Monday, February 6, 2012

Foods You Shouldn’t Feed Your Dog

Some of these ingredients are toxic to your furry friend, while others contain harmful pits.

Avocados

This seemingly benign fruit contains persin, which is toxic to dogs in large quantities and can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

Onions

Potent onions damage red blood cells in both dogs and cats, leading to anemia and causing weakness, shortness of breath, and vomiting.

Grapes

Juicy grapes can cause kidney damage in dogs and cats, which may result in lethargy, increased thirst, increased urination, and vomiting.

Nuts

Macadamia nuts can cause muscle and nervous-system problems, triggering tremors, vomiting, weakness, and paralysis in dogs.

Chocolate

Never give your dog or cat this sweet treat—it stimulates the nervous system and the heart. Reactions include agitation, irregular heartbeat, tremors, and seizures.

Peaches

Feed your dog a peach and he may eat the pit, which can cause intestinal obstruction and cyanide poisoning.

Plums

Like peaches, plums have pits that contain cyanide and are harmful if swallowed.

source

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Chocolate comprises a number of raw and processed foods produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocol?tl, a Nahuatl word meaning “bitter water”. The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor. After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because this cocoa mass usually is liquefied then molded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids.

Chocolate1 Chocolate Heaven