the small things BIG and the big things SMALL... and to always think about what you are really reading. The book is fun, smart & informative and an absolute must-read, and “absolutely” is in bold on purpose.
So don’t get pissed at President Jimmy for killing the worms, he’s actually preventing them from being born and why would he do that?
Get this bike-riding worm killer a Peanut Butter Parfait from Native Foods Cafe stat!
Well the worm is the Guinea Worm also known as Dracunuculus medinensis and it is a human parasite mostly found in Africa... that measures a meter long! It starts from drinking water where their larvae lie and fleas then ingest. The fleas then get in the water the people drink, stomach acid dissolves the flea and releases the worm, which loves the human reservoir, and then goes through intestinal wall into blood stream and grows and grows until it wants to get out.
It will go out anywhere including the eye. You know it’s coming because a blister forms that is itching, swelling and burning. The pain is awful and that’s when the human runs to water to quell the itch burn pain. The water makes it emerge and then it releases its larvae. What a life cycle!
The Guinea Worm under a scope... You can google the graphic pics if you so desire!
It happens sometimes yearly to the same people and there is no cure except for slowly pulling it out by rolling on a stick until you finish. The pain is so severe mothers can not attend to their children and workers can not go to work, which is really hard for the people in addition to the pain. Humans are their only reservoirs.
The Carter Presidential Center has been working on this for 20 years by helping filter the drinking water in Third World countries and he’s been making huge progress. In 1986 3.5 million people got infected and in 1995 130,000 were infected world wide.
So let’s give the man Jimmy Carter a big hand…oh and of course a Peanut Butter Parfait too!
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