Volunteer mice binge on foie

Posting stuff on Fridays in the summer always feels as if one is chasing the folks hastening to the jitney or whatever down the street, but I am confident that the new Tenneesse foie story will get twisted like a pretzel, so I thought I might at least encourage folks to read more than the first graf of the press release about the research.  Too busy? Here is presumptive summary of the mainstream/blogosphere coverage of this story:

FOIE GRAS WILL GIVE YOU A BRAAAINN DIZZEEZ! AAAAH! MAD COW! BRAINS!*

Epilog, usually surefooted, leans in this direction. I am not a medical doctor, but I can read at or near grade level, and the actual summary of the research from the actual flacks at UT suggests that the research is not quite that smoking gun-like:

In their study, mice prone to develop AA amyloidosis were injected or fed amyloid extracted from foie gras. Within eight weeks, a majority of the animals developed extensive amyloid deposits in the liver, spleen, intestine and other organs.

Call me a Pollyanna, but it seems as if there is a considerable difference between toying with a terrine and injecting extracts. Alan Solomon, the lead researcher, offers the following caveat:

"It is not known if there is an increase of Alzheimer's disease, diabetes or other amyloid-related disease in people who have eaten foie gras," cautioned Solomon. "Our study looked at the existence of amyloid fibrils in foie gras and showed that it could accelerate the development of AA amyloidosis in susceptible mice. Perhaps people with a family history of Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or other amyloid-associated diseases should avoid consuming foie gras and other foods that may be contaminated with fibrils."

Setting aside the ethical questions for a moment,  this  research in and of itself, does not seem to change the conversation about foie too much. We had not, prior to this research, thought of the stuff as a health food. But

FOIE! BRAINS! ZOMBIES! AAAAAH!

makes a better lede.

*Conversely, the bad boy bloggers will poo-poo the whole thing, and announce plans to float a whole lobe of foie in a seal cub bolito misto.